Art as Knowledge

Through the Unit - Art as Knowledge, students frame a self-directed body of work informed by their knowledge of art practices, experiences, history and influences. Their work visually and intellectually engages the audience by employing new knowledge inspired by their personal interests, beliefs and observations of the world.

'Metamorphosis' by Chloe Atkinson | Creative Generations Award

Art is a physical manifestation of an artist’s psyche. Their subject matter and mediums are dictated, whether consciously or unconsciously, by their personal interpretation of the world. This piece explores how artists draw inspiration from others: the audience is invited to perceive the white sculpture as an artist’s artwork, and the bones as the artist/creator. The butterflies represent the artworks the artist inspired and was inspired by, with the butterflies behind the piece representing how all artwork is inspired by past artwork/events. They also show themes of preservation and destruction: They are all from the same genus (preservation), but have wildly unnatural colouration (destruction/deconstruction). The formal context is shown through traditional techniques (clay sculpture), and the personal context is shown through the wildly different shapes, sizes, and colourations of the butterflies, referencing how all art is uniquely influenced by the artist who made it, including this piece.

'What's Left of Me' By Brianna Livingstone

The art of past trauma is a struggle that I have dealt with personally. I have constructed a piece that focuses on the aspects of past trauma, mental health, physical assault and the effects it has trying to heal, grow and move forward. This piece explores the emotional aspects of the expectations that are often forgotten about. The artwork allows the audience to see a visual understanding of the emotions which are associated with past trauma. The clay body figures were chosen to represent the human body in a smaller, visual form. The dried flowers identify the damage that were caused and symbolise longevity and eternal love. The red hands represent the marks they left and still hold on the human body. ‘What’s Left Of Me’ expresses the previous experiences that are held onto when progressing through life.

'Always Human' by Ash-Lee Gilliam | Creative Generations, Artwaves and Energies Awards

Experiences form the human journey of life. Through a personal context, I explore how memories create the human experience by helping us understand who we truly are and how we evolved. Always Human follows a humanoid figure looking back on their memories, demonstrating that even in this robotic, dystopian world, they are still human. Visual elements including illustrations and movement, accompanied by complimentary music, draw in audiences and maintain their engagement. Monochromatic colours display a dull future controlled by technology, taken over by artificial intelligence. The figure’s eyes are pitch black, yet a sense of humanity remains. The memories represent my personal association between colour and emotion: yellow – joy and happiness, blue – grief and sadness, orange – energy and optimism, purple – ambition and pink – naivety and childhood innocence. The final frame is important, with the eyes transforming to a human’s after travelling through their past and remembering who they are.

'Human Connections' by Coco Domic

The connections that humans have with death has been a topic throughout history and has drastically changed overtime. The purpose of ‘Human Connections’ is created with the intent for the audience to question their connections to death whether positive or negative. This is done through the use of noir tones to help viewers look through a non bias lens as colour generally changes how one reacts to an image, the black and white tones causes a reaction to this artwork based on their own connections with death. The size of the board was used in order to make an impact to the audience as a statement piece, the contrast of the background and the skulls helps to bring attention to the focus point leaving room to interpret the meaning. The ropes were used to depict the connections between living and death and how it can impact lives even after some time.

'Influences' by Madison Costello | Creative Generations and Artwaves Awards

‘Influences’ explores the idea of growth, representing how people impact me. It works from a personal context, inviting the audience to view the impacts on my life, and how these are cemented in my past as the relationship between past and future is represented in my art. The bottom of the pages represents past, with hands representing my oldest influences and aged building blocks, displaying my focus: ‘Influences and the representation of them through time’. The top of the pages, bathed in light, represents future, with me in the focal point outstretched towards it, demonstrating the inevitable move forward through time. The surrealist environment with unnatural lighting confronts the audience. The hands, representing influences on my life, leads them into the experience, allowing them to understand my idea of human existence and my focus on the determined progression of time and influences, assisted by the 3D element: the functioning clock.

'Challenging Terra Nullius' by Paige Slater | Artwaves Award, Packer's Prize 

History is only an interpretation of memory. Yet, we rely on it to help comprehend the complexity of life's plan and underwrite our identities as individuals. Collective memory in philosophy reveals how groups remember a shared experience of the past, which can lead to biased recollections, mythmaking, and appraisal of events or individuals. Challenging Terra Nullius explores the legal concept used to justify the inhuman cruelty towards Aboriginals with the British's falsehood of Australia's inhabitants. The mixed media piece portrays the ambivalent arrival of the First Fleet through small-scale proportion to attract audiences to focus on the detail and intricacy within the juxtaposition of the toy figurines' appearance and the clashing nature of their fretting actions and stances placed on the replica of Captain Cooks map and story boat. The figures on the map serve as a metaphor for the true history that should have remained in Australians' shared memories.

'Grasket blo mi' by Richelle Kontos | Artwaves Award

My identity is confined to the Western culture I live in and is something I deal with personally. As a Melanesian, my culture has a great significance to who I am and my identity in society. I communicate my perception of that through wearable objects. This piece expresses and embraces the cultural significance of being a Nivan. The audience is invited to experience my Nivan culture through the smooth, strong natural fiber grass skirt made from raffia, my natural hair and painted face, and the juxtaposition to my braids which are a symbol of my urge to conform to Western societal norms. The experience of having my natural hair out makes me something of a spectacle, I want to be seen as a person not as a display of culture. The grass skirt I was wearing, and the locations I positioned myself, highlight and relate to my homeland and the significance of developing the audience’s perception of traditional heritage artworks.

'Universe mind' By Shaylah Ball

The body of art displayed is based on the array of emotions of those who deal with isolation and in which I have death with personally. Isolation isn’t a choice given and is certainly not the same as being alone. Isolation comes with the belief that you are alone even though you are surrounded by important people around you. Communicating the emotions of those experiencing isolation my piece explores the various aspects through three different pieces; which are displayed through numerous unintentional lines. To show the contrasting aspects of these sensations the piece follows the different stages of the emotions. In the first panel the background follows a darker and richer shade of colours showing the first stages of the various sensations during isolation. In the third panel there is a brighter shade of colours representing the recovery of isolation. In the second panel there is a mixture of both panels to show the process of healing through isolation. At first glance the panels are meant to display beauty and project this onto the figure displayed in the panels. Allowing the viewer to explore further into the piece the colour shadowing onto the figure follows the hidden emotions that a person can be experiencing, giving an insight to how people deal with mental health on a day to day basis. Through the chaotic bits of the piece there are hints of white spread throughout all these panels to show that even these emotions are hiding a secret light of hope and that there are aspects to life that can help the strain of mental health struggle be lifted.

'Absence of mind' By Taylah May | Artwaves Award and People's Choice

Art is commonly used as a form of healing. I intend on communicating the lingering struggle of loss. Through this installation, I explore the complicated network of emotions that come with sudden loss of parental figures. The audience is invited to experience the rawness that is expressed through a combination of artworks that explore an array of key emotions; isolation, grief, shattered thoughts and finally acceptance. The use of empty space confronts the audience and allows time to process the individual pieces. Within this piece, a comfortable common area with deep meaning. The ‘cosy’ feeling given by the living space intends to lull the audience into a false sense of security and familiarity with subtle but powerful meaning in each delicately positioned work. The idea of healing is seen through out the pieces with one work focusing on the idea of coming out the other end in a new light.