Being chosen for ArtExpress was pretty surreal. I went back to school after my exams to pick up my body of work only to find that it had taken an extended vacation. Being nominated was definitely very exciting but in no way had I expected to make it through to the final selection. I was overseas when I found out that I made it into the AGNSW as well as the Port Macquarie regional gallery later this year and for a couple of days following that I kind of thought I'd just imagined it. For me, being selected was a huge achievement and a big deal - visual arts was my best subject and it's a world I want to continue to explore.
I chose the method of printmaking for my body of work and it was quite an adventure coming up with the final product. I found printmaking to be a very experimental medium to work with and at times extremely challenging. You need to have the right amount of ink for the print to look good and the registration involved in making sure the print isnt crooked can be very frustrating! Every print turns out different and I quickly learnt not to get fixated on a certain image because the final product never turned out how I would have imagined. Because printmaking is such an experimental medium, I really had no idea what my body of work was going to look like in the end. So with that in mind, I didn't really "plan" what I was going to do, it just happened. That is probably the best advice I can offer a current HSC visual arts student - just go with the flow. Choose to go a direction that seems to be working and the beautiful work will flourish. My work doesn't really have a particular order, although I'm anxious to find out whether they included the entire body of work. I submitted 8 pieces all together, some of which are fairly large. The work also includes a triptych so I'm hoping the AGNSW gets it in the right order! Apart from that, I dont have a particular preference for how it's displayed. I'm excited to see what they've done with it. I am however a little nervous to see what the audience think of it, primarily because my prints are so abstract but I'm also keen to see and hear the different responses to it because aside from offering criticism, outside opinions can teach and enlighten you about aspects of your work you weren't aware of. Thus the work in a sense, continues to evolve.
For the past 4 years I have seen the art express exhibitions at the AGNSW and every year I left dumbstruck; so you can see why the experience of being selected for such an exhibition was indeed surreal. The quality of work at previous AGNSW exhibitions is so outstanding and I often felt intimidated by the level of excellence. I don't see my work in the same light, possibly because I had to look at it for nine months and by the time I submitted it I was sick of looking at it. I didn't aspire to get into art express, my goal was to get a band 6 in Visual Arts. Art Express is the cherry on top. The response from my school was great. I got a personal phone call from the principal, so I felt pretty special that day. My teacher of course, was thrilled because he knew how much time I devoted to getting it finished and he was really supportive. My parents and my friends were also ecstatic because they know how much I love art and how gruelling at times the process was.
The title of my work is "De Sanguinis (Of Blood)". The work first developed while I was on holiday in Fiji with my family on a remote island we visit every year. I had originally intended to base my work on the island because it has a special connection to me. However, the work soon developed other concepts and in the end meant so much more than simply a personal tribute to an island. While I was on holiday I did A LOT of drawing and took lots of photographs of plants, birds, shells, water, clouds, fish and coral. I originally thought my work would incorporate the different aspects of the island's natural landscape but when I got down to printing and experimenting with images, I found that the images of coral were working really well and made fantastic subjects for abstract prints. I tried and tested a lot of different printing methods but took a liking to monoprinting and solar plate etchings. Solar plates are particularly unusual and involve exposing an image onto the light sensitive plate using a UV lamp, producing a very detailed etching. They're similar to silk screen prints as they have a photographic element and pick up a lot of detail. However I steered clear of making my prints look too photographic and focussed on a more impressionistic style.
While I was working on my prints, I noticed that the images of coral appeared otherwordly and could easily be mistaken for something as minute as cellular structures in the body or something as vast as a celestial body in space. This was when my work began to evolve to become something more than a documentation of my teenage holidays in the Pacific. I suppose the conceptual aspect of my work explores the strangely similar patterns woven through the natural world that act as a universal blueprint linking all natural matter together; like a web or a jigsaw puzzle. De Sanguinis (Of Blood) essentially expresses my facination with the complexities of the natural universe. I think I was heavily influenced by my simultaneous study of Romanticism in year 12 as well as American abstract artist Ross Bleckner whose paintings consist of microscopic subjects such as red blood cells and viruses and diseases such as AIDS and cancer. While Bleckner's conceptual practice is in no way linked to mine, his interest in microscopic subject matter and his technical skill has certainly impinged on my own artmaking.
Throughout 2008, I didnt get many opportunities to expose myself to the world of contemporary art - I can thank the Board of Studies for depriving me of such a necessity! However I have certainly enjoyed my experience of contemporary art so far. A particular highlight for me was the 2008 Bienalle at Cockatoo Island. I enjoyed all the works on exhibit in particular Jannis Counellis' large scale installation of sails. It was unbelievably beautiful and reminded me of walking through a sacred space like a cathedral or a temple. I have always expressed an interest in the visual arts - both viewing art and making it. It is certainly an important vehicle of communication that has an incredible strength to change the way we see and understand the world. Art is of particular importance to me because it's my way of expressing ideas. Others write plays, poetry or music as a means of expression; I find understanding and passion in art. This year I hope to drown myself in visual arts and see anything that takes my fancy. I am about to commence a Bachelor of Visual Arts at SCA (Sydney Uni) and am thoroughly looking forward to it!
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