UoN Fine Art Graduates Catalogue 2018

2018

FINE ART

Introduction PRO FESSOR PAU L EG G LE STON E HE AD OF SCHOOL OF C R E AT IVE IN DUST R IE S

It is my pleasure to introduce the 2018 catalogue showcasing the work of students graduating from the Bachelor of Fine Art and the Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) degrees at the University of Newcastle.

Degree shows represent both endings and beginnings. The end of several years of hard work, intense creativity and self-reflection and the beginning of what I hope will be long careers as practising artists and professional educators. In this new phase of your journey I’d like to offer some personal thoughts to you the Fine Art ‘class of 2018’. The most important thing that you can take away from your degree is that which you will carry with you for the rest of your life. It’s not only about your work, good though that may be. It’s about the critical thinking, processes and creative strategies that each piece of work - curated and presented in this catalogue - represents. These skills will long outlast the work on display here underpinning your future expressions and initiatives.

I wish you every success as you start your new beginning, confident that you are better prepared than many for all that lies ahead.

Artwork Image: Emma Wilks, Salutaris II (detail), 2018, copper Etching, ink on 230 gsm Hahnemule paper, 32.5 x 93.5 cm

Contents 2 I N TRO D UCTI O N A N D CO N TEN TS

4 B F A HO N O URS

15 B A CHELO R O F F I N E A R T

43 CO N TA CT I N F O RMA TI ON AND A CK N O WLED GEMEN TS

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Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) DR FAY E NEILS O N CONV ENO R, BAC H E LO R O F F I N E ART AN D B ACH E LO R O F F I N E ART ( H O N O U RS) The Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) program at the University of Newcastle provides students with the opportunity to engage in a year of focused research, following the completion of a Bachelor of Fine Art degree or equivalent. Candidates are selected into the program on academic merit and each student works with a nominated supervisor to determine a self-directed path of study, related specifically to their skills and research interests. Six Honours candidates finalised their studies in 2018, with highly resolved outcomes that have explored a range of critical perspectives and material processes.

Three students successfully completed the BFA Honours program mid-year with exhibitions at Watt Space. Sharon Ridsdale’s installation A Moment in Time - The Great Barrier Reef reacted against the continuing degradation of marine life and coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef. Made up of delicate and exquisitely crafted ceramic pieces, the installation was a quietly haunting reminder of human impact on the natural environment.

Bodies in Flux was the title of Emily Sinclair’s striking exhibition of mixed media objects, which boldly dealt with shifts in gendered identity and community acceptance. Here, large suspended

forms bordered on the grotesque in their morphing jumble of flesh and hair.

Herstory was an elegantly presented series of paintings and sculpture by Ann Snell, which evidenced a mastery of material processes. Her works investigated portraiture and personal relationships from a diverse and inclusive female perspective. Ann Snell and Emily Sinclair were both honoured with the award of Faculty Medals for their achievements.

The end-of-year exhibitions for the BFA Honours degree, also shown at Watt Space, showcase the refined art works of Gael Connop, Claire Kemp and John Price. Incipit Vita Nova (a new life) is the title of an intuitive and charged installation of photographic and projection work by Gael Connop.

This emotive series responds to the turbulent period of personal transition and loss, which has followed the death of her husband.

In her exhibition, Painting Episodic Memory, Claire Kemp calls on memories from childhood to investigate the notion of reminiscence. Her bright sculptural works are sophisticated puzzles that stir an intriguingly playful response from viewers. John Price explores the duplicity of the digital image, in his exhibition

Digital Analogues. The imitation of physical material processes in the procedural construction and manipulation of digital images becomes both inspiration and medium in this thoughtful installation.

The Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) program requires great commitment from its students. The 2018 cohort are to be commended for their dedication and for the professional outcomes they have achieved. On behalf of the Fine Art staff, I’d like to warmly congratulate each graduate on the completion of the Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) degree.

Artwork Image: John Price, Very Sunday Painter, 2018 PNG image, dimensions variable (3072 x 4608 pixels) H O NO U RS 4

Gael Connop INCIPIT VITA NOVA (A NEW LIFE)

This work culminates on the third anniversary of my husband’s death.

The core of this series explores and reflects on how I have dealt with this immense loss and change emotionally, mentally and physically during the past year. It is ultimately about time processing change through an artistic practice.

It encompasses reflection, layering, frustration, anger, repeating old habits while trying to learn new ones, and living with a sense of the unreal.

My visual and written journals are an integral part of that journey and the learning of new life processes, emotional and physical, are explored in these.

The projected visual and written journal entries tell an ongoing story and my final acknowledgement, that I am in a jumbled state of flux, is expressed in the carbon emulsion images that form the physical component of the installation (FUCK FLUX). The fibre-based works also reflect this state of flux, incorporating memories and learnings over the last three years.

They are based on the layering and interwoven nature of my very personal experiences. My final choice of works reflects the layering 5 HON OURS

of my emotional and intuitive responses, their ability to reflect on the life changes I am experiencing and the transience of emotion.

Main Image Journey, 2018 Digital projection images, dimensions variable Detail Image 1 (centre) FUCK FLUX (detail), 2018 Photographic carbon emulsion on Perspex, 28 x 28 cm Detail Image 2 FUCK FLUX (detail), 2018 Photographic carbon emulsion on Perspex, 28 x 28 cm

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Claire Kemp PAINTING EPISODIC MEMORY

I have been drawn to the idea of memory and the notion of reminiscence since my childhood.

The ability to recollect and recall events, people and places has led me to explore and research these two areas of interest. My art practice is influenced by these ideas and seeks to interpret them through a range of materials and processes.

The Cut-Out works of Henri Matisse and sculptural forms of Jean Arp also add to the inspiration for my artworks. I seek to create a space that engages the viewer to connect visually with the works in a playful way. I enlist line and contour to generate shapes, creating works using layers of ideas that flow forward and backward until they coalesce into the forms that I want to construct.

As the processes of employing colour, pigment and brushstroke, as well as construction and assemblage occur, I am drawn back to those childhood days and the times spent in my father’s workshop ‘building’ things. The materials of wood and acrylic combined with the processes of sculpture and painting have been important to my project, as they are the same materials and processes that were used in the workshop by my father. My reminiscences are about the objects, colours, shapes

and surroundings that I remember from those times. The works themselves are abstract expressions of those objects, colours, shapes and surroundings. The notion of playfulness is an integral part of these recollections and the finished works are, in a way, a portrayal of that playfulness through use of a childlike colour palette. The simplicity of the works and the bright colours employed are in essence my sculptural drawings in paint.

They are a visual narrative of my episodic memories, forming physical constructs of a recollection.

Main Image Memory Block 1, 2018 Wood and acrylic, 45 x 45 x 45 cm Detail Image 1 (centre) Working Memory 1 (detail), 2018 Wood and acrylic, 45 x 45 x 45 cm Detail Image 2 Working Memory 1 (detail), 2018 Wood and acrylic, 55 x 125 x 30 cm HO N O U RS 8

John Price D I G I TA L A N A LO G U E S

This body of work investigates the duplicity of the digital image and the materiality of these images. On one hand, digital images have their own language that is inherent to the way modern computers construct visual information. And yet at the same time image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop borrow heavily from physical materiality, simulating the processes of physical media within digital space and even using the language of physical mediums to describe these processes. Thus the native language of the physical is expressed through the language of the digital. It is this facet of digital art making that I am most interested in exploring.

Main Image Study of Layered Cardboard, 2018 PNG image, dimensions variable (1000 x 1500 pixels) Detail Image 1 (centre) Very Sunday Painter, 2018 PNG image, dimensions variable (3072 x 4608 pixels) Detail Image 2 After Raphael (Anaglyph), 2018 PNG image, dimensions variable (1024 x1536 pixels) 9 HON OURS

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Sharon Ridsdale A M O M E N T I N T I M E - T H E G R E AT B A R R I E R R E E F

This installation is very personal to me. I worked as a diver in a major aquarium over a four and a half year period, and participated in captive breeding programs of sea horses in Sydney, and Hawksbill Turtles in the Northern Territory. I have seen first-hand the slow but absolute degradation of the marine environment and the decline of marine species due to habitat destruction.

My work is ecological art.

It encompasses ceramic sculptural techniques to record humanity’s impact on nature. It addresses the devastation of marine life and the bleaching of the coral masses on the Great Barrier Reef. Recent studies have shown the reef to be under tremendous stress and not regenerating. Larger areas each year are being transformed into watery graveyards, just skeletal remains of what was once one of the greatest areas of marine biodiversity on earth.

Main Image A Moment in Time - The Great Barrier Reef (detail), 2018 Ceramic, porcelain, stoneware and slip.

Hand built, unglazed, once fired to Cone 8 – 9, dimensions variable Detail Image 1 (centre) A Moment in Time - The Great Barrier Reef (detail), 2018 Ceramic, porcelain, stoneware and slip.

Hand built, unglazed, once fired to Cone 8 – 9, dimensions variable Detail Image 2 A Moment in Time - The Great Barrier Reef (detail), 2018 Ceramic, porcelain, stoneware and slip.

Hand built, unglazed, once fired to Cone 8 – 9, dimensions variable H O NO U RS 12

Ann Snell H E R STO RY: A C R O S S - C U LT U R A L E X P LO R AT I O N O F S H A R E D H U M A N I TY V I A P O RT R A I T U R E F R O M A F E M A L E P E R S P E CT I V E

The ‘Herstory’ series investigates and endorses how portraiture is a powerful means to form relationships and promote more ‘welcome lines’ across culture and religious faith, between family members and generations.

I composed paintings and sculptures based on personal relationships with diverse subjects, to represent our trans-cultural contemporary community.

The title ‘Herstory’ emerged during my multidisciplinary practice, when I realised my ‘female perspective’ is at the core of my art and I have established intimate relationships as a woman, a wife and a mother. Further to this, I am conscious of the inequity of the female voice and visual legacy in our art history. My art contributes further to the female perspective in Australian Art. During my Honours study, my art evolved from conventional portraiture to representational portrait painting.

The scale of my art increased dramatically allowing freer and more emotive mark making.

I also discovered the need to move between painting and sculpting, which supported my development in observation and pushing through creative lulls.

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The universal themes explore our ‘shared humanity’: intimacy, memory, motherhood, theology and trauma, relating directly to conversations shared with my subjects. My portrait inspired art is concerned with portraying the human condition by continuing conversations of ‘my diverse subjects’ in a public space that is ethical, inclusive and memorable. annsnellart.com

Main Image Trust, 2018 Oil on canvas, 152 x 122 cm Detail Image 1 (centre)

By Her Grace, 2018 Oil on canvas, 152 x 122 cm Detail Image 2 Lost Sculpture (detail), 2018 Digital photograph, clay portrait, detail photograph, dimensions variable

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Bachelor of Fine Art DR U NA REY CONV ENOR, BACH E LO R O F C R E AT I V E I N D USTRI E S The completion of a study program and the hard-earned award of a degree is cause for celebration but also for reflection. In 2018 this achievement is perhaps more poignant as this cohort of Fine Art students are among the last to graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) from the University of Newcastle.

In this respect they are part of emerging global art histories in which shifting economic, social, cultural and political interests are manifest in the changing nature of art institutions and the myriad faces of contemporary art and artists.

So, what have our graduates learned in their study of Fine Arts, an 18th century invention deconstructed and reformulated in the late 20th century?

How will it help them in the dynamic and challenging 21st century, made up of multiple artworlds and competing concerns? These are just some questions that students might reflect on at the threshold of this new beginning; but they can also be confident in their faculties of discernment, critical thinking and knowledge of their context within the world and their understanding of a language to narrate and to shape their experiences.

Recognising the constancy of change is one of the first lessons students learn

through art history, parallel to their studio-based study. In looking to the past, to the revolutions and advances that typify art history, they appreciate the creative discoveries made by artists for millennia along with the painstaking work of building on finely honed traditions – always at some point to be broken down and reinvented. By appreciating the ‘canon’ as a Western modernist system of knowledge they become alert to the ways that information is entrenched more generally. They learn to critically read what is being communicated through images, sound, text, performance, installation and three-dimensional form.

They are alert to diverse identities, the politics and ethics of art practice and the complex relationships between artist, artwork and audience. Signs and rituals across and between cultures are investigated, along with economic and environmental issues.

The artist’s will to communicate is further tested across the Fine Art studios and workshops. The creative imagination pushes against complacency and self-doubt, to take the risks which are necessary for any discovery worth the creative and intellectual journey.

Imaginative thinking is not exclusive to the art student, but an inspired application of technical

skill – technique – is an essential feather to the artist’s quiver as they realise their ideas across a wide field of disciplines.

Through such diverse means students develop their critical thinking – and perhaps there is nothing more valuable as they navigate a world full of oblique and layered meanings and spectacles, wonders and catastrophes.

Artwork Image: Scott Probst, Snowstorm, Siglufjörður, Iceland (detail), 2016 Digital photograph, archival inkjet print, 112 x 64 cm BAC HE LO R O F F I NE ART S 16

Nadia Aurisch

Suburbs is a constantly evolving installation, growing and shrinking in size, much like suburban life. Made from Southern Ice Porcelain each house has been individually slipcast.

Using this method has resulted in a repetition of multiple houses of the same size and scale but each with a unique trait, mimicking houses in the suburbs. nadiaaurisch.com instagram/nadiaaurischart

Suburbs (detail), 2018 Southern Ice Porcelain, dimensions variable 17 BACHELOR OF F IN E A RT S

Jonathon Baxter

Most of my work is filtered through the lens of popular culture and media and focuses on themes of introspection and the need for empowerment.

Drawn from a myriad of influences and the aesthetics of world culture and popular media (most notably comics and superhero fiction), Stand Proud is a narrative piece comprising several ‘panels’, which are meant to convey the transition between the mundane external expression of the everyday self with the internalised ‘true self’ that strives to break free and realise its potential. facebook.com/jonny.baxter

Stand Proud (detail), 2018 Silkscreen on paper, 42 x 31 cm BAC HE LO R O F F I NE ART S 18

Karen Bolden

My current work responds to the prevailing accelerated urbanisation of Newcastle and its profound effect on the city’s natural and built landscape. Using colour and texture, my work seeks to convey the scale and emotion of the newly created cavities, levelled worksites and skeletal remains of a number of the city’s landmark buildings: a temporary interlude to the current wave of progress.

This body of work draws on the influence of American painter Richard Diebenkorn’s (1922 – 1993) abstract expressionist landscapes and references the closely clipped compositions and controlled tonality of the work of artists such as English painter and printmaker, Patrick Caulfield (1936 – 2005), and American realist painter and printmaker, Edward Hopper (1882 – 1967).

The Crossing (detail), 2015 Oil on canvas (on board), 100 x 100 x 5 cm 19 BACHELOR OF FIN E A RT S

Madison Borgman

I have always been fascinated by genetics and family ancestry. 17902018: Chasing Roots is a work about what geographical locations my ancestors on both my mother’s and father’s side came from and how my ancestors came to America and Australia. Through this project I have discovered convict ancestors and many relatives that I did not know existed.

1790-2018: Chasing Roots (detail), 2018 Copper plate etching, 25 x 25 cm BAC H E LO R O F F I NE ART S 20

Sarah Box

The conceptual basis behind this body of work is how we connect and relate to our surrounding environment.

I wanted to explore a sense of belonging and inspire people to be in awe of the landscape. Drawing on imagery taken from maps and aerial views, my oil paintings explore the familiar patterns of our local region and show where we are located, while creating a contrasting design on the canvas.

Connecting with Earth (detail), 2017 Oil and collage on canvas, 95 x 60 cm 21 BACHELOR OF F IN E A RT S

Maddy Boyle

Skulls are presented in many art works as a reminder of death. My works parody the seriousness of this symbol.

I use pastel colours that aren’t usually associated with the skull form.

They are protective but fragile, both hard and soft.

Vanitas, 2018 Yarn and PP Twisted Rope coiled together, threads and felt, 16 x 14 x 11 cm BAC HE LO R O F F I NE ART S 22

Leeroy Chapman

I explore experimental sculpture through material and process, drawing ideas from antiquity as means for the abstract expression of our reality, through this use of substance and meaning. The works attribute themselves to ideals of the body, yet through an absence of representational form they begin to question the fundamentals of our experiences. These objects challenge us to think of our present moment through a formless, minimal aesthetic which is open to the audience’s thoughts and perceptions. These works merely exist as a manifestation of man’s interaction with material, resulting in a pure expression of abstraction, leaving us with a formless object that is a direct manifestation of process.

Rhythm (detail), 2018 Plaster and cotton, 16 x 26 x 29 cm 23 BACHELOR OF FIN E A RT S

Matt Chaseling

Untitled #1 (Key and Obelisk) was the result of an experimental process, through which I was able to bring forth a subconscious manifestation into a three dimensional form. In exploring this series, my intention was to draw the audience into small scale environments for a brief moment as they are transported elsewhere, whether to a memory hidden away with time or a fantasy left forgotten.

Untitled #1 (Key and Obelisk) (detail), 2017 Bronze and carbonised wood, dimensions variable BAC HE LO R O F F I NE ART S 24

Robert Connell

Heat is a continuous study in experimental film photography, made by ditching the camera to create negatives in new ways and to represent the positives in new forms. These large format negatives, covered in film developer and sweat after being strapped and exposed to my own body heat, without being exposed to light, will continue to develop and change colour due to the heat source behind them and the concentration that is within the frames themselves.

Heat (detail), 2018 Large format film, sweat, film developer and body heat, 25 x 15 x 12.5 cm 25 BACHELOR OF F IN E A RT S

Annie Corey

My practice mainly centres on ideas of time, reality, and perception, particularly with relation to the human body. Using painting, printmaking, and sculpture, I explore the gaps between reality and dream, truth and falsehood, life and death, past and present.

Within my printmaking practice, I am heavily influenced by the medium’s historical context.

The idea of truth that is inherently tied to print, and its uses throughout history and in contemporary society provide the foundation for my work. Human Anatomy of the Contemporary Age challenges preconceived notions of truth through whimsical illustrations that reference traditional aesthetics and format of historical medical texts.

Existential Cavity (From Human Anatomy of the Contemporary Age) (detail), 2018 Copper etching and watercolour on Rives BFK, 19 x 15 cm BAC HE LO R O F F I NE ART S 26

Kathleen Gleeson

To show skin in any context always leaves one feeling exposed and vulnerable. Everyone has insecurities and personal flaws that they wish to hide. In my work I want to highlight the vulnerability of showing off a piece of skin. The series aims to expose the viewer to the subject in an uncomfortable and almost eerie manner.Â

Too Much Skin, (detail), 2017 Series of photographs, dimensions variable 27 BACHELOR OF F IN E A RT S

Maggie Hall

An empire is built over many lifetimes, immortality is within us all in wait for the next physical death MH Maggie Hall is a Newcastle based artist, she has contributed images to several publications and regularly exhibits her work. Her choice of mediums cover photography, painting, printmaking and automatic writing. Maggie focuses her studies upon the profiling science of semiotics, through art and mixed media. This perspective assists in forming her creative practice.

Maggie is currently studying Arts at the University of Newcastle, NSW Australia. maggiehallartist.com

Deity, 2018 Dressage, design, photography, dimensions variable BAC HE LO R O F F I NE ART S 28

Courtney Heffernan

What if the trees could communicate with us? What would they say to us and how would our relationship with nature change? This work explores how trees are not entirely disposable objects. Neurobiology is generating discussions around ‘plant intelligence’ and ‘root brain’, which indicate plant signalling and communication. So how would this change our relationship with nature? If we treat plants and trees like intellectual beings, we could mend the bond between humans and plants. In the face of widespread environmental catastrophe, will changing how we perceive nature be the answer to this problem? We must change the anthropocentric view, if we want to survive as a human race.

If the trees could talk, what do you think they would say to us? (detail), 2018 Wool, eco-dyed cotton, felt, foam, corduroy and music (Lights of the North by Kalya Scintilla, remixed by Elliott Swan), 170 x 117 x 30 cm 29 BACHELOR OF F IN E A RT S

Donna Jorna

This artwork is from a body of work that investigates tension between the natural environment and the manmade. I am interested in the notion of trees as sentinels and witnesses, and the erasure and assimilation of discarded or forgotten man-made objects in the Australian bush. These discarded man-made items still bear traces of humanity, such as the worn fabric of a lounge chair from years of providing comfort in a family home, or the carelessly dumped garbage bag full of rotting household waste.

The bush extracts what nutrients it can, and the rest eventually becomes smothered, camouflaged and hidden.

Discomfort (detail), 2018 Polyurethane foam, Gesso, 100 x 160 cm BAC H E LO R O F F I NE A RT S 3 0

Jess Kellar

I’m interested in the relationship between the arts and sciences, the brilliant minds and the troubled minds, the dualities in life – the dark and the light, the strong and the vulnerable. I employ the technical practices of the great Italian masters and fuse them with Abstract Expressionism, bringing them into a modern context, and a unique style of my own. facebook.com/jesskellarartist

d`ue (detail), 2018 Oil on canvas (sgraffito and chiaroscuro techniques used), 102 x 102 x 5 cm 31 BACHELOR OF FIN E A RT S

Madeleine Lantry

The body and the landscape engage with each other. They do this through the idea of mimicking, as the body of a women itself is a vast and varying landscape.

I selected places for my landscapes that connected with the body of a female figure. The rock formations have characteristics seen in female figures, these being cracks, creases, smoothness, and lines ever changing. Here I play with the idea of the body and the landscape being a blended representation of two things that exist alone but also together. maddylantry.wixsite.com/madeleinelantry

Body and the Landscape Series (works 2 and 3) (detail), 2018 35 mm analogue and digital photography, 82 x 60.03 cm BAC HE LO R O F F I NE ART S 32

Megan McCarthy

This piece is about honouring the profound women in my life. I feel lace it is an intimate, feminine fabric with opposing qualities that has similar characteristics descriptive of all women. A circle of friends who have in some way helped contribute to the woman I am today donated fragments of lace that were special to them in order to create a collograph matrix. Tea leaves were used to create the textures in the corners, which join the works as whole and are an integral contribution to describing the depth and way in which strong relationships are formed. regentstreetart.com

Kaleidoscopic Collaboration (detail), 2017 Embossed rag paper, chine-collĂŠ, timber frames, 30 x 30 x 5 cm (artwork comprised of 16 equal parts) 33 BACHELOR OF F IN E A RT S

Lynnette Passeri

My metamorphic body of work deals with the troubled and heterogeneous phases that connect a person living with untruths, kept from everyone and from themselves. Secrets become part of the skin’s texture. Vulnerability, however, is a measurement of courage. Breaking through selfprotective walls can allow for new beginnings, filled with harmony, safety, compassion and love. Through empathy, the antidote to shame, wounds can be repaired, one stitch at time. Scars are not just a sign of hurt, but also a sign of being healed.

Life Changing (detail), 2017 Ceramic and mixed media, dimensions variable BAC HE LO R O F F I NE ART S 3 4

Scott Probst

I am often taken with responding to a landscape through being subject to the elements and spending large amounts of time there.

I find a landscape often reveals itself gradually, after the first impact is gone; sometimes the revelation is at the time of the worst weather, the harshest conditions… the time when it is a struggle simply to be there. Spending a winter in northern Iceland gave me a chance to experience a place at its least hospitable and its most elemental. scottprobstartist.com

Snowstorm, Siglufjörður, Iceland (detail), 2016 Digital photograph, archival inkjet print, 112 x 64 cm 35 BACHELOR OF FIN E A RT S

Makkaillah Ridgeway

This concept for this series was centralised around the relationship of the body and the land. More specifically, my personal connection with land and place.

Aesthetically, the natural curves of the body and fragmented landforms are representative of my history and ancestry. The land formations were derived from a topographical map of the Hunter region, the birthplace of my father. I wanted the work to have relevance to my personal connection with my surroundings. My journey explored ‘bodyscapes’, relating the significance of country to identity.

As an indigenous woman, my connection to my country runs deep in terms of my identity, it is where I come from and informs a larger sense of community and belonging.

Terra Firma (detail), 2018 Bronze, patina, 22 x 23 x 7 cm BAC HE LO R O F F I NE ART S 36

Leanne Schubert

Diverse concerns emerging from within the human condition, our social milieu and the issues emerging from it serve as constant sources of inspiration for my multi-disciplinary art practice. Pipe Dreams addresses the fragmentary nature of memory, dreams and the impossibility of an ideal society dedicated to addressing to universal social issues. Originally referring to the wild dreams induced from inhaling opium, the notion of the pipe dream has come to refer to the things that we fantasise about but are unlikely to achieve. Reveries from childhood are punctuated by theta waves and extant concerns to produce a nostalgic melancholy dreamscape.

Pipe Dreams (detail), 2018 Mixed media installation incorporating found objects, tea-dyed muslin, fabric remnants, thread (machine and hand stitched), watercolour, felt, dimensions variable 37 BACHELOR OF FIN E A RT S

Siarn Staley

Throughout my artmaking practice I explore native Australian birds along with my Indigenous heritage.

I create portraits of birds where I try to reflect their personalities and unique qualities, then match them with colours and patterns that emphasise and complement the bird.

Through creating a series of portraits, including Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo, my knowledge and appreciation for native Australian birds has grown.

I plan to expand on my body of work and begin to create works that challenge how we treat wildlife, and show the impact humans have and how it alters the environment.

Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo (detail), 2017 Watercolour and acrylic on paper, 29.7 x 42 cm BAC H E LO R O F F I NE A RT S 38

Phoebe Teal-Spicer

Evolve is an exploration into existing patterns in nature whilst also reflecting the ambiguity of how nature may evolve in the future.

As my practice has developed, I have become increasingly interested in nature and the environmental concerns that are now critical issues of debate. Through investigating the beauty and distinctiveness of organic forms, I have developed a fascination with the notion of individuality, which is further enhanced within a collective. In an age of technological innovation and mass production, I am passionate about the uniqueness of the handmade and exploring traditional textile techniques in contemporary ways. phoebetealspicer.wixsite.com/artist

Evolve (detail), 2017 Felt, dimensions variable 39 BACHELOR OF F I N E A RT S

Gavin Vitullo

Gavin Vitullo is a multi-faceted artist, whose backbone in sculpture has instigated a cross pollination of practices. Form, materiality, mark making and intuitive response are currently guiding his explorations in interdisciplinary painting.

Sundown, Paperbark, (detail), 2018 Carved plywood, impasto, gesso, oil paint and fire, 33.5 x 33.5 cm BAC H E LO R O F F I NE A RT S 40

Emma Wilks

Once a miscommunicated idea turned into something more complex and unknown. Salutaris is the beginning of a series of works created through the idea of ‘automatic drawing’, much like ‘automatic writing’.

The subconscious mind is used to make marks without a thought pattern or conceptual basis behind the work.

The images that surface once printed are also conjured in the mind by identifying signs and symbols; these images may be different for each individual. This work in particular is part of the second series Salutaris II, which involves another level of stencil work overlaying the original print.

Salutaris II (detail), 2018 Copper Etching, ink on 230 gsm Hahnemule paper, 32.5 x 93.5 cm 41 BACHELOR OF F IN E A RT S

Jessica Wright

My work tends to be based around feelings that I struggle to explain in words. This is why I must make art. I need to be understood without words.

Intimate Series was created by direct contact between garment and paper.

This series explores the concepts of vulnerability, tenderness and warmth, and the vitalness of touch.

Untitled (Intimate Series) (detail), 2018 Lumen print, 20.3 x 25.4 cm BAC HE LO R O F F I NE ART S 42

Contact Information SCHOOL OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle Callaghan, NSW 2308 Tel: +61 49854500 SOCI@newcastle.edu.au WATT SPACE GALLERY Open: Wed – Sun 11am – 5pm Northumberland House, Cnr King and Auckland Streets, Newcastle, NSW 2300 Tel: +61 2 4921 5255 wattspacegallery@newcastle.edu.au THE UNIVERSITY GALLERY Open: Wed – Fri 10am – 5pm Saturday 12noon – 4pm The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308 Tel: + 61 2 4921 5255 gallery@newcastle.edu.au NUSA Newcastle University Students’ Association Inc. NUSA Building, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308 Tel: + 61 2 4921 8897 clubs@nusa.org.au Cover Artwork: Claire Kemp, Working Memory 1 (detail), 2018, wood and acrylic, 45 x 45 x 45 cm Artwork Image: Madison Borgman, 1790-2018: Chasing Roots (detail), 2018 Copper plate etching, 25 x 25 cm

Acknowledgments SCHOOL OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES Professor Paul Egglestone Dr Faye Neilson Dr Una Rey CATALOGUE COORDINATION AND EDITING The Arts Collective and Dr Faye Neilson CATALOGUE PHOTOGRAPHY Liane Audrins and the participating artists THE UNIVERSITY GALLERY Gillean Shaw WATT SPACE GALLERY Gillean Shaw, Melissa Bull and Watt Space interns FUNDING NUSA - Newcastle University Student’s Association Inc.

CATALOGUE DESIGN Silje Buxton Soldal siljebsoldal.com

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