Metropolitan North

Title: In Exile
Medium: Print, photography, digital manipulation
School: St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School

Artist Statement:
The term 'exile' carries connotations of transgression and wrongdoing; however, in In Exile, it underscores the treatment of women and girls in Gaza who are forcefully displaced from their homes and persistently endure a spectrum of sexual violence, shaped by entrenched discriminatory social norms, beliefs, and the enduring impact of the Israeli occupation. Inspired by their narratives of resilience and perseverance, In Exile employs a mixed-media approach that merges cultural and contemporary techniques. This composition combines ink-pressed feminine artifacts, clothing items, and intimate symbols into traditional mosaic squares that fill the contours of the country’s border alongside a triptych of Palestinian women. In Exile draws upon the perspective privileged by the Western world to illuminate the urgent disparities in Gaza that demand immediate attention and aid.

Title: Burning Man
Medium: Installation
School: St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School

Artist Statement:
Escapism is inextricable to the fundamentality of human nature, and that remains true to approximately 19.8% of young Australians that regularly abuse cigarettes and vapes for the purpose of the momentary neurological escape nicotine provides. Therefore, where escapism through objectively harmful vices is possible a proliferation of what is detrimental to the human body occurs. My mixed media installation aims to confront audience's concepts of mortality in respect to the bodily degradation that is incurred with sustained smoking. The ephemerality of the work perceived through digital projection conveys the impermanence and fragility of mortality and that which is ‘natural’ burning away to reveal a crude and brutalist skeleton as the only tangible proof of mortal existence. The mixed media and digital components are contemporary, alternative, and dynamic in a nature that captures audience attention, where depth and texture are concerned to ultimately engage in a visual discourse with the social comment.

Title: All Bodies, Just One Body
Medium: Installation of video projection and wearable textiles on mannequin
School: Queensland Academy of Creative Industries

Artist Statement:
All Bodies, Just One Body explores how memories and emotions are stored within the body, impacting our subconscious, and resulting in our expressions of movement and physiology. The performance highlights through dance movement and costume, the dichotomy between internal and external constructions of identity. The wearables were constructed to assert the characters, with intricate bead work signifying interconnection and tension. The balaclavas hide the face, creating a disconnect between perceived and internal identities. The light pastel beading connotes an innocence, representing childlike experiences of honesty showcasing what we project to the outer world compared to our felt inner experiences. The performance captured through video explores the interaction of 2 bodies, with one carrying the movement, passing it on in the next interaction and so forth, denoting an enduring exchange of experiences and memories. This emphasises the interconnected nature of humanity, comprised of memories, echoing from our past to our present.

Title: Gold Plated Consumption
Medium: Sculpture
School: Sandgate District State High School

Artist Statement:
Overconsumption plagues our society, with constant new materials, trends and media engulfing us in a never-ending sea of materialism and waste. The normalisation of overconsumption has distracted us from the importance of human connection, as people choose frail plastic “joy” over the necessity of interaction. This has forced us to disregard the beauty of the mundane and undermine the stories that weave together society. Gold Plated Consumption uses symbolism to convey contemporary themes that demonstrate how overconsumption is rotting our souls, as we begin replacing our humanity with material objects. We blatantly ignore the trail of death created as we mass-consume and discard objects, accumulating this waste into an inevitable acceleration of global warming and destroyed ecosystems. As a society we are ripping away the rich history and community that has been built up over Millenia, and instead enshrining and glorifying the constant prevalence of waste that we have created.

Title: Catalyst
Medium: Installation
School: Brigidine College

Artist Statement:
Trauma functions as a potent catalyst for profound psychological metamorphosis. Art, in this connection, serves as a powerful tool for healing. It provides a space for individuals to confront and process their grievances, offering a path toward catharsis. Exploiting contemporary contexts, my work is not only a reflection of trauma but an active engagement with it, transforming the raw emotions into something that can be observed, contemplated, and ultimately, transcended. Catalyst explores a personal memory of events through confronting visual imagery. Manipulating the familiar, my work portrays a solemn scene of my younger sister lying upon a patterned rug seemingly within a room. Audiences view the scene as if in my past position—an onlooker—flooded with parallel emotions. Her environment is simple, yet teeming with symbolism through cultural Delft-blue motifs, and meaningful contrasts. Catalyst's installation positions audiences within the event, driving a subconscious search for answers within viewers.

Title: Pollution
Medium: Sculpture
School: St Paul’s School

Artist Statement:
Are you aware of what is happening around us? Are you aware of what’s happening to our surroundings? Pollution explores the idea that what people see might not be true. In this miniature world, the light and airy wire shapes symbolise air pollution. Their beauty and fragility masks their threat to our survival, represented by their shadows, looming over us. The figures watch with wonder. What are these things? Did we create these?

Title: Minimised Majesties
Medium: Sculpture
School: St Peters Lutheran College

Artist Statement:
Minimised Majesties delves into an alternate approach of the contextualised interconnectedness between humans and nature. The work highlights a theme of belittling animal significance by contrasting the natural grandeur of wildlife with artificial, demeaning elements. Gummy snakes and bears created from moulded and cast resin, objects represent a majestic animal form that is overshadowed by superficial, confectionary-like decorations. The stark contrast between the grandiose mixed-media frame featuring natural animal prints/furs and the synthetic animal forms, illustrates how society often reduces the inherent value and majesty of animals to mere trivialities. The vibrant colours and detailed textures symbolise the shift from genuine respect to a superficial, exploitative view of wildlife. Through this work, I aim to provoke a deeper reflection on the diminished recognition of the animal kingdom’s true worth and inspire a renewed appreciation for their profound roles in our world.

Title: Let all that you do be done in love
Medium: Painting
School: Everton Park State High School

Artist Statement:
Boys turned to men as their childhood is stripped away. The grievances of the people remain overlooked. Why do you ignore it? Is it because of your beliefs? Because you look up to them? Nevertheless, you turn a blind eye to the truth, the exploitation. These are the people you Idolise. Yes, power does impact consent. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Title: Ripples
Medium: Sculpture
School: Mt St Michael’s College

Artist Statement:
What do you picture when you think of sharks? Do you view them as dangerous, or crucial to our marine ecosystems? Ripples explores the complex duality of sharks: the charged emotion that humans often feel about sharks together with the underlying reality of the keystone species that support the global ecosystem. Through a formal context, I use pattern, symmetry, and contrast to create visual harmony, together with circular symbols to represent the cycles of a stable ecosystem and the role of sharks as a keystone species. The 2 sides of the artwork represent society’s fear of sharks vs reality, contrasting sharp, teeth-like forms with realistic grey fins. Inspired by artists Zheng Lu, Zoe Keller, and Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, I combine my interests in art and biology to communicate the importance of sharks to our marine environment.

Title: Mayor Sticci, the Valiant
Medium: Sculpture
School: IES College

Artist Statement:
Mayor Sticci, the Valiant portrays a character—the Mayor of Brindlebrook—from the bedtime stories told to me by my father as a child in oil-based clay medium. While the central theme for my IB Visual Art exhibition was exploring this telling of folklore and fairy tales through art, in this piece I wanted to explore historical portraiture of rulers. These portraits offer a flattering and romanticised depiction of the subject, especially so with tyrants and this idea spans 2 pieces. This is the ‘positive’ depiction, aiming to be a flattery of the titular character to explore the characterisation of an individual as it is expressed by the artist.

Title: Detached and Formed
Medium: Print
School: Hillbrook Anglican School

Artist Statement:
Judgment and feeling inadequate are unavoidable in today's modern society. The public display of shaming people for how they appear causes threats to self-esteem, and mental health and can lead to radical decisions. My artworks are self-sacrifices to this invalidating culture and are to be judged in hopes of invoking an emotional response from the viewer, such as the feeling of aversion and displeasure. The judgment of someone's physical appearance can be influenced by social norms, cultural influences, psychological bias and insecurity. These negative outlooks of physical appearance are heavily projected by social media, which sets the standard. Society can often dictate certain standards of beauty and attractiveness. The manipulation of my body in the artwork is shown to be judged as an undesirable body type and represents the insecurity I see within myself. These images bring forth the issue of body image and the judgment of unrealistic beauty standards set by society.

Title: Zod!ac
Medium: Installation
School: Mount Alvernia College

Artist Statement:
Consumable items have been popularised in both Chinese and Western media, such as Pop-mart blind boxes, stickers, and cartoon characters. Zod!ac exploits principles relating to historical events that continue to impact China today. Executed through contemporary trends, this helps share and learn the significance of generational knowledge to audiences. As participants interact with the work, through placing stickers on the sacred scroll, they acknowledge and educate themselves on Chinese influential history through a contemporary form. Audiences are invited to look to the figurine boxes to learn more about the generational knowledge, with each zodiac animal character designed to correlate with a Chinese historical event that still influence aspects of China today. This includes political figures, impactful events and creation of significant inventions (porcelain, the compass, tea). Audiences are positioned to learn about Chinese history and how they continue to affect China when viewing and interacting with Zod!ac.

Title: (Shell's) Shells
Medium: Installation
School: All Hallows’ School

Artist Statement:
(Shell’s) Shells is an exploration of beauty in nature, established in the memories and experiences that shaped this perception; childhood memories of collecting seashells at the beach, finding cicada shells in the garden. The shells are symbolic of natural beauty and our childhood fascination with these ‘treasures’. The 2 types of shells blend easily, despite the less appealing colours of the cicada shells. Without the treasured memories of adventure and discovery and the people within them, the cicada shells could be considered ‘ugly’. Each paper sculpture is carefully pinned on the specimen board, a collection life and love found within the hollow shells. The appreciation of the beauty found within (Shell’s) Shells is closely tied to the gratitude and love for the people who accompany me on my journey.

Title: Everyday Essentials
Medium: Painting
School: All Hallows’ School

Artist Statement:
Everyday Essentials is a depiction of everyday personal items contrasted with a single apple to demonstrate Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs from the perspective of privilege. Maslow’s theory, first introduced in the 1950s, continues to have relevance as it highlights 5 levels of necessities ranging from basic physiological needs through to self-actualisation requirements. While all living organisms require basic needs to survive, culture largely determines success if one gradually elevates themselves up through Maslow’s levels of hierarchy. The contrast between the 2 canvasses is stark, the apple symbolic of our most basic needs, including food and water, to ensure daily life and the ongoing survival of the species. The second canvas is crowded and represents privilege across the stages of life of a young woman on the brink of adulthood.

Title: A Dark History
Medium: Painting
School: Brisbane Girls Grammar School

Artist Statement:
In A Dark History the concept art as alternate is explored with the use of evolved ideas of the devastating impacts of colonialism on contemporary society. Fluro orange engulfs the negative space creating stark contrast to the white and blue tea-cup, displaying innocent familiar motifs of repeating floral emblems and colours which reveal a dark truth. Highlighting contemporary context and creating awareness of the everlasting impacts of Dutch colonisers and the sugar trade. This work acts as a warning, prompting us to question how something so seemingly harmless like sugar can have such a dark history.

Title: Ikleth
Medium: Painting
School: Brisbane Boys’ College

Artist Statement:
I have communicated how the visual language of colours, location and symbols communicate connection to culture, country, and identity. This was achieved in a contemporary style using multiple small, medium and large brushstrokes to create symmetrical sections of paint. This artwork was quite abstract compared to my previous artworks. Featuring only some representational sections in which you could make out, such as the flowers for example. The original idea was a large mud flat, but with it being abstract viewers may look at it and think something different, which I want. I want people to look at this piece and tilt their head, move closer and wonder what it is of and then look at this statement.

Title: Stand Up
Medium: Installation
School: Marist College Ashgrove

Artist Statement:
As an Australian resident and regular news and social media consumer, the troubles of other, less privileged countries are always at the forefront of my attention. As such, it is imperative that an artwork can be created to represent both my views on these struggles as an external viewer and the potential experiences of someone living in these situations. Through a formal context, Stand Up was created, with the hope to elicit an emotional response through the depiction of Chinese civil unrest, specifically regarding protest culture in China under the Chinese Communist Party.

Title: Meals of Memories
Medium: Installation
School: The Gap State High School

Artist Statement:
Meals of Memories examines the functional and dysfunctional via the prism of mealtime. A familiar routine, mealtime evokes a physical response, yet can be framed by cognitive absence. Here the physical, sensory, functional experience of eating is posed in contrast to a dysfunctional detachment of the mind. It causes an absence from memory in both the moment and afterwards. We do it but forget we are doing it or have done it. Contrasting 2D and 3D elements separated across a space causes viewers to seek compositional unity, signifying separation of experience and memory.

Title: Floating Form
Medium: Sculpture
School: Sandgate District State High School

Artist Statement:
The installation, Floating Form, has been created by constructing and connecting wooden materials to create a unique symmetrical form that casts a strong shadow and supports my ongoing exploration of mirroring and duality. Takahiro Iwasaki has been my guiding inspiration, as his work shows how reflection can change audience perception. Like Iwasaki, my suspended work creates a lightness and allows for light to interact as shadows, extending the notion of duality.

Title: Uncanny You/Me/Them/Us
Medium: Video
School: Kenmore State High School

Artist Statement:
Uncanny You/Me/Them/Us is a representation of generative AI through the lens of society and ultimately myself. It explores the depersonalisation of media, and concept of the ‘Uncanny Valley’—the phenomenon where CGI seems just slightly ‘off’, in inexplicable ways. It is a composition that symbolises how AI feeds itself off humans’ work, but its product is removed from any immediate resemblance to its sources, which to me feels disingenuous. A variety of unhuman features contributes to the sense of uncanny and lack of personality that mirror my feelings about AI-generated works, which I intend to convey to the audience.

Title: Magic’s not real...
Medium: Immersive installation, fine line pen on paper, audio recording, pillow fort formed from found objects
School: Brisbane Grammar School

Artist Statement:
As a kid who dreamt of being able to fly or see mythical creatures, I was regularly told that magic isn’t real. It was never used as an insult—simply a statement of fact. However, I’ve realised that we only use ‘magic’ to describe the impossible or the extraordinary, but what about the possible? What about the ordinary? Children are always seeing (or imagining) the ‘magic’ in life. They live boldly, curiously, and playfully, free from society’s norms. My childhood map features core memories from my home, my primary school, and the pools of Langlands Park and Chandler. By working through the personal context, I am channelling the little Lachie within me, who didn’t care if anyone saw him picking his nose or dancing in the rain. Often, we don’t recognise magic, though it is there. Sometimes we just need to take off our grown-up hats to see it.

Title: Feel
Medium: Acrylic painting on canvas with projected digital video
School: St Paul’s School

Artist Statement:
From before time itself, 2 beings have existed. Feeling. Watching you. Watching me. Watching the tumult of our squabbles. They witness our brief lives, barely a sparkle of potential realised before our bodies begin to decay. Listen. Perhaps, whilst pondering, you forgot that subtle sensation in your left knee. You forgot about the feelings that flow from your split ends to that left knee to the tip of your toes. The world said consciousness exists solely within the brain and you listened. You lost connection. Perspective. Feeling. The beings offer an alternative truth: consciousness pervades every part of your body. While you’ve been alienating their naked bodies, they’ve been tapping into their consciousness. Stay long enough, and they will whisper you secrets about yourself. How to transform. Transform, not like them, but transform how you please. And perhaps, you too will begin to share the secret with others. Feel.

Title: Ruined White Ibis
Medium: Sculpture
School: Earnshaw State College

Artist Statement:
Ruined White Ibis was created as a testament against rubbish pollution, specifically concerning the Australian white ibis and their habitats. The 3 birds are depicted as deceased to represent the harsh reality that is the bin chicken, they lose their habitats in favour of human’s pollution, and they die in return. This collection was created as an aim to the larger public to genuinely consider these birds and their suffering, the reason for their rubbish consumption, and the reasons behind it.

Title: Still
Medium: Charcoal on paper, water, rocks, ink
School: Brisbane Grammar School

Artist Statement:
The water of our rivers and oceans is poisoned. Still is an interactive installation composing a pool of water encircled by a ring of charcoal dust, surrounded by 3 abstract charcoal works and soft water sounds. I encourage audiences to throw rocks into the water which splashes over the bowl’s edge, interacting with the pigment below, symbolising human interference. The almost fractured-looking charcoal works are a result of this interaction, serving as a reminder of our oceans’ impaired state. I use water as a metaphor for this fragile state while soft water sounds create a meditative experience. My utilisation of water to symbolise nature’s fragility was inspired by Judy Watson.

Title: Trapped in Illusion
Medium: Installation
School: Queensland Academy for Creative Industries

Artist Statement:
Trapped in Illusion explores the connections between natural and artificial sight, emphasising the fragility of human anatomy and vision. It comments on the feeling of constantly being watched in contemporary society; by peers, parents, teachers, and security cameras, everywhere one goes. This paranoia is expressed through the overwhelming sense of unease provided by the camera and its creeping optical nerves. It looms frightfully over the lino prints which question the hypnotic influence of screens, ever-changing our perception of the world with their dizzying illusions. The repeated grid of prints and the hanging cables aim to create a sense of entrapment. The repetition of the gaze and the swirling, entangled lines position the individual within a collective. Who is watching and who is being watched? The perceived rigidity of the CCTV camera is mocked by its soft sculptural qualities to highlight the uncanny similarities between human sight and the surveillance camera.

Title: Damaged Connections
Medium: Painting
School: Kelvin Grove State College

Artist Statement:
People expand upon knowledge, power, and technology, always searching for more; to become more. Nevertheless, it has somehow caused the collapse of our past—nostalgic places. Damaged Connections is an expansion upon these themes upon a large canvas, emphasising the composition and symbols. As shown through the scattered oil covered waste presented through a familiar nostalgic environment, this painting expresses the question: are we perfect? The source of greed and thirst for power has caused us to lose our natural bond to this world, challenging audiences to reflect upon personal consumption and waste production.

Title: Adele
Medium: Painting
School: Queensland Academy for Creative Industries

Artist Statement:
Adele explores the experience of coming of age by representing my younger sister at age 15. Observing my sister growing up I realised how much we have changed together leading to a personal reflection on introspection and the discovery of self. The warm colour palate was employed to evoke nostalgia and sentimentality, with my sister caught in a moment of contemplation, expressed through a relaxed posture viewed from an intimate, low angled viewpoint. I aimed to express both vulnerability and defiance through her gaze. The struck match symbolises the curiosity of adolescence leading to an illuminated sense of self, while the darkened space conveys a sense of isolation and stillness. Lost as she gazes into the flame my sister is represented at an age when the boundaries between real and imagined, childhood and adulthood are becoming more defined.

Title: Society's Reflection
Medium: Print
School: Kelvin Grove State College

Artist Statement:
What is it that is expected of us, really? We stare into our reflections in the mirror every day and ask ourselves, “Why am I not good enough?”, “Why don’t I look more like her?”, “I shouldn’t wear that.” I invite you to observe 3 of the women in my life who have felt judged, oppressed and compared for matters such as age, clothing, appearance and personal choices. Over time, society has opened and allowed women to live and vote freely. However, throughout these changes, the same society has never failed to critique and shame whatever fault can be found within us. Newspapers, advert commercials, magazines, articles and now social media. I have depicted this ongoing issue across 3 generations of women through a screen-printing series of photographs on tea-towels to pose the question of, when will we truly move out of the kitchen?

Title: Spectrum Sail
Medium: Sculpture
School: St Peters Lutheran College

Artist Statement:
Spectrum Sail is an abstract exploration of colour and form crafted in acrylic using primary colours and a fluorescent yellow. Inspired by childhood experiments with paper boats, this contemporary work, is an 8-sided polygon, that uses transparency to create optical illusions where overlapping light waves mix colours. The interplay of fluorescing and phosphorescent materials produces dynamic refractions, inviting viewers to explore its geometry and vibrancy. The film projected behind the object enhances the changing colours and collapsed spaces. Influenced by artists Piet Mondrian and Gemma Smith, Spectrum Sail integrates personal memories with formal explorations. The work features an ironic twist with water and miniature boats inside the vessel, subverting traditional expectations and adding layers of meaning. The complex interfaces of colour, light and water challenges perceptions and celebrates the dynamic dance of light on water, captured on video encouraging a deeper appreciation of the change and layered movement.

Title: Isolation
Medium: Photograph
School: Marist College Ashgrove

Artist Statement:
Negative space plays a major role in my artwork, Isolation where textured and patterned backgrounds emphasise the 2 central figures. By blending First Nations and Western cultural elements, I have created a busy environment surrounding the figures to further enhance their isolation. Personally, while loneliness has been a significant theme for me over the past 4 years, I aim to show that solitude can be a positive experience, offering time and space away from distractions.

Title: There/Then
Medium: Photograph
School: Hillbrook Anglican School

Artist Statement:
Inspired my Marja Pirilä, There/Then explores my personal connection to past through projection, by overlapping spaces of my current home with projected images of my childhood home. Spaces were photographed in which elements from the projected images, such as rugs and artworks, have been repeated in my current environment, as this demonstrates explicit connection between past and present, and shows how my present experiences are affected by these memories. The cool tones that overlay the piece, and my attention towards the projected images, both convey my longing for the past—as well as my inability to experience the past as anything but a memory.