ART

KAREN BANKS
”GHOST”

Description: Vintage sepia toned film showing a woman standing next to an open window draped in floral patterned curtains. The curtains flutter in the wind as varying imperfections on the film begin to occur. Examples of these include tonal changes, the video ‘skipping’ and what looks like water droplets overlaid on the images.  

ARTIST STATEMENT

Using 16mm BW hand-painted film and painted clear leader, the video is constructed according to random and chance event occurrences in the editing process. Following the Surrealists in their practice of harnessing chance as an element in the construction of art, the video is a collation of disparate elements whose focus is the traces that are revealed or lost to obscurity and the narratives that emerge by way of remnant or disappearing reality.

BIO

Karen Banks works with 16mm film and leader tape to produce video works which are shown as projections and screen works. She is currently a PhD candidate at SCA.

BRONTE CORMINCAN-JONES
”SURROUNDED”

Description: Two videos are displayed side by side, each showing a teacup filled with liquid. One of the teacups is white with gold detailing on the rim and handle and the other is red. The surface of the liquid of each teacup shows moving reflections of treetops.

ARTIST STATEMENT

This video series, 'Surrounded' explores the thresholds of our inner and outer worlds. The teacups sit within a domestic setting and contain a larger living landscape within them. Focusing on reflections of native gumtrees and bottlebrushes, the surface of the tea narrates sentiments of home and belonging within landscapes.

BIO

Bronte Cormican-Jones is an emerging contemporary visual artist and writer who lives and works on the traditional land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, Sydney. In her visual arts, Bronte explores the field of spatial practise through namely sculpture, installation, performance and documented works. Driven by conceptual investigations, her works often explore perception, disorientation, architecture, and the body, through glass and industrial materials.

RACHEL FENG
”CONDA ACTIVATE MAKE CD
DESKTOP/MAKE/TF-POSE-ESTIMATION/
./START.SH”

Description: A white background with black text in a group in the centre. The text has singular words positioned randomly that make up the shape of an ellipse.

ARTIST STATEMENT

This interactive installation generates a concrete poetry of artist statements, a portrait of the idea of art. Spreading across the spatial composition, the esoteric expressions become the medium. The concrete poetry makes reference to an artwork, while describing itself. The reflexivity questions the authorship of this work as the shape of the silhouette is determined by the viewer. In a way it digitalizes the early form of Conceptual art, by leaving the interpretation and realization of the texts to the audience. This work takes a poststructuralist approach and questions individual subjectivity, treating language as abstract symbols that embody thinking.

The spatiality of text breaks down artspeak. The art jargon and description of art often give the audience a sense of bafflement. By presenting artspeak in an unconventional sequence, the installation disrupts meaning and resembles the experience of understanding and imagining art, whether it is exhaustion or confusion or entertainment.

The title of the installation highlights the cross disciplinary collaboration between conceptual art and coding. It also questions the authorship and ownership of the artwork as anyone with the three lines of code in the title can activate the program.

BIO

My artworks often investigate the tension between social beings and social institutions.

Through exploring the multifaceted societal issues and audience participation, the artworks encourage new conversations and paradigm shifts.

KEESHA FIELD
”GUIDED MEDITATION SESSION I”

Description: As Keesha's voice talks you through the meditation, blurred close up images of plants ripple across the screen with the music, as if taken underwater.

ARTIST STATEMENT

A guided meditation session designed to rid you of qualms and allow you to manifest.

BIO

Keesha Catherine Field is a 3rd year Visual Art student who has interests in psychology and the human condition.

KEESHA FIELD
”DREGS”

Description: top image: a white circular bowl with noodles on a black background. The view is from above and there are chopsticks sitting in the bowl of needles, leaning to the right.
bottom image: A detail of a blue circle on a black background that has shimmering light in parts of the lighter blue. From the top are a section of two chopsticks that rest on the blue dish.

ARTIST STATEMENT

A meditation on making oneself more consumable.

BIO

Keesha Catherine Field is. She was and she am but most of all, she doesn't take sugar in her tea.

NISHTA GUPTA
”WHERE IS THIS COSMOS THAT LIES BEHIND MY EYES”

Description: A close-up video of a blinking human eye. This is gradually interspersed with videos of the countryside, taken from the window of a moving car. This transitions to black interspersed with dappled circles of light, like what you see if you close your eyes. The dappled shards of light continue as we see vertical blinds rippling in the wind against a blue cloudy sky. Various distorted images move across the lens and we eventually arrive at some clear crumpled plastic moving around in the light. The plastic is then overlaid on the video of the blinking eye.

ARTIST STATEMENT

This video artwork captures the sensation of experiencing the world through closed eyelids, where colour, noise, and light are still visible. It was inspired by my childhood experiences of falling asleep in the car, drifting between states of consciousness and sleep; a transience that is at once blissful and nostalgic.

BIO

I am a second year Visual Arts and Law student interested in how art offers a cathartic exploration into identity, beauty, and collective memory.

BONNIE HUANG
”西遊記 (JOURNEY TO THE WEST)”

Description: A glass box with a plaid pattern in red, blue and white, reminiscent of large plastic carrier bags. The top of the box can be lifted off to reveal an Australian citizenship certificate printed on glass propped up inside.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The box represents the liminal experience of migration and my experience of growing up in a detention centre. Heavy yet fragile, the box confines something "unreachable". Subverting the power dynamic to question the value of bureaucratic recognition provided by citizenship, the iconic plastic travel bag is made with fine-art Bullseye glass whilst the contained citizenship paper is cheap window glass. It is a testament to the resilience of diaspora communities, and a love for how objects hold a wealth of histories within.

BIO

Bonnie Huang is a queer Chinese-Australian artist based on Dharug and Gadigal lands. Informed by concepts, their multidisciplinary practice expands into different mediums to interrogate self-identity and social norms.

RACHEL LAI
“JAY AND MARK WERE HERE IN ‘92”

SOUND WORK

Description: The installation is set up in a small room in the exhibition with a chair and book in it as the sound file plays. The book contains various black and white prints of different photographs in the shape of a standard film photograph. These include a woman standing at a train platform, the campus of the Sydney College of the Art, the backs of two figures and one where ink has been spilled across the surface

ARTIST STATEMENT

JAY AND MARK WERE HERE IN ‘92 is an exploration of time, space and the Other. “JAY” is situated in a pocket in space where time is non-linear, the audience is forced to jump back and forth through space-time as “JAY” dictates what they see and where they go.

BIO

Rachel Lai is a Sydney-based, multidisciplinary artist from Hong Kong. She is currently undertaking her Bachelor's degree at the Sydney College of the Arts.

FRANK LIN
”THE HOUSE IS NEVER ALONE”

Description: A view of three steps leading up to a fly-screened door. A transparent, ghost-like figure with wispy tendrils emerging from its head sits on the top step, gazing down at two pairs of crocs and a calico cat on the steps below.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Sometimes I wonder if there are ghosts in my house and what they would be doing: discussing history amongst each other or observing our lives. I wonder how lonely it would be but there is hope in isolation when you can see such comforting beauty outside.

BIO

I am an amateur artist and writer trying to prove to my parents I can have a career in the arts.

MENG YANG LIU
”SAFE AT HOME”

Description: Three digital images of a birds-eye view cityscape are placed together in a short looping video. The first is a close-up image of a single ‘home’ created from a black mesh material and parallel horizontal lines of white light on a stark black background. Inside are three human forms lit with yellow light. The following two images zoom out further to show the home slightly separate from the rest of the city buildings and roads, which are designated with linear blue, green and white lights and punctuated by more yellow lights in the shapes of human figures inside the buildings.  

ARTIST STATEMENT

The pandemic keeps us confined to our homes, isolating us from friends and the usual social activities we engage in. The extended duration of isolation can be mentally and physically draining for all involved. This piece serves to bring hope and courage to those who are in lockdown, reminding them that we are not alone.

BIO

Hi, I am Michael Liu, an architecture student with a passion for architecture, art and coding. I am currently using my coding skills to explore the possibilities between the fields of design and computer science.

STEPHANIE MANTILLA
”BREAKING THE VISUAL METAPHOR”

Stephanie Mantilla, Breaking the visual metaphor, video, 1080x720px, 2021.

Description: As Stephanie's voice talks through the story, various distorted images and colours appear that are associated with the story's descriptions. For example, you see a distorted video of waves lapping over rocks when Stephanie says, "You hear the ocean waves crashing", and the whole screen turns blue during "piercing blue eyes", and red during "burning".

ARTIST STATEMENT

Breaking the Visual Metaphor challenges the visual as a reliable mode of information. Using a visual medium, it forces the viewer to primarily rely on audio and text to show how other modes of information better convey ‘invisible’ experiences – such as pain – which are often ignored because they aren’t visible.

BIO

Stephanie Mantilla is a PhD student. Her art and research explores invisible disability and its experiences – such as pain and fatigue – in visual contexts.

JENNIFER VAN RATINGEN
”PLACE (INSPIRED BY STEPHEN SHORE)”

Description: A blonde woman sits on the couch of a vintage-styled room next to a chair and small side table with a lamp on it. She looks as if her image was cut out of a magazine and pasted into the scene. She wears an all-white outfit consisting of a short dress, heels, gloves and pearls. Opposite her in the chair is a checkerboard shape that roughly approximates the mirror image of her figure. The checkerboard pattern is reminiscent of the transparent background in Photoshop.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The digital world has become more intertwined with the physical realms of everyday life. The act of digitally curating images and media reflects the meeting of domestic expectations. I wanted to emphasise this collision of worlds through using recognisable technology like photoshop and translating it onto the traditional medium of painting. The use of Stephen Shore's photography of domestic interiors, references this time of nostalgia for familial spaces, while also highlighting the constructed nature and artifice in these roles.

BIO

I am a 20 year old artist from Hong Kong. I have lived the majority of my life moving around South East Asia, as a result, my artwork is often inspired by the complexities and commonalities found in domestic interiors. I often utilise nostalgia and familiarity by including asian iconography in my works.

Description: Three raw clay vases of contrasting shapes and heights. Two of the pieces are places on top of intricately detailed blue and white plates. The third is balanced on top of an upside-down bowl that is decorated with patterns and Chinese characters in red, yellow and blue. On the side of each of the vessels is raised writing in Indonesian, Chinese and English. The English reads "What happened?". 

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work explores the Indonesian mass killings of 1965 that targeted ethnic Chinese, communist sympathisers, Gerwani women and other ethnic minorities. The tension between the deep trauma and the current discourse around the event is examined through the seemingly innocent questions and answers written in Indonesian, english and Chinese in the clay vessels. Ultimately, this work aims to display how language is used in the uncovering of cultural trauma.

FRANCESCA EDWARDS RENTSCH
”CAPITAL”

Description: 12 coins in a variety of metals have been pounded on an anvil to flatten them and distort their round edges. Each coin is painted with a different body part in earthy tones. Examples include a skull, a tooth, a pelvic bone, a pregnant torso and the anatomic cross-section of an eye.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Capital is a series of 12.

Capital explores the commodification of human flesh. Coins, pounded on an anvil, are inscribed with body parts beneath the sterile lens of a magnifying glass. Traded as capital, flesh becomes currency.

BIO

I am a writer and artist most interested in moments that shimmer: when incomprehensible cogs and gears click into place and for a second, the world is terribly perfect.

KRISTEN RHODES-HASLER
”THE OTHER EXHIBITION”

Long rectangles of transparent paper are hung from the ceiling at various angles. On the papers are black and white photographs of various angles, shadows and shards of light. The viewer is invited to walk through the work to experience the papers surrounding them, and to see the work from different aspects as it interacts with the light.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The Other Exhibition highlights the underbelly of the museum space; the shadows that are created by the display walls and cabinets. It captures the other exhibition which the museum presents, but is never noticed. The large expanse of darkness engulfs the space of the tracing paper, and within it the ‘other’ can be sensed. The shadows themselves embody the ‘other,’ however, conflictingly, express a sense of temporality, ephemerality, and possibility.

BIO

Kristen Rhodes-Hasler is a New Zealand artist working across media. She is currently focusing on photography, particularly alternative film processes, as well as textiles and ceramics.

YINFENG SHEN
”THE SILK ROAD 2020”

Description: Two circular forms rest on a bed of rock. Their shape resembles swirling ribbons. One of the pieces is formed in bronze and is more than double the size of the other, which is formed in silver.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Inspired by the Flying Apsaras in the Dunhuang Grotto, Yinfeng focuses on the communication with the materials in the process of transforming conceptual intent into physical practice with a major technical emphasis on the dimensions and expressions.

The Ancient Silk Road was a network of trade routes which connected the East and West, and was central to the economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between these regions from the 2nd century BCE to the 18th century. It has played a significant role in the development of the civilizations and opened long-distance political and economic relations between the civilizations. In addition to major economic trade, the Silk Road was a route for cultural trade among the civilizations along its network. However, the modern version of the Silk Road- One Belt One Road Initiative has been viewed more critically. Due to geopolitical tension between the nations, the modern Silk Road has even been viewed as a weapon of neocolonialism.

BIO

‘Chinese art benefits more in the long run by implementing a clear stamp of ‘Chineseness’, focused on creating contemporary art that carries forward the tradition of Chinese art and Chinese cultural values.’ (‘Globalization and Chinese Contemporary Art: West to East, East to West’, 2017)

Yinfeng has been exploring the contemporary expression of Chinese culture in his art while embedding the traditional elements as part of it. During his time at Sydney College of the Arts, he have explored this integrated “Chineseness” in photography, area of bodyworks and jewellery and silversmithing.

OLGA SVYATOVA
”I LOVE YOU. I STILL LOVE YOU”

Definition: A rectangle of calico fabric with frayed edges. Messages are embroidered across it in black thread. Some examples of these messages include " Remember that we used to love each other", "Sweet muffin in my bed" and "Would you like me to ease your loneliness?"

ARTIST STATEMENT

I love you. I still love you is a collection of the text messages which artists received from their lovers during the duration of the year. By looking and hearing the love stories of others, we usually experience the immediate capacity to recall and relate to these universal sentimental details of love. It reflects on the fact that no matter how unique and profound our experience is, it also can be common, shared, generic, repetitive, and even banal.

BIO

Olga Svyatova is an interdisciplinary artist whose work deconstructs and examines themes of personal and collective memory, identity, intimacy, and interconnectivity. Working across photography, printmaking, and sculpture, the artist compels viewers to reflect on the connections that sustain our everyday lives. Born and raised in Russia, and now based in Gadigal Country (Sydney), Svyatova's experience of cultural, geographic, and personal relocation drives their unique and immersive practice. Syvatova is completing their Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney.

PEGGY TANG
”THE LITTLE BLISS ON HAND”

Description: Six small flower arrangements made with ribbon flowers of various varieties and colours. Four of the works are created in a small wicker basket containing translucent beads. The other two works are in glass vases filled with beads.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The Little Bliss on Hand is a collection of handcrafted Japanese flower arrangement miniatures. This collection experimented with a crossover of two Japanese art forms. Handcrafted miniature flowers are arranged with traditional ikebana aesthetics to show how nature’s beauty can be presented in small spaces.

BIO

Peggy Tang is an artist practising Ribbon Art Flower and Ikebana (traditional Japanese art of flower arrangement) and a PhD Student in Computer Science.

CHARLENE TINK
”THE FINAL PLEA”

Description: A blue female form emerges out of rough brushstrokes of green, mustard and maroon. Her brown hair floats around her face as if underwater. Her chest and hands are pressed against the glass and she wears a solemn expression. Three fish, line-drawn in white, swim around her and black holes pierce the centre of her chest and palms. The piece is made up of paintings on different layers of glass laid on top of one another.

ARTIST STATEMENT

One of the hardest things to do is to communicate your hardships to people. Some, simply choose to ignore or silence you. This artwork gives me a voice. If the viewer chooses to give enough attention, you’ll see some details illustrating meanings of anxiety, depression, self-harm, entrapment and suicide. Every single element in the piece was carefully chosen to symbolise a message. The viewer has a chance to look for it, or not. To those who care not to see the signs, it’s just a pretty painting.

BIO

I’m a 19yr old woman that grew up in a small rural town called Manjimup in Western Australia. I have been through lots of traumatic events that influences the artistic choices I make till this day.

GREGORY UZELAC
”STEAMBOAT WILLIE”

Description: A flurry of lines intersect across the work. Some of the shapes created are filled in in black and varying tones of grey. From the chaos emerges a menacingly grinning Mickey Mouse.

ARTIST STATEMENT

In 1928 Walt Disney debuted Mickey Mouse in ‘Steamboat Willie.’ The beloved character has consequently driven Disney’s multi-billion dollar corporate empire. The collective appreciation of the iconic mouse today exemplifies the accomplishment of Disney’s true goal: the monopolisation of nostalgia and culture and the total monetisation of joy.

BIO

Gregory Uzelac is multi-disciplinary artist from New York. His MFA Research at Sydney University investigates narrative and myth as answers to digital-age tribalism.

SOPHIE XIAO YUE ZHOU
”HOME”

ARTIST STATEMENT

I’ve spent a lot of my time living in online games. I even got married on one. When creating home, I was thinking about how games have created an online home for a lot of my childhood. Whenever I look back, I feel grateful, yet sad.

BIO

Sophie is studying to become a high school teacher. She likes incorporating experimental sounds and poetry into animation. Feel free to follow her Instagram @bowlcut_senpai for more.