Darling Downs South West

Title: Falling water
Medium: Video
School: Lockyer District State High School

Artist Statement:
Being one of the most occupational matters in our world, water maintains a large and influential presence in our lives. Its ability to retain memory of its past dissolvents aligns itself parallel to the complexities of the human mind, specifically in how we perceive the world around us. Our perceptions form everything we know, our understanding informed by that of our past, encapsulated by memories and own experiences. My artwork communicates this through a metaphorical approach, portraying the contrastive state in which the same subject matter is observed. Falling water portrays the descent of water and its impact on different surfaces, symbolic of how shared experiences can structure antithetic and unique perceptions of the world around us, and therefore entail a continuous insight into how and why our perspectives form and differ from others.

Title: The Gauntlet of Onslaught
Medium: Sculpture
School: Centenary Heights State High School

Artist Statement:
My ceramic sculpture’s concept was inspired by Robert Wun’s blood-stained dress from the 2024 Spring collection. Making use of a contemporary context this artwork uses irony to present a long ongoing concern with a modern twist. The 12 black clay pieces link together on my hand alluding to a recent iconic symbol: the black fist representing the Black Lives Matter movement. This sculpture addresses the long-standing history of cultural genocide and discrimination in both recent times and the past. The gauntlet-esque design prompting recognition of armour used for battle in the past. The red beads embellishing the surface symbolise the blood lost due to this senseless discrimination. Working against traditional practices I connected the clay pieces to chain, creating the wearable art. When considering the meaning behind my work, reflect on moments in your life where you might have been confronted with this and how you might have responded in turn.

Title: Illuminate
Medium: Film/electronic imaging
School: Goondiwindi State High School

Artist Statement:
Illuminate comprises a compilation of light performance photographs together with corresponding still images in order to conceptualise the incidence of process over product in an effort to visualise the complexities of human emotions. Contemporary light performances transform feelings into metaphorical lines, colours, movements and space to dynamically explore these complexities intellectually, as well as visually. Illuminate challenges audiences’ perceptions and experiences of labelling emotional states through static responses only as it negotiates contemporary concepts of process and product. Process and product are juxtaposed through 2D diptych stills and 4D film to challenge audiences to reconsider how they might define emotions as they engage and interpret light performance as missed opportunities to explore more complex methods of symbolising our emotional states. Illuminate analogises movement and light as experience. The juxtaposition of 2D narrative stills representing past and present with film revealing processes of movement, time and space portrays emotions as experience. Wrapping light around myself utilises the abundantly infinite nature of light as a unique metaphor for illuminating feelings in a contemporary genre.

Title: staunch
Medium: Painting
School: Toowoomba Grammar School

Artist Statement:
This artwork delves further into the term ‘staunch’; it depicts an embrace between 2 male figures. The figures’ emotions and motives are unknown and ultimately under the interpretation of the viewer. The 2 figures impose upon each other, their skin connecting amidst a barren red colour field. The violence and fervour of their collision is made more visceral within this landscape. Inspiration came from the painters Francis Bacon and Leon Golub, while the subject matter was informed by the intimate work of photographers that explore queer connection, such as Wolfgang Tillmans and Nan Goldin. Also, Claire Denis’ 1999 film Beau Travail additionally inspired impetus of the figures’ masculine intimacy and how their bodies merge into one another. Violence or domination can also be explored through this same lens, as the viewer might analyse either figure’s body to ascertain which is controlling, or ‘staunching’, the other.

Title: Nature’s Tears
Medium: Digitally-manipulated drone photography
School: Fairholme College

Artist Statement:
Nature’s Tears explores the concept of flood that occurs due to climate change and the impact it has on agricultural areas. The work attempts to show that rain isn’t always good fortune, it can be a misfortune if there is an overabundance. For the agricultural community to flourish there must be the perfect balance of rain and dry weather, but climate change makes this challenging. The shape of the paddock displayed in this work represents that of a shield. This shield-like formation symbolises the resilience of the land and that it wants to fight back against climate change. This work also captures notions of connection to country. The aboriginal tribe that belongs to this land are the Kamilaroi people. They highly value co-existing with the land and maintaining a balance with nature, they live in harmony with the environment. This introduces a sense of irony as the initial concept of the work is how humans escalate climate change.

Title: Living?
Medium: Painting
School: Toowoomba Anglican School

Artist Statement:
For humanity to survive, “…halving climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is crucial (Morgan, 2024).” However, we are currently far from achieving this goal without significant changes in our approach to the environment. My work aims to capture the beauty and intrigue of the flowing shapes blossoming from their ambiguous botanical origin. Through my art, I invite viewers to contemplate the simplicities and intricacies of the natural world around us. I use recycled string in my pieces to reflect on the textile industry's responsibility for approximately 10% of global CO2 emissions. This material also symbolises the subtle yet powerful connections we all share with this unyielding issue and highlights the unstableness of our planet's situation.

Title: hereafter
Medium: Video
School: Toowoomba Grammar School

Artist Statement:
Death is an inevitable part of life that we must all come to terms with. I found this concept served my focus of ‘disconnection and connection’ and was something I wished to explore through an artistic interpretation of the moments after a mother’s death, where her memories are presented before her in the form of a home video of her and her son. The home video represents the mother’s life, while the endless, black void represents her death. The home video was filmed on an iPhone, with the footage degraded to heighten the disconnection between the real world and the void, between her life and death. The digital projection and recording of the home video lend itself to contemporary contexts in which the work was created. Thematic and visual influence has been taken from the work of Jun Cen and Brett Morgan.

Title: NO JUSTICE. NO PEACE. WE CAN'T BREATHE.
Medium: Painting
School: Murgon State High School

Artist Statement:
Across the world, George Floyd’s murder sent grief through the hearts of people of colour, motivating us to stand up and scream “Black Lives Matter”. NO JUSTICE. NO PEACE. WE CAN’T BREATHE. is an unapologetic reminder that us Blackfellas continue to be judged, killed, locked up, and discriminated against at the hands of the world that white men built on our stolen lands. I’m stepping into the shoes of Black men before me, specifically Gordon Bennett and Jean-Michel Basquiat, who used art to motivate change. You can see their influences in this work as I’ve shared my identity and a story of how my community shaped me, growing up in Cherbourg; home to many tribes, but one community. Even for the Blackfellas who have passed on, this artwork reminds us that our culture, one of the oldest on Earth, lives on unchanging and eternal: we keep the fire burning.

Title: Ignorance is the ignition
Medium: Installation
School: Harristown State High School

Artist Statement:
Inspired by the works of contemporary artists Bindi Cole and Tony Albert, Ignorance is the ignition, is a cry-out to our politician’s to commit to revitalising traditional Indigenous customs and practice of back-burning in an effort to prevent the catastrophic bushfires that destroy lives, community and habitat. In 2020, the Indigenous community tried to communicate to the present government that back-burning needed to be implemented to decrease the severity of bushfires in Australia. In our government’s ignorance and neglection, 2020 saw the catastrophic destruction of land, animals and people. My work is a call to people in power to listen to local Indigenous custodians and Elders of the land and to restore traditional practice and knowledge that can help prevent these events occurring again.

Title: the big empty
Medium: Film/electronic imaging
School: Highlands Christian College

Artist Statement:
the big empty is a short, hand-drawn animation using a monochrome colour palette. It depicts a man waking up to the large roar of a crowd and heading outside to the source of the noise. Staring across a large chasm at the Earth, the source of the uproar, he prepares himself and takes a running jump to bridge the gap, failing and falling into the abyss. His house is not the only one cut off from others, there are many like him, numerous as stars in the sky. the big empty encourages the audience to consider how their actions, or lack of them, can shape others. It does this by positioning the audience from the perspective of someone who has been cast out by others and showing their raw and desperate desire to connect and belong through metaphor.

Title: Her Uncovered Reality
Medium: Printed text on acetate over synthetic polymer on canvas
School: Fairholme College

Artist Statement:
Forced to put on a smile and hide their realities, women are constantly faced with blatant sexism and its drastic after-affects in every aspect of their lives. To bring to light the often-unnoticed mistreatment of women stark black lettering covers the entirety of the canvas which creates a contrast with the light feministic colours and elegant style of the painting. The lettering depicts just some of the realities of women’s lives, portraying discrimination in the fields of health/medicine, wages and education as well as sexual violence/crimes and domestic violence. A feeling of connection between the viewer and the depicted woman is created by being life sized and looking towards the viewer. The irremovable stain that sexism leaves on women’s lives is depicted through the black letters seemingly tainting the pristine image. The viewers are invited to investigate the realities of ‘womanhood’ but also act with the red empowering word ‘unstoppable’.

Title: Butcher Shop
Medium: Painting
School: Toowoomba State High School

Artist Statement:
Butcher Shop is a distorted reality where animals replace humans at the top of the food chain, and humans are farmed industrially to meet the consumption demands of food supply. Eerily familiar, Butcher Shop considers what humans would feel to be ethical or humane treatment to be when situations are reversed. The scenario accepts meat as part of the diet for omnivores, but poses the question of greed (the pig) tempting our loyalty (the dog) with cuts of meat. The dog hungrily accepts the meat, literally biting the hand that feeds him, a metaphor for the exploitative treatment by industrial farming practices our protein-based food sources endure for our excessive appetites. The further removed we are from the animals with whom we share this earth, the less humane we become, our sense of empathy and morality are bent towards serving the self and not the greater good.

Title: Lost Steps
Medium: Installation
School: Pittsworth State High School

Artist Statement:
Step into a haunting realm where childhood innocence meets the stark reality of conflict. Hundreds of small, torn shoes—each covered in charcoal—stand as silent sentinels, representing the children lost to wars and cultural conflicts over the past decade. This installation invites you to navigate a landscape of absence, where each pair of shoes tells a story of a life abruptly cut short. The charcoal, an ancient and elemental medium, coats these shoes in a sombre veil, capturing the pervasive darkness and destruction that accompany war. Once symbols of play, growth, and discovery, these shoes now serve as solemn markers of loss and memory, each one a poignant reminder of the fragility and preciousness of life. This artwork is not just a memorial but a profound call to reflection and empathy. This installation challenges contemporary audiences to envision a world where every child’s footstep can be heard and cherished.

Title: Complacency
Medium: Photograph
School: Mary Mackillop Catholic College

Artist Statement:
Complacency or Film still #3 is the most powerful image from a series of portrait images of self. In the personal and contemporary context, I explore manipulations of my own image to represent inner feelings and the multitude of identities I have in my personal reality. While they are images of self, they are also non-literal metaphors for the innumerable masks we may wear everyday as we proceed into adulthood. I am anonymous, religious, and everything everywhere all at once. I channel both the techniques of the street art of Mr Brainwash and the complexity of Cindy Shermans multiple personas.

Title: Bergen
Medium: Drawing
School: Mary Mackillop Catholic College

Artist Statement:
Bergen is normally a bustling up market restaurant, in this case however, devoid of people. Literally a study of old and new, a construction of inanimate glass, brick, and timber. Beautiful in the simplicity of the stillness and the space in which it exists, a single moment in time. Created in the contemporary context the space itself is personal now also. Non-literally this is a place of hopes and dreams, of memories, of celebrations and commemorations. The entire range of human experience infuses the walls. The audience is invited into this empty space, to exist with it, perhaps recognise it.

Title: Who am I?
Medium: Selected film stills printed onto brushed aluminium
School: Fairholme College

Artist Statement:
Who am I? dives into the complex layers of the human self, initially explored through a multi-layered video format; this triptych of selected film stills portrays a montage of my own life, inserting little snippets of my childhood that are perfectly intertwined with my contemporary self. Using this dual dynamic of myself, I also embodied these differences within the photography, creating a ‘two-sidedness’ to the work. Viewers are invited to contemplate the authenticity of their own existence and spark the question of whether our identities are based on how we perceive each other’s worth in a society fraught with conformity and judgement.