Welcome to the Ascham 2024 HSC Bodies of Work catalogue. We are proud to present the work of our 30 talented Visual Arts students, featuring an array of drawing, painting, printmaking, photomedia, graphic design, and other collections. Each piece exemplifies the collaborative relationship between student and teacher, a result of many months of creativity, determination, and hard work.
My sincere thanks go to the Visual Arts department, especially Vanessa Bellemore, Vanessa Chalmers, and Steve Lowther, for their tireless efforts in teaching Year 12. I also extend my gratitude to Andrew Mallon for his excellent work in putting this catalogue together.
Finally, I wish our students every success in the upcoming months and eagerly await NESA’s announcement in early December, hoping to see our work featured in ARTEXPRESS 2025.
Jeff Morabito | Head of Visual Arts/Design & Technology
My body of work explores how women intertwine with nature. The flora and fauna motifs symbolically explore the cyclical and spiritual energy of women. Women nurture life and create connections between the natural and human world; a role celebrated in my work.
One in six native Australian bird species are threatened with extinction. My body of work aims to highlight the beauty of the birds in their natural habitat, juxtaposed with collage weavings that portray the causes of their endangerment. Birds are often viewed solely for their aesthetic value; my work aims to challenge the audience to question their role in the degradation of Australian ecosystems and the decline of these native species.
My body of work explores the emotional world of young women. Each portrait captures the subjects’ aura and reflects their personality through colours. This vibrant exploration delves into the emotions that make each of us distinctly human and simultaneously connect us all.
During my time at Lamington National Park, I learnt that the establishment of National Parks as a concept was primarily for artists’ inspiration, to record the beauty they found and convey it to the public. This concept of preservation of the natural world being fundamentally in human interest, rather than purely for environmental benefit, is relevant with the current climate crisis we are facing.
In my artwork, shipwrecks serve as a powerful metaphor for the destructive force of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The imagery of sunken ships reflects the inevitable outcomes of human laziness and neglect. Through these visual narratives, I encourage viewers to contemplate the vulnerability of our ethical standards and the possible hazards of unchecked AI advancement.
My body of work strives to celebrate the profound poetry that exists within the curvatures of the body, alongside abstracted depictions, inviting the audience to decide what is being presented. With the interaction of light and dark, the boundless diversity of our experiences, emotions and identities can be revealed. Each figure portrayed encapsulates a unique story of the human experience, capturing the profound essence of vulnerability, strength and peace.
My body of work celebrates the relationship between the changing Australian wool industry and longstanding agricultural practices. Weathered farm buildings meld with the landscape; they are purpose built for hard work and are still standing hundreds of years later. When the sheds are being utilised, they are buzzing with shearers and their sheep. When these things are absent, the echoes of the people that once worked there still fill their walls.
My series of drawings explores our perception of the past, and the lasting impression various places can have on us. Nostalgia is a very powerful feeling and is provoked through means that are very specific to each individual. Each of these drawings is accompanied by a particular memory or emotion shaped by my experiences of that place, awakening my own personal sense of nostalgia.
My body of work explores the intricate emotions and memories that accompany the multifaceted journey of relocation. As once familiar landmarks dissolved into abstraction, I was surrounded by new realties – these experiences essentially moulding the very essence of my identity today.
My body of work features a series of etchings portraying the three bays of the Lower Western Foreshore of Pittwater. Through a careful and detailed approach, I have created images of Elvina Bay, Lovett Bay and Morning Bay. These works aim to abstractly reflect the ambience and emotional landscape of this remarkable area, offering a visual exploration of its unique charm and tranquillity.
After eons of being instructed that femininity is a performance, we have seized the script and enraptured the audience. Fatales is a daring, boldly camp indulgence in the reclamation of the feminine ideal, borrowing from the provocative pseudo-film stills of Cindy Sherman and the splashy, saturated visuals of David LaChapelle to scream, we’re asking for it. Here it is!
My body of work explores how humans and the natural world are still very connected. As a society that has become dependent on technology, our inherent relation to the natural environment is being forgotten. Through finding our similarities with nature, our connection can be revitalised and more deeply explored.
My body of work explores a dark and twisted world where young people have been indoctrinated by technology. Lying in listless states, these young people herald a warning about the perils of surrendering control of your identity. The weeds represent the way technology has become entrenched and grown uncontrollably, staking a claim in our world.
My body of work explores the fragility of life and the beauty found in its decomposition. Nature offers us an abundance of forms, all unique and in their own way beautiful, yet all will succumb to the same inevitable fate. It is here that we find an unexpected beauty in nature’s decay.
In my body of work a documentary unfolds, capturing my 97-year-old Pop’s memories of his wife, my late grandma, Margaret. The audience is immersed in the raw emotions of laughter and tears, experiencing the stories and heartfelt memories that keep grandma Margaret alive in our collective consciousness.
Click here to watch Margaret.
The female imagination is a profound force for change, allowing women to transcend their societal strictures. Imagination allows women to escape to worlds of their own making beyond the restrictions of the male gaze. In these imaginative spaces, women can manifest visions for themselves that can be embodied and lived out in their lives.
My body of work delves into the overlooked beauty of ephemera that exists within our fast-paced society. Inspired by Buddhist sand mandalas, my photographs embody the impermanence of existence. By exploring the collective aesthetic impact of everyday objects, I have created a self-portrait of my systematic approach to navigating life’s chaos.
My body of work examines the challenges young people face navigating the modern world, and their fundamentally digital existence. In the face of rapidly evolving technology, such as the emergence of increasingly addictive algorithms as well as artificial intelligence, my intent is to critique the pervasive influence of our digital dependencies on the contemporary human experience.
Influenced heavily by John Wolseley’s art, my body of work aims to ‘rewild’ the Balmain peninsular, drawing from the Bays West redevelopment program, to revitalise the natural wildlife in a whimsical reconstruction of sea life and native fauna. Drawing from real architectural scapes from my childhood and perpetuating a dreamlike, naïve reality, I aimed to explore the beauty of our natural environment and how it serves to catalyse inspiration for the creative mind.
As humans we tend to take advantage of the world around us, not noticing our impacts on the landscapes we see each day, or the animals that call these places home. In my body of work, I aim to create an idyllic snapshot of the diverse landscapes in New Zealand that are close to my family and I, creating an immutable memory, preserving them in time, before our actions modify them forever.
It’s Dark Inside aims to elucidate the hindered internal psyche that consumes and corrupts our being. Our faces act as a shield to mask our intrinsic struggles, concealing the dense thoughts that impede and engross us. Through the layered nature of these portraits, I aim to expose what lies beneath the surface. By deploying portraiture as a documentary tool, I immortalise these individuals at a moment in time that will never reoccur.
Using Surrealism to represent our ever-changing inner worlds, my body of work investigates the fact that there is no permanent state of ‘self’. From the bright moments filled with vitality to our pensive recollection of them, Remembrance considers how we come to terms with the passage of time by reimagining past experiences.
Engrossed in how we look, we tend to neglect the aesthetics of what truly surrounds us. My body of work embraces the undervalued sublimity of contemporary architecture; I not only celebrate its pragmatism, but I aim to also uncover its charm. For the appreciation of this unrecognised grandeur helps us gain perspective of ourselves.
Through my body of work, I am exploring the theme of displacement: displacement of people from the environments that surround them and from each other. Here, I meditate upon the disjunction that exists between the inner world and the tangible outer world.
My body of work explores dark, moody clouds and how they are often associated with impending rain or dark, gloomy storms. Cloud imagery can allude to either positive or negative meanings: the positive symbolism as an example of presence and fertility and the negative symbolism as notions of absence and threat.
Across countless generations, my family has nurtured our ancestral farmstead in Narromine, NSW. These etchings capture poignant closeup snapshots of cherished architectural landmarks, each carrying a profound reminder of our rich agricultural history – etched deep within my consciousness, embodying my family’s enduring legacy.
My body of work explores the notion of the ‘loneliness epidemic’, a result of the rapid social change precipitated by COVID-19 restrictions, as well as the increased societal dependence on social media as the primary means of communication. My work emphasises the idea that although those residing in bustling metropolitan areas like that of New York City are surrounded by a mass populace, they still can find themselves isolated.
My body of work represents the encompassing pressure and isolation of contemporary life, coupled with rising expectations. Muted colours meet messy strokes that represent the repressed struggle of a single subject in a large world.
After years of fervidly creating art, the weight of producing an artwork is overwhelming. My body of work is a series of inflection points from my creative journey, represented through a lense of bittersweet nostalgia.
Both censored and connected through interlinking drapery, women whose faces are covered by animal skulls aid each other in carrying and upholding one another’s modesty. From tree branches to a beseeching Mary, there is no foreseeable end to this chain.
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