2022 “USU CREATIVE AWARDS”
CURATED BY ANNEKA SCHOLTZ
24 OCTOBER-4 NOVEMBER, 2022

Nishta Gupta, 2022, *But white isn’t a race, right? And other one-line jokes*, Photographs on paper, found object, text, (6) 200 x 254 mm, (6) 127 x 204 mm. Image courtesy of the artist.

Open to all students of the University of Sydney (USyd), the USU Creative Awards is an amazing opportunity to showcase artistic works to peers, industry professionals and the local community at the USU’s contemporary art space, Verge Gallery.

The Creative Awards are divided into the categories Art, Music and Word with each category awarding the following prize amounts:

1st Prize $750
2nd Prize $350
People’s Choice $100

Winners of the ART, MUSIC and WORD categories

ART
First prize - Lauranne Leunis, Metamorphosis.
Second prize - Raymond Huynh Family Portrait (Huynhware).
Judges honourable mention - Lukas Kalos, Untitled (watching how all this plays out) (the crescendo skips a beat, my heart, its only true understudy, plays the note all too long, but I know you liked it like that, the acoustics are great in here) ((I was) thinking ‘bout you (that was) before there was you, (I promise) I only have eyes for you, (don’t tell me that! There’s no way!) am I losing you for good (?, but now) you’re near me (, but at least right now anyway,) your mine) (lovers interlude)'.
People’s Choice - Nishta Gupta, But white isn’t a race, right? And other one-line jokes.

MUSIC
First prize - I Can't Sing by Chiara Kovac.
Second prize - Wheel of Discovery by Gian Santoro.
People’s choice - it'll get better by ALEKS MATIC.

WORD
First prize - Island by Aimee Cass.
Second prize - Articulate by Alexandra Sharps.
People’s choice - a dream of destiny (dress) by Aksharaa Agarwal.

CURATORIAL STATEMENT
BY ANNEKA SCHOLTZ

Presented with the task of curating the USU Creative Awards exhibition, I have found myself repeatedly butting up against the same question: how can one possibly distil an exhibition of this kind into one central curatorial concept? Considering the exhibition in its many forms – a prize, a platform, a showcase – this task becomes as elusive and varied as the work of the artists, writers, and musicians involved. Instead, in thinking about the exhibition as a convergence of many diverse lines of enquiry, I have come to consider the project as a kind of assemblage.

*USU Creative Awards*, 2022, installation view, dimensions variable. Photography by Jessica Maurer.

In its basic function, the word assemblage denotes “a collection or gathering of things or people”. Assemblage art in the early to mid-twentieth century took to combining disparate elements, generally everyday objects, in new and unexpected ways. Alternatively, a philosophical understanding of the word looks at the interdependencies of socio-material structures and systems, viewing society as a complex mosaic of people, ideas, and things.

We (myself, the artists, the viewer) float within this ever-shifting mosaic, or assemblage, of people, ideas, and things, positioned in a series of multiple distinct, yet interconnecting and interdependent ecologies. As students at the University of Sydney, many of whom sit within the smaller internal ecosystem of the Sydney College of the Arts, alongside entirely distinct faculties, we are part of a broader ecology of interdisciplinary student thought and production. We position ourselves within the wider Sydney arts ecology and entangle ourselves within wider networks of social media and digital platforms, occupying varied, and ever-changing, roles within each of these ecologies. Extending from various points within this complex assemblage, the works of these artists thus form a kind of cross-section of interests and issues of salience to young creatives today.

This cross-section is not static or simple. Like the shifting view through a kaleidoscope, as we encounter these distinct works, different ideas come into focus. Exploring themes as diverse as identity, family, mental health, memory, and environmentalism, the concerns of these artists speak to the multiplicities that exist within, and ultimately define, an environment like the university. And yet, in doing so, their works also seem to touch upon key layers of shared experience. Much as assemblage art investigated materiality and the construction of objects, many of the artists in this assemblage also explore self-conscious processes of making and the construction of stories and identities in their work, in ways that resonate with their fellow students in this time of experimentation, learning, and exploration.

Verge Gallery functions as a platform for emerging artists, and crucially, provides University of Sydney students with an important contemporary art space for critical dialogue and response. In considering the significance of the USU Creative Awards, and the place of Verge Gallery within these greater ecologies, I find myself dwelling on the meaning of the gallery’s name, and begin to see the word everywhere in this convergence of artists, their concerns both divergent and convergent.

Principally, I consider what it means to be on the ‘verge’; on the edge, border, or threshold? This year, we find ourselves in a time of emergence, from a time of great difficulty, adjustment, and growth. As students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, we are also at a starting point, teetering on the threshold of our future practice. Holding space for this threshold, Verge marks a border between the university and the art world, between our studies and the world beyond. Standing on this verge, and looking out across the complex mosaic of a landscape beyond, what do these artists, musicians and writers see ahead of them?