ARTEXPRESS 2026 – Student interviews

My body of work analyses how women disguise their identities, wearing masks to navigate their world and performing in social interactions. These responses arise due to demands to fit in, control their behaviour and hide their genuine feelings. I have used delicate lines to represent vulnerability and individuality, and bold prints for conformity and external pressure. My intention in my work is to challenge the authenticity of behaviours shaped by gender roles and to communicate how external factors influence identity formation. I encourage audiences to think about the complex balance between self-expression and societal acceptance.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Zhang Huan, Family Tree; Barbra Kruger.

My body of work examines Australia’s diverse ecosystems with the intention of evoking wonder and curiosity. The recurring motif of the sphere conveys the distinctiveness and biodiversity of five major Australian landscapes. The spheres also represent a transformation of the flora and fauna into alienlike organisms. Each sphere was drawn freehand, intentionally imperfect, to communicate the organic irregularities of nature. I chose vibrant colour and an illustrative, playful style to encourage audiences to rediscover familiar landscapes with fresh eyes and a childlike sense of curiosity. The key catalogues the 76 native and introduced species referenced in the work.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Guido Maestri, May Gibbs.

Farming has always been central to my family’s life, and my body of work investigates my Granny, her life and her farm, where old car bodies have always sat rusting in the paddocks. Granny is an intelligent, caring, witty and sensible woman. Her commitment to nurturing and persistence inform my practice, where value lies in the physical labour of making – crafting with care, patience and intention in an age of mass production. The animals also represent my family – my Granny’s children. Although my aunts and uncles have families of their own now, my Granny is still central to their lives.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Margaret Dodd; Delyth Jones, Cow, Ram-Sheep, Herd; Denise Romecki; Roy Kennedy, My forgotten Darlington Point.

My body of work investigates a creek system that I have been visiting regularly for the past six years. Each time I visit I feel its changing rhythms and patterns. These layered memories inspired me to represent experiences beyond the physical: the joy taken in actively observing and exploring nature over time. My work integrates a mixed selection of techniques, including printmaking from collected plant specimens that surround this area, detailed pencil drawings, and layered acrylic paint and ink. My intention is for the audience to become immersed in both the details and unity of this special landscape.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: John Wolseley, Joshua Yeldham, Ben Waters, Rene Sundown, Allery Sandy, Muna Kulyuru, Thom Muir, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Christopher Hodges, Makoto Aida, artists of the Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters exhibition.

My body of work is inspired by my grandparents and the objects they have collected over their lives. I was drawn to their collections – treasures of the past full of stories, hidden objects tucked away in drawers and boxes: carved coconut shells, bronze samurai figures, bones, tools, old photographs. To my grandparents these possessions feel both precious and, as time has passed, burdensome. To me these unusual objects reveal an unseen inner world. My work represents this complexity, each engraved line and repeated print conveying how stories and objects accumulate over time.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Grant Wood, American Gothic; Lucy Culliton, Home exhibition; Michael Landy, Break Down; Christopher Zanko; Francis Gearhart; Kit Hiller;Tracey Emin; Hasui Kawase.

As a teenager I see how constant screen use among adolescents fragments reality, so my intention in Signal Lost was to parallel the emotional impact of contemporary isolation through digital addiction with the disorientation of early Australian settlers. In my body of work I combined etched laser-cut phone cases – representing dependence – with monotype printmaking, fragmented compositions and reversed prints of blurred child figures and moody bushland to convey vulnerability and loss. My work recontextualises national imagery to critique modern disconnection, encouraging the audience to reflect on our digital habits and to reconnect with nature.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Fredrick McCubbin, The Lost Child; Lloyd Rees, Spring at Lane Cove, Aden; Arthur Streeton, Butterflies and Blossoms, Windy and Wet, Evening Game, Still glides the stream, and shall for ever glide; Tom Roberts, Fog, Thames Embankment, Evening Train to Hawthorn; Charles Conder, Dandenongs from Heidelberg; Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise; JMW Turner, Moonlight on Lake Lucerne with the Rigi in the Distance; Pablo Picasso; Philip Wolfhagen, A Painter’s Landscape X; HEGO, Zeitgeist; Natalie Anderson, Antipodean Winter; Richard Claremont; Julian Meagher.

The Making of an Honest Self-Portrait is dedicated to the deity Fate. My intention in my body of work was to examine the small part which I represent of Fate’s universe-encompassing artwork and to convey how every human is meticulously forged by the people, objects and experiences Fate brings into their lives. I encourage the audience to use my work to reflect on how Fate has crafted each of them and to seek the ultimate purpose of their life in playing out Fate’s great work.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Relation in Space; Salvador Dali, Soft Self Portrait with Grilled Bacon; Jessica O’Donnell, Biomorphic; Fritz Lang (dir.), Thea von Harbou (writer), Metropolis; FW Murnau (dir.), Henrik Galeen (writer), Nosferatu; Robert Wiene (dir.), Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer (writers), The Cabinet of Dr Caligari; Benjamin Christensen (dir. and writer), Häxan; Cooper Tafe, Fragmented Self [ARTEXPRESS 2023].

My body of work conveys the restorative power of nature that I experience at my family’s property in Capertee. It examines moments of pause in the natural world, with the intention of forming a visual journal of presence, landscape and tranquility in the countryside. The recurring motif of the tent window represents a threshold between inner contemplation and the vastness of the landscape, inviting the audience to pause and reflect.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Cressida Campbell, Tom Carment, Ashley Frost.