Metropolitan South

Title: Love
Medium: Painting
School: Springfield Central State High School

Artist Statement:
My artwork is about a few different topics; however, the focus is about desperation for love. The young girl in the painting is consuming a raw human heart, the most intimate organ when describing love. This is meant to symbolise the girl craving the feeling of love. In my perception of my art, the girl is around 12 years old. This was done because, if it were a younger girl, the love that she craves would mainly be ‘parental love’, if the girl were older, it would probably be assumed that it is ‘romantic love’. The reason why I made the girl an early teenager was, so it is obvious that she craves love in every aspect, from everyone. My artwork intended to communicate dread as well as the feeling of craving love and sadness.

Title: Amazon’s Perspective
Medium: Video
School: Brisbane School of Distance Education

Artist Statement:
Illegal logging of the Amazon rainforest has severely threatened millions of native plant and animal species for decades and is predicted to cause detrimental damage to the whole Earth’s ecosystem if this deforestation continues. According to National Geographic, it is estimated that roughly 20 percent has disappeared, after the past 50 years, by human-lit fires and deforestation. Through a contemporary perspective, I explored the disconnection of 2 worlds (our perception and true reality) in relation to how we neglect to see our world from an environmental perspective, as an alternate focus to how we view the world around us. Amazon’s Perspective illustrates the naiveness we possess in our individual worlds, as we are not exposed to the impacts face-to-face. The immersive digital installation aims to transport the viewer to the rainforest and watch the slow process of deforestation the Amazon faces; achieved by enhancing the senses of sight and sound.

Title: Maiwar
Medium: Installation
School: Corinda State High School

Artist Statement:
We live in the Anthropocene. Sustainability shapes and surges through our generation, yet our urge to consume clouds the waters. So, what is our purpose, when we cannot practise what we preach? We are Maiwar’s custodians. Floods form part of the river’s natural cycle; however human activity has exacerbated their frequency and intensity. Through the sinuous shapes flowing across the triptych, we’re led on a journey along Brisbane’s ever shifting but enduring, life source. Cyan references its once pristine waters and mangrove roots emerge to evoke the strength and resilience needed by our generation to rectify our environmental impact.

Title: All that’s Gold does not Glitter
Medium: Installation
School: Cannon Hill Anglican College

Artist Statement:
Shakespeare’s’ aphorism “All that glitters is not gold” draws upon the idea that not everything that looks precious or true turns out to be so. Whilst this is the case with many things, this artwork infers quite the opposite. All that’s Gold does not Glitter, a series of 5 objects ironically encrusted in glistening diamantes, embodies the value of everyday objects and their preciousness to human connection. Inspired by Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog, the rhinestones attachment to the ready-mades radiates an air of preciousness, that ultimately changes the way the viewer physically and psychologically interacts with each object.

Title: Biomes
Medium: Sculpture
School: Mansfield State High School

Artist Statement:
Our anthropogenic actions, driven by greed, are accelerating our demise—dragging humanity and countless other species with us. Biomes explores the displacement of habitats and communities due to climate change. Familiar symbols like coral, bark and leaves highlight themes of oceanic migration and bushfires, both consequences of urbanisation. The red and blue buckets refer to bushland and ocean, respectively, while the carrying pole, reminiscent of refugees transporting water, symbolises the plight of climate refugees forced from uninhabitable regions. The contrasting strong colours and white backdrop, draws attention to the buckets, urging viewers to recognise the gravity of our environmental impact, prompting deep reflection on our role in this global crisis.

Title: Boat People
Medium: Painting
School: Cannon Hill Anglican College

Artist Statement:
Boat People highlights the whitewashed representation of Australian history and culture. Commonly used within the media and government to alienate refugees seeking asylum in Australia, the words ‘boat people’ are used here to emphasise the hypocrisy of white Australians who originally invaded Australia by boat. The appropriated historical painting of the First Fleet has been vandalised, ironically, with the very words used in our parliament to demean asylum seekers. The bleeding red words, dripping down the canvas, symbolise the genocide of Indigenous Australians because of British settlement. We must acknowledge our history, as the way history is remembered impacts our attitudes towards one another.

Title: Colonisation Echoes
Medium: Painting
School: Ipswich State High School

Artist Statement:
As an artist, that is committed to exploring the themes of cultural identity but also invested in exploring resilience and the rich and resilient heritage of Aboriginal peoples. The work Colonisation Echoes is a visual symbol of the profound impact of colonisation on the Indigenous community. I also wanted to capture the juxtaposition of tradition and trauma, thus symbolising the complex interplay between the Aboriginal heritage and the forced colonial oppression. The vibrant colours used in the background were used to remind us of the rich heritage that Aboriginal communities still hold. The traditional 13th-century crucifix was used as a metaphor for colonisation as Christianity is a crucial part of England’s history. The dull colours used in the crucifix were used as a metaphor for the colonisation draining the colour (culture) from the people.

Title: Change and Embrace
Medium: Painting
School: Cleveland District State High School

Artist Statement:
Change and Embrace explores how art can express mental health and complicated emotions through art. The work focuses on how negative relationships can hurt your mental health and also demonstrates how positive relationships can help and be used as a coping mechanism. Negative relationships can manipulate and change you mentally; however, this is expressed physically, in the piece. Negative emotions and mental health complications mixed with the stresses of a negative relationship results in the morphing and disfiguring of a person, juxtaposed by positive relationships, a tranquil contrast between the 2 experiences.

Title: Trapped in the Skirt
Medium: Installation
School: Rochedale State High School

Artist Statement:
Her waist cinched; her bell-shaped skirt softens the edges of her body. She acts, she behaves in all the ways they want—honourably, softly-spoken and reserved. But the beauty of her skirt is purely an illusion. Beneath it her legs are bound, her steps restrained, and movements limited. The skirt bears pressure and expectation; it begs obedience. It begs that she sits down and keeps her mouth closed, it begs that she hides her face when she bleeds and buries her selfish desires. It isn’t up to her to step out of the skirt. These expectations were tied to her long before she knew of them. And why break from expectation when the risk is so great? The risk of rejection, judgement and denial. She stays in the skirt because it has taught her all she knows.

Title: Bin Chicken
Medium: Painting
School: Mansfield State High School

Artist Statement:
Reflecting on human’s fleeting connection with the natural environment, Bin Chicken recontextualises items seen as garbage, opening the audience’s eyes to the effects society is having on our natural world. By employing anthropomorphic birds as a recurring motif, the solitary white ibis with a naked body starkly contrasts with the unanimous, clothed chickens. The use of the stigmatised subject of the naked female body evokes discomfort, as it is a form often shamed, censored and discouraged. The figure is in a natural and vulnerable state with terrible imputations, compared to the chickens’ overweight, male figure – a normalised state of “healthiness”. The unconventional materials used, highlight the human-made environments to which ibises have had to adapt. I hope to urge viewers to reflect on what we prioritise in modern society and to foster awareness of all relationships and interconnectedness, ultimately advocating for greater acceptance of naturalness.

Title: Unapologetically Me
Medium: Video
School: Stretton State College

Artist Statement:
Unapologetically Me has been created in response to the discrimination and harassment I face on an almost daily basis as a trans person. The video reflects my resilience and courage required to be a trans person. The colour palette of the body paint is derived from the trans flag and the performative ritual of enshrouding my own body in the emblematic pink, blue and white stripes which expresses my resistance to heteronormative discrimination. I don’t want to become another piece of news or media. We need to work together on this.

Title: Pelican Pearl
Medium: Sculpture
School: St Aidan’s Anglican Girls School

Artist Statement:
In Pelican Pearl, I aim to convey how trauma is a common theme in life. It evolved from processing a pelican's skeleton found on our farm that backs onto Wivenhoe Dam. I experimented initially by crytalising decaying animal bones but then decided to 'glamorise' Pearl's severed head with pearls. Trauma is something I am familiar with as chronic pain has been a constant companion throughout my life. I wanted to honour Pearl and felt displaying her as a museum keepsake, resplendent with pearls and within a protective case saddled by gentle cloth added to her status and importance..bones.

Title: In our hands
Medium: Installation
School: Centenary State High School

Artist Statement:
In our hands explores the current issue of coral bleaching and aims to further emphasise the importance of working towards restoring the reef. The work was inspired by Rachel Whiteread’s preservation of objects through casting and Vera Möller’s work about the withering reefs as well as her use of repetition. As such, part of the artwork involves a repetition of plaster-casted corals made with moulds from real coral that has broken off and washed upon the beach. The artwork includes photographs of different people holding the plaster coral. This represents the many people who cherish the Great Barrier Reef and share the desire to protect and restore. The hands emerging from the darkness represent how we need to bring the issue into the light. The bright white of the corals contrast against the skin tones, emphasising how ghostly they look when they die.

Title: Skin Trade
Medium: Installation
School: Mansfield State High School

Artist Statement:
COLOURISM. Google it now. Oscar-winner, Lupita Nyong’o, called it the ‘daughter of racism’—a by-product of colonialism and slavery. It is the prejudice and discrimination especially within communities of colour that favours lighter skin tones. This global issue feeds an industry worth $30 billion in skin-lightening products. The worst ones, containing mercury, are easily obtained in poorer regions. Skin Trade highlights the resulting physical and psychological damage. The woman portrayed is covered in blisters and lesions, the devastating effects of these products. Arms outstretched she is unable to hide; her vulnerability spilling out like the bleach-marked fabric. She becomes the canvas for this artwork. Her grace and beauty are overshadowed by the heartbreak of her disfigured skin. The words above her, seem at odds with the Western ideal of tanned skin, but are commonly heard in ethnic communities worldwide. Directed primarily at women, they unknowingly perpetuate the harms of colourism.

Title: 4626
Medium: Sculpture
School: Rosewood State High School

Artist Statement:
4626 is a mixed-media sculpture that explores cultural connection to place in a personal context. The raffia weaved circles symbolise the Indigenous icon, a gathering circle, which defines the significant places my family live or are resting in Munduberra, seen in the wire constructed composition of the town map from bird's eye view. The movement created by emu feathers reflects my Indigenous totem which further represents my cultural and personal connection to these pieces. The texture of the copper wire binding the aluminium wire frame emphasises connection to place and how we are bounded through family and culture, this is done specifically with modern materials. The map seen in the frame of the piece is a representation of urbanisation of modern Indigenous cultures and the substantial contrast to living on country, additionally the materials create this concept in the piece.

Title: Windows, Tapes, Noumena
Medium: Video Installation
School: Brisbane School of Distance Education

Artist Statement:
A personal struggle I've observed as a young artist is that I often focus on the technical elements of my work and trying my best to reach a point of perfection. Windows, Tapes, Noumena represents an exploration of the thoughts, feelings, ideas, and concepts related to my focus I consider true to my artistic expression, portrayed through a postmodern lens as to prioritise authentic creativity and worry less about specific details. The film is representative of the fundamental hedonistic feelings and visual ideas that prompted my original inquiry. Adopting an overlay of post-modernist artistic appeal allowed me to strip back some of the fine details of previous work and focus more on conveying ideas and visual concepts that felt wholly authentic to my artistic vision. The colour palettes, the thematic consistencies, the obscure camera work, and the incorporated illustrations were a result of putting the ideas related to my focus into a videographic format. The shots throughout the film, in tandem with the illustrations, are reminiscent of past work I’ve produced in conveying hedonism but adulterated in a more abstract sense.

Title: The problem and the solution
Medium: Installation
School: Ipswich Grammar School

Artist Statement:
The genesis of this artwork originated from my 2023 expedition to Cape York. The thumbprints in this piece embody the hands of various individuals, symbolising both those responsible for perpetuating pollution and those who hold the potential to remedy it. The arrangement of these thumbprints emulates the form of a plastic bag, representing a predominant pollutant that endangers marine wildlife. To create these thumbprints, I fashioned a mould, pressed porcelain clay into it, and applied pressure to imprint the designs. This process was repeated over 250 times to complete the intended shape of the artwork. Additionally, the monochromatic nature of the artwork serves as a poignant allusion to coral bleaching and the adverse impacts of climate change on reef ecosystems, highlighting the detrimental effects of human-induced pollution.

Title: Welcome
Medium: Installation
School: Clairvaux Mackillop College

Artist Statement:
Welcome transforms the act of sharing a meal into a celebration of cultural exchange, highlighting the elegance of connection. The 100 rice paper takeaway boxes, imprinted with modernised traditional patterns, symbolises the delicate balance between preserving heritage and the encroachment of modernity. This underscores the ongoing dialogue between past and present, tradition and innovation in the contemporary world. The white and cobalt blue evokes purity, while the traditional Korean cloud motifs allude to the interconnectedness of cultures, encouraging contemplation on the complexity of cultural exchange, celebrating the unity found in shared traditions and the evolving nature of cultural connections.

Title: Abstract Land
Medium: Painting
School: Centenary State High School

Artist Statement:
My artwork represents the Australian landscape in the formal and cultural contexts, as I have used abstracted painting to communicate the relationship between natural landscape and identity. The painting shows different aspects of the Australian environment, including the vibrant rainforests, dark ocean, wide blue sky, and vivid sunsets. Each part is layered over the silhouette of a person walking away from the viewer, metaphorically moving forward into the world. I focused on using the elements of colour and movement to represent the diverse and dynamic Australian outdoors, placing the work in a formal context. The symbolic cultural meaning is the way in which the natural landscape has always been an integral part of Australian identity in the innate connection to land, and it is intended to help the audience reflect on and appreciate their own experience and understanding of the natural environment.

Title: Une Maison Distante, Marseille
Medium: Video
School: Cannon Hill Anglican College

Artist Statement:
Une Maison Distante, Marseille explores cultural identity, integration and displacement through a personal context. Having lived here most of my life, I naturally feel a subtle disconnection from my French heritage. I combined photography and video to preserve memories of Marseille, where I grew up. The cyanotype prints, derived from my great-grandfather’s film negatives of Marseille in the late 1800s, intertwine with a video of myself wandering through these landscapes, ‘reliving’ memories he once captured. The movement from image to image mimics the flicking motion of a View Master used during childhood, evoking nostalgia.

Title: Weight of Excess
Medium: Sculpture
School: Mansfield State High School

Artist Statement:
'To eliminate the agitation and disappointment of desire, we need but awaken to the fact that we have everything we want and need right now'—Tony Robbins. Weight of Excess engages with this concept by addressing overconsumption, particularly the excessive acquisition of luxury items and its harmful effects on the environment. I reimagine the handbag—a once functional item now reduced to a symbol of fashion and status. By deconstructing and reassembling this object, I highlight the shift from practicality to mere elegance, represented by the inner satin lining. Through the use of diverse dimensions and textures, my art reflects on the personal and collective impact of consumer culture on climate change. The intention is to provoke a deeper awareness and introspection about our consumption habits and their environmental consequences.

Title: Dollhouse
Medium: Sculpture
School: Westside Christian College

Artist Statement:
Dollhouse explores the contrasts and assumptions between wealth and poverty, alternatively embodied in austere geometric forms and vibrant items juxtaposed against a backdrop of a cardboard shanty town stacked upon debris. This installation metaphorically emerges from a deep consideration of internal and external realities, highlighting their inherent opposition. Bright doll clothes and accessories are hung outside the shacks, blended with rubbish, symbolising materialism's superficial allure. The LED lights within the shacks emit a comforting glow, reassuring the viewer and inviting warmth despite the apparent external desolation. This melding of formalistic characteristics expresses that there is often a lack of control over impoverished lives, being shuffled and positioned by economic circumstances, and constantly judged, much like a dollhouse. However, despite the trash and poverty, these places are filled with pure joy, faith, and community, proving that a mounting bank account and a 'nice house' do not equate to happiness.

Title: Shifting Change
Medium: Photograph
School: St Aiden’s Anglican Girls School

Artist Statement:
Shifting Change represents a flower rich in symbolism, the rose. The work began with pencil drawings and then placed under duress of piercing, burning and white paint. I wanted to show the binary of growth and demise and the layering of both to create ambiguous readings of the same object in a state of flux. I found alignment with the human conditions I moved through the process thinking about how the human psyche must endure changes both predictable and unseen for survival.

Title: Glitched Ecosystem
Medium: Installation
School: Brisbane School of Distance Education

Artist Statement:
I wanted to explore the connections between technology and nature. Reflecting from the previous artwork, creating an alternative view. Instead of technologies’ impact on nature, this artwork shows technology trying to emulate and blend into nature without overtaking and destroying it. Highlighting the inversion where technology hides and mimics nature rather than overshadowing it. I used techniques inspired by technical errors to create an unsettling feeling showing flaws in technologies mimicry. Snapping the flowers to a grid conveys the feeling of unease, creating a sense of movement without translating the object. I used potted plants as they are a detraction from nature, people taking apart the environment and confining it to their own desires. I used metallic materials on the flowers, choosing contrasting and unrealistic metallic colours for the flowers. This artwork challenges the conventional view of technology's dominance over nature exploring technologies shallow attempt to blend into nature.

Title: War in Time
Medium: Sculpture
School: Ipswich Grammar School

Artist Statement:
My artwork delves into the grim realities of war, questioning its purpose and the endless cycle of conflict that results in unnecessary loss of life—the ultimate lack of respect for humankind. Using hand-crafted plastic figures assembled to resemble soldiers, I present a multi-layered exploration of warfare through 3 distinct stages. The battlegrounds, sculpted from polymer clay, depict the progression of conflict. One block represents the harsh reality of war's brutality, illustrating the inevitable fatalities resulting from political disputes. Another captures the chaos and disarray as soldiers retreat yet remain in combat postures, symbolising the futility of the conflict. Yet another presents an absurd scenario where soldiers are positioned aimlessly, shooting in all directions, reflecting the senselessness and lack of purpose inherent in many wars. Resin solidifies each moment, highlighting the disillusionment of using war as a tool for political manoeuvring, questioning whether such conflicts ever truly resolve anything.

Title: Pathway
Medium: Video
School: Hymba Yumba Independent School

Artist Statement:
The film Pathway symbolises my identity which I strive for my culture as a proud Indigenous man. For an Aboriginal man it is important to be connected with your family, your culture and to become a warrior. Cultural dancing and smoking ceremonies were strictly men's business and that can be passed down through thousands of years to young boys transitioning to men. In this symbolic film I've chosen to represent my cultural journey using woven straw matting. The didgeridoo beat warriors' chants/calling noises that my ancestors made for thousands of years, bring their spirits into my soul and make me a strong warrior while I walk. As I stomp, I leave blood, showing the pain and strength in every footstep. Each step leaves my story on the same path my ancestors have already walked.

Title: Forgotten
Medium: Installation
School: Ipswich Grammar School

Artist Statement:
This piece symbolises the barriers society often places around the homeless. The decision was made to utilise homelessness as my core artwork theme and initially, I began sketching homeless figures from online sources, but it felt disconnected. So, in an effort to add authenticity I went out to Tent City in Brisbane and interviewed a homeless man to hear his story. The creative process for this piece involved internally putting myself in that position and embracing my empathetic emotions. The man faces walls on 3 sides, yet I purposely left a piece of the box open to suggest both the ability for a voyeuristic glimpse into a forgotten story waiting to be told, as well as the possibility of an internal break from societal barriers for a brighter future.

Title: Symbiotic Self
Medium: Painting
School: St Aiden’s Anglican Girls School

Artist Statement:
Symbiotic Self is a personal exploration of how external and internal influences affect the evolution of one's identity. It is a contemporary play and interpretation on how people's association with animals affects how one is perceived by self and others. Through societal understanding of the nature of specific animals, the audience is encouraged to explore the artist’s personality, while prompting them to reflect on what animals they relate to and what physical and emotional characteristics they align with. Taking inspiration from Madeleine Kelly’s hybrid creatures I create a narrative where I imposed animals onto my body in my bedroom setting.

Title: Don’t play with your food
Medium: Installation
School: Corinda State High School

Artist Statement:
The concept of the inner child often buried beneath the layers of encroaching adulthood and societal pressure to mature. This work explores rekindling the inner child through play, focusing on the deliberate decay of ingrained perfectionist ideals. By immersing myself in creative and experimental processes, I aimed to dismantle these constraints, fostering spontaneity and vulnerability reminiscent of childhood. Decay is highlighted through symbols of erosion, disintegration and decomposing creatures reflecting the breakdown of rigid expectations. It invites viewers to reconnect with their inner child by embracing authenticity and freedom, encouraging them to reflect on their own nostalgic memories of play.

Title: Ambitious Valley
Medium: Sculpture
School: Anglican Church Grammar School

Artist Statement:
Ambitious Valley explores the personal context of my relationship to land, heritage and place through exploration of my family’s connection to different regional geographical locations in Australia. The laser etched image into the plywood is a topographical photograph, taken by my father, of rivers and waterways in regional Western Queensland, where he grew up on the traditional land of the Wangkangurru and Yarluyandi peoples. The burnt etching creates a mesmerising movement of organic lines across plywood, like lifegiving veins in the landscape, which is then starkly contrasted to the geometric grid which has cut through the image and board. This is symbolic of encroaching urbanisation in the natural landscapes of Australia. Influenced by South African artist Kate Arthur artwork titles ‘Childs Play (Swell)’ 2020, I stacked pre-cut pine blacks to create a 3D effect of a rising valley in the landscape.

Title: Cerukugada
Medium: Sculpture
School: Redlands College

Artist Statement:
Cerukugaḍa, the Telugu word for sugarcane, is central to Indian culture, from refreshing juice to its role as sugar. This work, inspired by my maternal grandfather’s farming heritage, draws influence from Danielle Thiris’s traditional clay techniques and Sancintya Mohini Simpson's portrayal of Indian lineage, both resonating with my focus on sugarcane and its familial and agricultural connections. Using slip casting and underglaze techniques, I created sugarcane sticks with colour and etched sickle imagery inspired by my grandfather’s farm, my mum and sister also helped. Indian transfer paper, featuring designs similar to my uncle's couch, was used to cut out sickle shapes which were imprinted into the sugarcane. This process connects with my farming roots providing an alternate perspective to my IA2 work. The Operator explored themes of connection, loss and resilience through telephone motifs and cyanotypes inspired by my paternal grandfather, Cerukugaḍa highlights my maternal grandfather’s agricultural life using clay.

Title: Balikbayan Baby
Medium: Installation
School: Brisbane State High School

Artist Statement:
The balikbayan box (lit. ‘repatriate box’) commonly found in Filipino households is used to send pasalubong, gifts to family in the Philippines. Having moved to Australia when I was only 6 months old, I often struggle with my cultural identity having adapted to Western society. Caught between terms of first and second-generation immigrant, I realised that not only do I struggle to speak my parents’ language, but I struggle to express myself in my own. Balikbayan Baby explores my complicated relationship with my connection to culture amidst feelings of superficiality and unworthiness to take part in it. The recreation of the traditional bolero using balikbayan represents my identity as a Filipino raised overseas. The result is imperfect, an imitation of the original, but is undeniably Filipino. Ultimately, it serves as a reminder to audiences that all that stands between them and their culture is their willingness to embrace it.

Title: Shelf Life
Medium: Installation
School: Cannon Hill Anglican College

Artist Statement:
Thrift shopping has become more mainstream lately, with recycling old objects becoming entwined with living a more environmentally aware, sustainable and contemporary lifestyle. With this, come the stories and the lives of the people that the objects were once owned by as they are reused. I sought to explore the impact that strangers can have on objects, before they are recycled and used by someone else. As the audience views the display, it is hoped they ponder the history behind the objects they encounter, and the interactions the objects have had with the people before them.

Title: Serendipity
Medium: Painting
School: Rochedale State High School

Artist Statement:
Immersed in a tranquil atmosphere of pink-blossomed flowers, delicate petals, and the gentle touch of water, I find solace. The head of the figure lies above the flowing water, its neutral expression a testament to the serenity of solitude, rather than drowning in despair. This unique composition unfolds like an endless loop of time where thoughts flow like a vast body of water, the body is rejuvenated, and social expectations sink deep into the water’s depths, liberating me. Although secluded from the external world, solitude brings an unmatched peace that fosters psychological growth for all. However, it is often overlooked and tied with the discomfort of loneliness. Within this self-portrait, the positive nature of solitude which shapes my identity is explored in a personal and formal context.