Foreword Should I have written this Foreword without addressing the pandemic? We have lived with it for most of the year, though of course in an extremely fortunate situation here in Western Australia. The students who have completed the Fine Arts Major and Honours in Fine Arts in 2020 are to be commended for the great resolve they have shown in the face of circumstances none of us have encountered before. Around the world the pandemic has affected all facets of human society in profound and lasting ways. When in March the Interim Vice Chancellor announced that in response to the COVID-19 pandemic the University would immediately migrate all classes to online delivery we were unsure of the impact this would have on learning experiences. Surely Fine Arts practical classes would not be manageable, we thought, in virtual mode? And yet staff quickly and innovatively devised ways of teaching that would be meaningful and possible in the private spaces of students’ homes, and students skilfully found and adapted materials to use in the completion of modified assessments. While it wasn’t the same as an in-class experience staff and students alike became proficient at learning and interacting through platforms such as Zoom and MS Teams. In second semester upon a gradual return to campus we shifted again, to ‘hybrid’ or blended format, offering a mix of online and face to face classes. To be physically back in classes together brought the brightest of smiles. Most impressive about the Fine Arts students this year has been the fact that they continued to make art. Studying from home, some overseas, coping with a range of difficulties not least of which was the sense of isolation, they have shown the power of art to be expressive, reflective, and transformative. Alongside the pandemic, powerful social justice movements including Black Lives Matter have changed the way we see and act in the world. So too the increasing sense of urgency associated with decarbonisation and preserving fragile environments. In this context it has been wonderful to see that students’ desire to create art has not been diminished and neither has been the quality of their work. Indeed we hope that students have learned from this year that art has a uniquely influential opportunity: to provide an outlet for individual expression while also provoking its audience to rethink. Art tells us that there is always another way of looking at or thinking about something. Art can support, inspire, lead to change, which is what makes it so valuable and enduring as a discipline. While this exhibition and catalogue always performs the important function of recognising the achievements of our graduating students, this year the accomplishment is especially worth celebrating for everyone who sees the value in artistic expression registering society’s mood and preoccupations.
This year the Fine Arts discipline welcomed Erin Coates, Curtis Taylor and Sohan Hayes as Adjunct staff members and we very much look forward to their involvement with the program in the next few years. It’s also important to note in closing these remarks that 2020 saw the introduction of a revised major in Fine Arts, consolidating a foundational first year of study before branching into Level 2 streams in the areas of Film, Art and Environment, and Art and Biotechnologies. This major offers the opportunity for students to learn the fundamental skills of drawing, painting and sculpture while also moving into areas of focus with strong contemporary relevance. The work produced in this year’s exhibition speaks of the skilful mastery of technique – from printmaking to textiles to film production; the clever conception of ideas; the essential incorporation of humour; the importance of communication to an audience; the integration of all senses in the appreciation of art. To the students completing the Fine Arts major at Level 3 or with Honours, my warmest congratulations and best wishes for your future successes. To the committed group of academic, technical, sessional and adjunct staff who have inspired and mentored the students through this year and throughout the course I give sincere thanks. Dr Kate Hislop Head of School UWA School of Design
Art in the time of uncertainty We are living in extraordinary times. Uncertainty permeates every aspect of life. The well documented disruptions to natural ecosystems threaten the survival of the Earth itself, and now a global pandemic challenges our bodies, our economies and even our social structures. Perhaps never before in our life time has artistic expression and discourse been as important. An abiding purpose of the arts is to dismantle knowledge and ways of thinking to open avenues for understanding ourselves and the ever changing world around us. It is vital therefore as art educators and institutions that we continue to support conditions which include the perseverance of criticality and self-reflexivity. To offer space for analysis, discussion, disturbance, transgression and potential dissent from the prevailing ‘logic’ and rote habits of a world mediated through corrupted, unreliable media. FAM2020 students have embraced this critical space and consciously scrutinise conditions that determine or influence our sense of self. Developed through reflective intelligence and resilient determination this exhibition invites an open engagement with forms, ideas and contexts, challenging the viewer to participate in a search for meaning. Resident within the works presented is a depth of inquiry offering alternative or refreshed encounters with objects, images, materials and technologies. We are confronted and compelled by the corporeal, ecological and sociological. We are taken to the depths of human imagination from poetic playgrounds and endearing monsters, to advanced and speculative encounters of possible futures. Some challenge prevailing legacies and others embrace processes that engage the sensorial with admirable material sensibilities. The students represented are to be congratulated for their integrity, curiosity and willingness to take risks. They have responded to the complexities of now and demonstrated a capacity to reflect on and adapt to the ever-changing situations that 2020 has presented. We thank them for offering us insights and experiences that will undoubtedly extend beyond the School of Design. Sarah Douglas Fine Arts Major Coordinator UWA School of Design
The Fine Arts Major Graduating Exhibition 2020 UWA School of Design Cullity Gallery | First Floor Studios and Gallery | Fine Arts Building | ALVA Hub 6-13 November 2020
CHANDLER ABRAHAMS Fine Arts Honours
first slowly, then all at once Installation, video, sound @custom_chrome_decal
first slowly, then all at once, engages with the doubled function of ecstasy and paranoia as it emerges from the transgression of the subject. Within the constructed world that is first slowly, then all at once the audience is encouraged to engage not only with the boundaries that exist in limiting the human (to its discrete, whole form) but the slippages and tensions that exist within and as a result of these boundaries. Through the depiction of an ambiguous decent into monstrosity, the audience is implicated in these tensions and asked to question the elation that is derived from such a transformation.
MATT ARMENTI Fine Arts
White City Digital collage, concrete, acrylic, video @frank_pesto
I am the result of British invasion and occupation of this country that resulted in the genocide and continued dispossession of First Nations people, land and waters. Contemporary Australian identity is likewise informed by this past - even while it is often actively or passively ignored. The past always informs the present and this sense of insecurity within our colonial past has pervaded our contemporary collective identity. This sense of insecurity is the reason why Perth is, today, so often defined only by what it is not.
SACHA BARKER Master of Fine Arts
There is a saying among prospectors‌ Calico, cotton and woollen threads plus mining maps c. 1950-1998 @sacha.art www.sachabarker.com
Maps can help us make sense of our place in the world, provide information, warnings and a sense of grounding. They can also signal ownership, allow the foreseeing of a journey or tracing of a past. Maps are also flawed by showing places through a specific lens, ignoring other histories or viewpoints. Given the large size of the original maps, while stitching, it is hard to discern a human scale in the vast space. The linework is, at times, blurred, and place names have changed. This work satiates a need to imagine space and plot a way forward.
DALE BUCKLEY Fine Arts Honours
An Offering Carrara marble, foam, aluminium, glass, bronze, wax, bitumen, hemp, turquoise, jet, bone, steel www.dalebuckley.net
An Offering examines the enduring soft power of the physical art object. In an age of apocalyptic thinking and posttruth politics, making visual art as a political gesture can feel like a futile act. But across history, there have been many precedents to the current moment in our empire. The works in An Offering are broken iterations of art produced at the end of previous empires, stripped of context and abstracted to be looted tokens of cultural capital. While our end may be in sight, a new empire will take our place. This work is addressed to that future.
JENNIFER DUH
Fine Arts, Communication and Media
Wa Wa Wu Video, stop motion animation Format: mp4 Duration: 4:18 @jenverine
Wa Wa Wu means dollhouse in Chinese. The work explores a childhood memory, concepts of home and living in isolation during the pandemic. The artist’s childhood desire was to own a dollhouse. Unfortunately, her father offered the last dolls house in the mall to another girl. This memory and the artist’s youthful struggle with parental control has been incorporated into the animation. The artist has embraced the liberation of studying overseas and is reflective on her own process of coming of age acknowledging that what her parents “have done for me are purely for my good. Most of my frustrations have lifted, and I cannot wait to see them again soon”.
SKY EDWARDS Fine Arts
U-193-x Photography, neural network collaboration, found and modified objects, ink drawing, digital archive @kaizimiera
U-193-x is an archive of anomalies: drawings, journals, and artefacts from an unknown artist survivor of an inexplicably changed, alternate or future Perth. Documenting reality in isolation, in place, evoked the fictional, semi-autobiographical artist’s parallel experience. Photography, journaling, and object collection around Derbarl Yerrigan inspired drawings: realism, AI-collaboration monstrosities, and other anomalies. U-193-x touches on the real and fictional artist’s connections to place, colonialism, solastalgia, aphantasia, love of the natural world, and fascination with the Weird. U-193-x exists online and in-gallery, responding to isolation and accessibility. “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable” - César A. Cruz
ELHAM ESHRAGHIAN -HAAKANSSON Master of Fine Arts
‘face to face’ (Edition 1 of 2) Single-channel video, sound 7:11 minutes Overall Winner for the Invitation Art Prize 2020 Acquisitioned and Acquired by the City of Joondalup Art Collection www.elhameshraghian.com
‘face to face’ is a moving portrait of stillness and archival chaos, navigating intergenerational identity. The Iran and Pakistan border marks a pivotal moment between execution and freedom where the artist’s family fled persecution during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Her mother writes a poem of universality by a celebrated Persian Poet Rūmī, on her brother’s face, juxtaposed by the visual and vocal monotony that distorts connectivity; being eye to eye, face to face.
TAMYKA FARSALAS
Anatomy and Human Biological Sciences, Fine Arts
Facets Wood, glass, dirt, ash, wax, selenite @tamyka_art_design
With the endeavour to explore the term Spirituality, the artist integrates aspects of the greater universe to gain an understanding of spiritual concepts and the soul. The installation, Facets, references the ten distinct dimensions that form the framework of Superstring Theory as well as depicting fundamental elements that govern the universe. The intention is to create an energised celestial feild combining the aura of the viewer and the energy of the work.
STEPHANIE FORSYTH Integrated Design, Fine Arts
Pause Flower ink, acrylic, branch, LED @steve_stepherson
Vibrant inks made from flowers come to life inside acrylic leaf bowls. Balancing precariously on white lit stages, they scatter along the suspended branch, embedding themselves into the surface. The artist works to enhance the experience of the existing beauty found within natural objects, while working respectfully with nature. Working with flowers, leaves, and a branch to explore and emphasise subtle details from each chosen element. Each element is treated with care through a recontextualised representation of these forms. The process of creating this work has allowed the artist to be submerged in nature gaining a valuable meditative experience through connecting with the earth.
DEBBIE GILCHRIST Fine Arts
What’s for Dinner? Assemblage of organic and man-made materials
What now? Hand-printed linocut prints on Japanese mulberry paper @debbiegilchrist1
The two works explore current concepts of womanhood through an investigation of hidden emotions. The first, ‘What’s for Dinner?’ is an elegantly presented dinner scene, complete with a perfectly laid table adorned with Royal Doulton plates, shiny glass domes and silverware. Closer examination reveals surprises are lurking behind the shiny façade. In this work, the real emotions behind the outwardly capable woman juggling family, career and home peek through, revealing truths often not discussed openly. Hand-printed linocut portraits adorn the surrounding walls, in the complementary work ‘What now?’. Gridded prints represent four generations of women, layered and obscured to engage the viewer in the title question.
LUKE KOLBUSZ
Media & Communications, Fine Arts
Some Paintings 2020 Oil and acrylic on canvas @luke_kolbusz
While the works draw from the tradition of portraiture, the artist is most interested in the fragments of familiar features and forms generated by an intuitive and unplanned approach to painting. He often allows the figures to sit ambiguously within the canvas, respecting their refusal to be resolved by clear tones or textures. This process enables an ability to capture the uneasy aspects of the social world, delimiting the boundaries between known techniques and the amorphous figures within the paintings.
LEE LEE KOO
Fine Arts, Indigenous Knowledge, History and Heritage
Un-lock Cotton thread, aluminium foil and hessian
The artwork explores the subversive and empowering strength of stitch to translate or unlock a symbolic language. It investigates the inner concepts of self in relationship to personal struggles with the social constructions of womanhood.
mg.g.M.MG.MG outsides (Group Performance) mg: meat glitch g: gyrating M: Murmur MG: Mother Goo MG: Tox
The work reflects our shared interest in world building, alternative cosmology, experimental lorecraft, and situated transgression. We have integrated video, musical improvisation, drag performance, noise, light, wet materials, spoken and written word, and embodiment practices.
AMY NEVILLE
Fine Arts, History of Art
Divine Rebellion Silk, wool, and linen applique on calico ground, with cotton threads www.amyneville.art
Divine Rebellion explores the history of the artist’s journey as a queer Catholic person and the conflict which stems from existing in both groups yet never genuinely being accepted within them. The work represents a journey across six years of self-discovery and activism, showcasing the words used against queer people, often being deployed by Catholics, and how recent reinterpretations of scripture gives hope to those who struggle in their identities. The work takes inspiration from Catholic altar cloths and tapestries to construct a nonlinear narrative of hope in the face of continued conflict.
BENJAMIN NIXON Fine Arts
Flat Stop motion animation, plasticine and paper @aliveart906
Flat explores the relationship between two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms. The two video works ask the viewer to consider both dimensions. They showcase a series of objects through the passing of time, the will to change and the dominance of the more evolved. The grid of videos depict drawings in different environments. While the world moves around them the two-dimensional forms have no agency and remain unchanged over time. The stop motion animated video shows a reality where shapes evolve and develop unexpected characteristics.
MIA PAGE
Fine Arts, Marketing
Binding Threads Recycled textile fabrics, acrylic paint, cotton thread and embroidery cotton.
Inter-Woven Recycled fabrics, recycled paper, wool, cotton thread, markers, coloured pencils and wood. @miapageart
Binding Threads is a depiction of the reflective process of the artist exploring and understanding her role as the eldest of three sisters. Working with words, textiles, embroidery, paint and thread, the work explores elements of connection and disconnection. Inter-Woven facilitates a conversation between a group of women from three generations. The materials within the collaborative quilt are recycled from previous works relating to the maternal. The words sewn into the quilt are descriptive of mother-daughter experiences. The work connects to a history of taking time, creating quilts through communication and collaboration.
JEREMY PASSMORE Fine Arts, History of Art
Duelling Banjos (Obscura No 2.2 and Obscura No 4.5) Fabric, brass, plywood, marri, artificial flowers, found objects, PLA and perspex
Aesthetics of a Light Echo Video www.jeremypassmore.com
Jeremy Passmore explores the states of in-between through abstraction and alternate methodologies of viewing. The work focuses primarily within the suburban environment. The construction of devices, photography, drawing and video, expose and articulate the subliminal truths of our surroundings. Attention is drawn to elements that might otherwise go unoticed.
CEDAR RANKIN-CHEEK Fine Arts
Femmebags Fabric, thread, recycled PET fibre, rubber @fertileobjects
Cedar Rankin-Cheek’s work explores the expectation of the femme body as a site of absolute comfort and care, that achieves value for its function and convenience. Her piece Femmebags discusses the aesthetics of comfort and functionality, questioning why certain bodies are ‘useful’, while others make us feel disgust and fear. The anthropomorphic furniture pieces are there to be intimately interacted with, prompting participants to think about the different reactions the two forms elicit through this interaction. The beanbags offer a moment of gentle intimacy, purely existing for the needs of others; they are not autonomous, so it is up to the participants to decide what the Femmebag’s function is. The work provides functional human substitutes that allow for reflection of our understanding and treatment of living femme bodies.
HARRISON RIEKIE Fine Arts, English
Hidden Vista Film, digital prints @harrisonriekie
Hidden Vista is an exploration into current communication systems, commenting on the speed of distributed information in hypersimulated society. The captured work rests in a place of transition, amongst industrial development, a signifier of human intervention and transaction. The surface of the earth is delicately touched, in a durational display of temporal ecological manipulation. The soil then finds its own course and dissipates, accentuating impermanence through subtle labour, commenting on the transience of place. The work can only be seen from an aerial perspective, commenting on ideas of sovereignty and surveillance.
ALESSANDRA RODRIGO Fine Arts, Computer Science
Diffusion of An Artwork Interactive computer programme and microphone (Python 3 and TouchDesigner), projected animation alessandrarodrigo.com
Alessandra Rodrigo grew up in the Philippines where, as a child, motorised tricycles were the epitome of technology and travel. Now living in Australia, with elite technology ranging from self-driving cars to phones that talk back to its user, Alessandra notes the advantages of adopting innovations into everyday life and is interested in anthropomorphic potential that technological devices could have in the future. The work is an interactive installation that simulates human form and behaviours, and corresponds to the audience’s input via a microphone.
ISABELLA ROSSARO Zoology, Fine Arts
But you don’t look sick? Monoprints, sculpted clay forms, casted resin objects, Physarum polycephalum (slime mould), found medical objects and scientific glass displays @not.rossario
Isabella Rossaro’s works explore her relationship with an unseen illness within her body. She focuses on the possibility of dieldrin, an insecticide that her mother was exposed to during childhood and explores this hereditary history of disease with a series of monoprints. Applying her knowledge of biology and genetics, she aims to communicate the inner world of invisible illness by exposing her own physical and emotional experience. The sculptures and monoprints encourage the viewer to investigate the body and mind of one suffering with endometriosis and major depressive disorder, looking to amplify the importance of invisible illness in women’s health.
VALENTINA SARTORI Fine Arts, History of Art
Move With Me, I’ll Move With You. Video, Zoom-based performance, letter, instructions
Move With Me, I’ll Move With You is an instructional and participatory artwork, which draws on the practice of mindful movement - a branch of Dance Movement Therapy. The work spans over one month with 15 participants. Each participant received instructions and one-on-one Zoom calls were scheduled, in which guided and free movement were used as a way for participants to connect with their bodies. The interactions were documented and compiled in a film as a representation of collective healing and sorority. The work functions as an avenue for women’s recovery in the context of gendered social conditioning concerning women’s bodies, and acknowledgment of unseen and ubiquitous trauma.
ZOË SYDNEY Physics, Fine Arts
Rope Smother (I couldn’t even kiss you; I couldn’t even open my eyes) You have changed my touch Don’t take it personally Found objects, mixed media, human hair, textile, cotton www.zoesydney.com
Zoë Sydney’s work draws from personal writings and stories to explore the experience of lesbian womanhood in Australia. Found objects commingle with unusual materials across a broad series of work. There is a clear sense of the connection between identity and presentation. A combination of non-traditional textile work, pre-owned objects, and even her own hair are used. Pinkness, blondness, girlishness are all employed as devices of artifice in a display that demands the audience present themselves to the work as much as the work is presented to them.
RACHAEL VIERAITIS
Indigenous History, Heritage and Knowledge, Fine Arts
As Above So Below Australian cotton, silk thread, rust, grevillea, eucalyptus, butterfly pea-flower, hibiscus, henna, shells
Exploring genealogy and place, Rachael looks at what it means to connect with environment and family through mindful practices learnt through healing from psychosis. Botanical ink-making from local and introduced plants, barks and flowers create intuitive designs on cotton sourced from the north of Australia. Dressmaking and needlework skills handed down through three generations of women inform the construction of the works, adapting patterns from the artist’s grandmother and sourcing styles based on traditional Lithuanian dress. Photographing and wearing the works on-country, where the artist is based, becomes a celebration of the wildflowers and changing of seasons near her home in the midwest of Australia.
JOELLE YOUNG Fine Arts
Agathokakological Beast Acrylic, ink, charcoal, chalk on ply inks, acrylic enamel spray paint, cotton, faux fur, wool, polymer clay, pine, aluminium, cardboard @j.a.youngart
This body of work explores the nature of imagination as a curious, powerful beast, comprised of both good and evil, and aims to represent the shift of balance over time. As children, imagination functions as a tool of wonder, serving in the playful creation of beauty and joy; with only the occasional shadow lurking monster. As we grow, and our sense of childlike wonder is slowly eroded, the imagination often takes on new, more sinister roles. Wondrous imaginings are replaced by fears and anxieties, monsters that once hid in shadow find comfort in the light and our colourful view of the world fades until it seems like nothing more than a distant memory.
CATHY ZHAO
Accounting, Fine Arts
Future Perseverance Needles, threads, video, fabric, various other materials
Future Perseverance is a playful investigation into the relationship between inner self and external demand, and explores how we, as human beings, could balance them in the complexity of modernday life. Desire, repetition and conflict are the recurring themes concerning this central line of thought. Cathy’s work plays with a dichotomy of perceived comfort and hidden conflict; the readymade childrens’ tent is disrupted by the repetitive act of threading and inserting needles.
JULIE ZIEGENHARDT English, Fine Arts
When did I change? Mild steel rods, digital illustration, graphic novel @jujjjjjjjjjjjjjjjju
When did I change? seeks to unlock the inner knowledge of childhood. The sculptural playground, graphic novel and prints are an echo of time passed and a visual prompt for reflection and reconnection to our playful and uninhibited selves. The intention is to evoke a poetic engagement with imaginative realities that exist beyond the boundaries of constructed expectations.
We wish to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we meet and create on, the Whadjuk Noongar people. We acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and contribution to the life and culture of this city and region. We thank the School of Design staff for their support and guidance. Head of School of Design Dr Kate Hislop Department Head Fine Arts and History of Art Dr Clarissa Ball Discipline of Fine Arts Staff 2020 Dr Ionat Zurr Dr Vladimir Todorovic Paul Trinidad Sarah Douglas Andy Quilty Mike Bianco Nick Mahony Adjunct Staff Sohan Ariel Hayes Erin Coates Curtis Taylor Thanks to Sohan Ariel Hayes and the postgraduate students, Paul, Annie, Sam, Ellie and Sacha for their support in reviews and artist talks. Their generous contributions are much appreciated. In addition the School of Design would like to acknowledge the continuing support of Matt Steedman and Amped Digital. FAM2020 organising committee would like to thank Erin Coates for presenting the opening address, Sarah Douglas for curating the exhibition and Nick Mahony for his outstanding assistance with installation. Thanks to workshop staff Guy Eddington, Dave Marie and Andrew Christie for additional technical assistance. Many thanks to Julie Ziegenhardt for her commitment to the design, layout and editing of the catalogue.