Darling Downs South West

Title: Perspectivae Culturales de Morte (cultural perspectives about death)
Medium: Culturally inspired headpiece designs with photographic documentation
School: Fairholme College (Toowoomba)

Artist Statement:
Through contemporary and cultural contexts, this body of work explores the funeral practices of different cultural groups around the world. Though all have different customary rituals, they are all linked by one thing—death, an inevitable part of life that doesn’t belong to any one group. Perspectivae Culturales de Morte forces contemplation of the similarities and differences between how each cultural group views death, allowing the viewer to have a greater appreciation that death is everywhere and experienced by everyone. It is not an ‘ugly’ thing but rather aims to show that there is beauty, even in death, as seen by the flowers and unique customs. Reinforced by the title, death is the thread connecting each individual, culturally inspired contemporary headpieces, beautiful in their own way, honouring life and challenging audience perspectives on how death is valued in society, and how it can have beauty, even in the darkest of moments.

Title: I'm fine, this is fine
Medium: Painting
School: Toowoomba State High School

Artist Statement:
The resolved artwork, I’m fine, this is fine, conveys the juxtaposition of a 17-year-old struggling to present the polished representation of herself through the binary of expectation versus reality. The composition is jarring, as 2 figures are contrasted on a blank white background. The figure on the right has a sombre expression, symbolising the burnout and fatigue that follows the workload of year 12. While the figure on the left displays the expectation to perform and succeed. The transparency evokes a ghostly presence, a façade. Moreover, the digital aspect of the artwork is representative of how media romanticises the teen experience. Due to the uncanniness of the mismatched head to the body, the forced smile and the transparency of the figure, the artwork alludes to a mask that is slipping, causing a separation that even a smile can’t hide.

Title: Arts 橋
Medium: Painting
School: Toowoomba Christian College

Artist Statement:
My painting reflects how different styles of music can impact our perspective, just as different styles of art do via the use of elements including line, shape or colour. Each section of my painting reflects a specific art movement alongside a genre of music. The bottom represents Realism alongside quietness at the base, Impressionism with classical/orchestral music, then Expressionism with soft/alt rock and modern/pop art with contemporary tunes. I was inspired by the work of Studio Ghibli, who make intricate hand-crafted visuals alongside emotional and rich music communicating impassioned storyline. Music and art are languages that do not require words; a language we can internationally voice to communicate or express our stories. My hope is that this artwork supports the understanding of each other and how our words, songs and creations, can have an impact on those around us.

Title: Choose Your Path
Medium: Photography
School: Fairholme College (Toowoomba)

Artist Statement:
Through a contemporary context, Choose Your Path explores the pivotal choices societies face in shaping the future. Through selected film stills taken from a 46-second visually compelling film, 2 distinct perspectives emerge: one dominated by human-made industrial expansion, structured and deliberate; whilst the other embraces the organic, untamed harmony of nature. These contrasting visions reflect the tensions between technology and environmental preservation, inviting viewers to contemplate the consequences of their choices. The juxtaposition of rigid infrastructure against the variability of the natural world highlights the delicate balance between innovation and sustainability. As the film stills reveal, audiences are encouraged to question their own values—whether to prioritise growth through industry or coexist with nature’s rhythms.

Title: Stolen Motherhood
Medium: Photography
School: Harristown State High School

Artist Statement:
Fertility is seen as a precious symbol of womanhood. A woman’s uterus can create new life. My work Stolen Motherhood strives to represent the horrific invasion of body and identity that my own grandmother experienced. The hysterectomy that was performed on her—without her consent—changed her life, and according to my family, she was never the same after. My work appropriates Ai Weiwei’s Dropping the Han Dynasty Urn through its composition, and the shattering of a symbolic and precious item. He shattered a symbol of a lost culture, while I shattered a symbol of my grandmother'​​s stolen fertility. I often centre my works on grandmother’s impactful stories and experiences to educate and humanise the horrors performed on Aboriginal people in the past. This performative work highlights the extreme privacy breach of her body. Dropping a clay baby emphasises this, by shattering the life that could never be.

Title: The Rent is Overdue
Medium: Painting
School: Murgon State High School

Artist Statement:
Emotions are unpredictable. Sometimes we understand the way we are feeling but majority of the time we simply do not understand our emotions. Poor mental health plays a crucial role in most human being’s thoughts, whether it be anxiety, depression or stress. The tactile nature of the work expresses the almost invisible but very painful feelings one experiences as they wrestle for control. Gravity of the Mind reflects the effects of mental health; and how the struggles can feel like an all-consuming force, pulling everything inward like a blackhole. The turbulent background represents the thoughts and experiences that contribute to our psychological wellbeing.

Title: Sinfully Sweet
Medium: Sculpture
School: Goondiwindi State High School

Artist Statement:
Sinfully Sweet explores corruption and extortion, within the chocolate industry, exposing the ironic contrast between consumer image and concealed exploitation. An obscured window operates as a metaphor for the divide between Western consumers and West African cocoa plantations. Whitewash frosting and vinyl lettering reference the polished, luxurious branding of chocolate, while also appropriating the refined façades of historical chocolate shops. In stark duality, the reverse reveals layered mud that metaphorically evokes both the harsh living conditions of child labourers and the systemic barriers that entrap them. The continual layering of mud symbolises ongoing struggles endured across time. Finger gouges etched into the mud suggest a desperate climb toward the sole point of transparency, a fragile peephole of recognition. Yet from the consumer’s side, this opening remains accessible yet often overlooked, obscured by the hypocrisy of sinfully sweet marketing.

Title: Omnia ad Initium Redeunt (Everything Returns to the Beginning)
Medium: Gouache and acrylic paint on oversized wooden dominoes and 3D printed figure
School: Fairholme College (Toowoomba)​

Artist Statement:
The planet we inhabit is so vastly complicated beyond our understanding. In the study of the sciences, the more we learn, the more we realise the profound extent of our ignorance. Omnia ad Initium Redeunt explores the concept of the world’s unknown, unseen and concealed intricacies. Presented through a contemporary context, this installation seeks to draw viewers’ attention to the vast interconnections of Earth’s ecosystems, by highlighting how small actions can compound to wage major consequences through a visual paradigm, especially when these connections are not fully understood. The Latin title is an ironic reflection of biological species nomenclature and directly translates to ‘everything returns to the beginning’. Be it bad stewardship of the environment, or the debate of God’s existence, this academic motif provokes audience consideration of how such awesome, intelligent and complex design could be mere chance; or asks is this an indication of something much more?

Title: Itch
Medium: Installation
School: Downlands College (Toowoomba)

Artist Statement:
Can you imagine this: a presence writhing beneath the surface, crawling skin, pure fixation. Something moving under the scaffold, behind the wall, a poetry that lingers nearby, horrendous and horrific. A contagious obsession, an infestation, a tumour in the back of the brain. My disease is an orange insect. In one hand, the wonder of its contagion. In the other, the price of good sense. The aim of this work is to achieve subjective universality, a divine plan. To see your own fingerprint on the surface of the world, to watch it burn, to hear the wheel turning: the only cure becomes burial. It is a force, a ceaseless buzzing noise, a 5,000-year silence. It is music, a living thing. It is a substance, a religion. It is a circle. It is 4 dimensions. It is the anticipation of Everything. How long are you prepared to wait?

Title: Vanitas
Medium: Painting
School: Toowoomba Christian College

Artist Statement:
Encouraged by Vanitas tradition, my still life represents the tension between life and death, where emptiness (vanity in Latin) can rob us of the moment. I have appropriated codes and symbols often utilised in Vanitas such as a skull representing mortality, the beauty of the Greek statue, the melting candle already burnt signifying time passed, and the closed books filled with unknown stories representing the future. The blue bracelet with the butterfly, represents a rich, joyful moment when I was 15, wearing the bracelet at a friend’s place. I was so sad to leave the constant joy of being around my friends, and return to a quiet house, surrounded by only my thoughts that I lost some of my happiness when faced with an empty room.

Title: Modern Jukurrpa (Dreamtime)
Medium: Drawing
School: Toowoomba State High School

Artist Statement:
Modern Jukurrpa (Dreamtime) is a satirical piece critiquing ongoing injustices experienced by Indigenous people in contemporary Australia. Spanning from 2007 to present day, the artwork blends political commentary with personal and cultural narratives to highlight systemic racism, tokenism and historical erasure which continues to affect our communities. Rendered in an expressionistic pen style, the work features figures like Kevin Rudd, Pauline Hanson, Peter Dutton and Lidia Thorpe, representing the spectrum of political influence on Indigenous rights. The scene of an Indigenous man outside Coles satirises the corporatisation of culture, followed by a white man blowing smoke into his face, a critique of superficial appropriations of cultural customs. A teacher delivering false history reflects the distortion of truth in education. Its long, partially unrolled form symbolises Indigenous history as ongoing and unresolved, inviting audiences to walk alongside a timeline of satire, misrepresentation and reflect on truth-telling, culture commodification and history.