FOREWORD BY ZOË SYDNEY Art and Community in the Virtual Space It was an interesting challenge to be a part of the graduating class of 2020. When I remind friends from other disciplines that we had to do art studio classes online for most of semester one, they always asked how that could possibly work. It was only due to the dedicated endeavours from every staff member in Fine Arts and History of Art that it was as easy as it could have been. We would not have made it past day one without a herculean effort from them. With very limited preparation time, they have managed to shift entire courses that were built around studio interaction online. Arranging individual materials for each student, Zoom-appropriate activities, and space inclusive strategies could not have been easy. Yet, they still found the time to be there for us at any hour of the day. If there is one art skill that was most important in 2020, it was adaptability. It was amazing to watch my classmates rise to the challenge. Whenever you logged into a Zoom call you would see bedrooms turned into pottery studios, people perched in strange places where the Wi-Fi worked better, roommates in the background, pets on laps. The history of the work is changed when it has been created in and is forced to remain in a private space. The physical existence of the work is necessarily personal, and any virtual display of the work invites the public into that personal. Work created in a personal space is shaped by that space in a way that work created in a classroom is not. Ultimately, that has been reflected in the depth of the work on display this year. Removing our access to shared spaces and resources forces a consideration of accessibility. In the absence of visitors, galleries around the world started to upload new virtual tours, online resources and walk-throughs. Collections that could previously only be seen through travel were suddenly available all around the world. We have been exposed to new material, new technologies, and new methods of working that can only benefit us as we move forwards in our practice. In second semester, when we returned in person for the first time in months, there was a palpable excitement about being together again, even at a responsible two metres apart. I have never seen a 9am class with more energy. I think we learnt to take full advantage of everything at our fingertips in the Fine Arts Department and seize those opportunities while they were there. Despite, or perhaps because of, these forced constraints in the beginning of the year, the work being presented was stronger than ever. I could not have asked for a better community to see through this last year with. Zoë Sydney, Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) majoring in Physics and Fine Arts 2020
Image: “Zoë in the painting”, November 2019. 12
