ARTEXPRESS 2025 – Student interviews

Concrete Bubble examines the monotonous cycle of urban life that we live and move within. My intention in my body of work was to challenge the modern world’s glorification of constant productivity, inviting the audience to recognise the repetitive nature of their own lives. Familiar Sydney transport vehicles are represented in the globes to reinforce this concept; the arrow-shaped street sign motif conveys the one-way journey individuals undertake in their daily lives. The concrete greys of the Sydney metropolis are drenched in blues and punctuated by the ever-present safety yellow, confronting the audience with its familiar presence.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Trent Parke, Daisuke Samejima, Magí Puig.

Lost Fowls responds to the loss of biodiversity due to human hunting and the encroachment of invasive species by examining extinct bird species from different countries around the globe. The main intention of my body of work was to communicate the absence of these animals by representing them in a lifelike manner. My work was inspired by three artists: Albert Bierstadt’s use of landscaping and scenery; George Edward Lodge's detailed bird paintings that convey a high level of realism; Ustad Mansur’s painting of the famous dodo bird from Mauritius, done with precision and authenticity.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: George Edward Lodge, Albert Bierstadt, Ustad Mansur.

My body of work examines the pervasive disconnect between humanity and nature that underscores our digital age. Through my work’s digital medium I have represented a glitch that seems to sweep away the landscape to reveal the underlying hex code. My work subverts the Romantic traditions of Australian landscape painting, conveying the inescapable presence of technology as it infiltrates even a medium inherently opposed to it. By juxtaposing the appearance of traditional texture and brushwork in the painting with digital distortion algorithms, such as pixel sorting, which fragment and dissolve this natural landscape, I communicate our disintegrating connection with nature.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: John Glover, Arthur Streeton, Albert Bierstadt, Dmitry Belyukin, Craig Mullins, John Park, Yury Vasendin.

Art is a creative expression which can be enjoyed by anyone, but many people search too hard for hidden concepts and meanings. My body of work uses satire to examine how art is viewed, referencing artworks from a range of time periods. My intention in using a cartoon-style animation was for the light-hearted, humorous tone to establish a middle ground where the different styles of artwork could come together without appearing out of place. The two main characters convey typical reactions of the average person and the art fan, with the live artworks representing those who insist everything has meaning.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mark Rothko, Shirazeh Houshiary, Jackson Pollock, Maurizio Cattelan.

My body of work examines the ambience and ephemerality of urban life. Individuals blend into the city’s flow, slipping in and out of memory like brief flashes caught on a surveillance camera. In public spaces, vehicles become transient capsules of mass transit and industrial ritual. As if through the lens of the camera, which sees, records, deletes and forgets, I represent the mechanised, emotionless lives within the metropolis. Fragments of light framed within liminal spaces convey the detached, fleeting nature of existence in the urban landscape.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Edward Hopper, Fan Ho, Ben McLaughlin, drezzdon.

Using repetitive circular motifs as the basis for my designs, I experimented with multiple plate and shaped-block processes in my body of work to investigate landscape and the mapping of its physical and geographic features. The work can be understood as an aerial view of place, where individual panels are micro or macroscopic representations of features within: undulating lines like fingerprints; concentric circles like the contour lines that show elevation in mapping; intricate designs like microscopic cellular structures. My title, Finding My Place, conveys a connection to my home and also the artistic pursuit of making a body of work.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Nava Lubelski, Karl Blossfeldt, Yayoi Kusama, Bruce Riley, Georgia O’Keeffe, John Olsen.

By investigating the dynamic essence of movement, rhythm and vitality, my body of work communicates the ephemeral beauty of the natural world in a delicate balance between art and nature. My creative process involved mindfulness and meditation. Through my work I invite the audience to observe the intricate details of our environment, with the intention of instilling a new appreciation for the beauty inherent in the everyday and encouraging a deeper engagement with our surroundings. In the selection of objects for my work I elevate simple elements into compositions that convey both dynamism and fragility, representing the serenity in nature.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Andy Goldsworthy, Margel Hinder, Nils-Udo.

My body of work investigates society’s attempts to force conformity on individuals who are seen as different, making them fit ideals of ‘normality’. The work is performed in a desolate place, representing how people are separated from their identity as society pushes normality upon them with ‘brushstrokes of compliance’. The work begins with each coloured figure painting the white figure peacefully, with unified brushstrokes, but as it progresses they start competing for their personal colour to be dominant, fighting for their personal ideals of what they deem 'normal'. The white figure escapes, stating that ‘true beauty lies in diversity’.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Marina Abramovic, Yves Klein, David Bailey Ross, Lucian Freud.

Overgrown with infectious moulds, corrupted by toxic spores, growing with living diseases. One might step back in fear, or is it awe? Repulsed by our disgust, the true and complex beauty of infections is hidden right beneath our eyes. Survival is plausible, but only by clinging to each other: in infectious colonies.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Beate Kuhn, Arlene Shechet, Tony Marsh.