touring exhibition - Queensland Art Gallery

touring exhibition

Front cover artwork: Carmen Holmes/Centenary Heights State High School/Silhouettes 2009 (detail)/Digital photograph

Message from the Minister
2010 Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art and Design
Artists can communicate powerful messages often without saying a word, transforming ideas into images that can touch,
provoke and inspire.
The 40 talented students chosen for the 2010 Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art and Design deliver such an
experience. Through art forms including drawing, digital media, photography and painting they explore their deepest thoughts.
The pieces were chosen from more than 500 entries from state and non-state school students across Queensland and explore
issues and complex themes that invite viewers to contemplate culture, history and the world around them.
The student artists benefited from the five-day residential workshop they attended in Brisbane in September/October 2009
with professional artists, and the touring exhibition across the State offers exposure and experience.
The Department of Education and Training welcomes the support of the Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland Museum and
Gallery Services Queensland in bringing the award-winner work to a wider audience.
The awards, which began in 1990, have undergone a name change but continue their purpose of recognising creative
young people while encouraging them to further develop their talents.
Please enjoy this snapshot of Queensland’s next creative generation whose talents promise great potential
for our future.
Geoff Wilson MP
Minister for Education and Training

Jaimee Abbay 6
Sophie Farmer 11
Allison Beech 6
Ashleigh Firmin 11
Philippa Cary 7
George Gabey 12
Rachel Choi 7
Mirika Guffin 12
Laura Collins 8
Melany Hayes 13
Ella Cottle 8
Neil Hiscocks 13
Nicola Curro 9
Carmen Holmes 14
Jenna Daley 9
Bridget Hooper 14
Brayden Doig 10
Ruby Hughes 15
Claire Dunne 10
Sarah Hylton 15

Dylan Janssen 16
Laura Moffat 21
Yui Kimura 16
Kirstin Payne 21
Samantha Knight 17
Sarah Poulgrain 22
Brighde Lewis 17
Eloise Soper-Smith 22
Megan Mabin 18
Alanah Toleman 23
Natalie Maher 18
Stephanie Tomoana 23
Romany Maunder 19
Nicholas Warfield 24
Ashleigh McInnes 19
Hannah Whiteley 24
Susan McTaggart 20
Bernadine Yong 25
Chiho Miyagi 20
Chris Yung 25

Jaimee
Abbay
Gladstone State High School
Street Lights – Digital print on paper
Street Lights portrays my street in a way it is rarely
seen – at night. It depicts it as creepy, scary, eerie and
never-ending. As soon as the street lights are turned on,
it transforms into an almost supernatural world. The five
digitally enhanced photographs portray five different
views of the street (detail shown here).
Allison
Beech
Lourdes Hill College, Brisbane
Are not Titles just another way to condense purity
– Installation of screen-prints on paper
Are not Titles just another way to condense purity into meaningless,
digestible fodder for the masses? Life within a capitalist economy is morally
degrading, suffocates the spirit and feels like a denial of basic liberties.
This dystopia snuck up on humanity with promises of happiness, only
to suppress all possibility of equality and justice. Our economic system
is hailed as the sacred cow of a progressive society and rationalism has
obliterated any faith in the conscience of humanity.
6

Philippa
Cary
Whitsunday Anglican School, Mackay
Family Ties – Framed installation of sticks and mixed media
Family Ties is a work that deals with the connection of significant dates
and events using photographic media, organic forms and text. It is about
the connections between me and my family, and the long journey we have
endured together, being forced to leave our homeland of Zimbabwe. Like
the blueprints of a home, the small sticks bound together symbolise the
map of my journey. The tags portray each person in my family uniquely, and
represent how each has helped me progress through this journey in their
own way.
Rachel
Choi
Somerville House, Brisbane
Of Cloudy Climes and Starless Skies
– Installation of photos, umbrella and feathers
I find myself increasingly in awe of the sky
— it is unlike any other place. It is ethereal and ephemeral;
it is beautiful, serene, cheerful and fierce. It is all these
things, yet we are never able to actively engage with the
sky. The hand-stitched umbrella expresses the barrier of
intangibility as it travels a journey of emancipation through
the sky — from sunrise to sunset, allowing us to dream.
Through a combination of hand-stitching and hot glue on
actual feathers, I used Photoshop to place my umbrella
image into shots of the sky at different times of the day.
7

Laura
Collins
Springwood State High School, Brisbane
Colourless Non-existence – Mixed media
The chameleon blends into his new backgrounds, morphing from once vivid greens to murky
monochromes. He symbolises endemic organisms that are being displaced to ongoing
evolving and transformed environments. He is seen as invisible, his ability to camouflage
disappearing as a result of the implications of a burgeoning human race. The sculpture
represents a generic building showing the grimy side of humanity, with metal trees sprouting
menacingly from its top. Our environment is made up of much unwanted and disposable
matter. There is a true danger, in the future, of uniqueness and beauty being transformed
into colourless non-existence.
8
Ella
Cottle
Fairholme College, Toowoomba
Kaleidoscope – Manipulated
digital photography
This series of split-second photographs explores
how the human eye can often miss the beauty
that surrounds us and also aims to highlight
the importance of colour. Different shades and
tones can convey mood to personality, and
intriguing shapes can be created by the simplest
movement of popping a paint-filled balloon.
The light within the cubes illustrate how inner
desires and passions illuminate these distinctive
characteristics. Also, layering on the white figure
and of the clear slides symbolise that every
individual is a blank canvas on which experiences
and decisions create a unique sequence of
colours that is ever changing.

Nicola
Curro
Dalby State High School
Brighter Brights and Whiter
Whites – Installation
Brighter Brights and Whiter Whites
is a comment on the assumed
‘assimilation’ of Australian society with
the Australian citizenship tests. My
artwork was influenced by a personal
experience with my own cultural
background and questions the validity
of this testing in contemporary society.
Jenna
Daley
Brisbane State High School
Camouflage – Mixed media drawing
This work is influenced by the European interception of Australia’s Indigenous
culture and its people. It explores the exploitation of tribal customs as
fashionable trends among European culture. The Indigenous masking of the
18th century European women in these images serves as resistant commentary
on the adoption of ‘white’ culture that was once forced upon Australia’s
Indigenous people. The drawing has been completed in white-out correction
pens to further enhance the satirical comment of cultural subversion.
9

Brayden
Doig
Anglican Church Grammar School, Brisbane
The Familiar Intruder – DVD
I have lived in Papua New Guinea for 10 years. As a foreign resident, I often feel like
a familiar intruder. In this work, I have allowed the viewer to connect to the people
and environment of coastal villages in a similarly familiar but alienated manner.
By repeatedly juxtaposing filmic tropes such as directional movement, suggesting
travel, and visual penetration of a window space, documentary-style footage, sound
scapes and self-portraiture, I constructed a dialogue about cultural relationships.
The friendly responses of the people and alienating cinematic techniques, position
the viewer problematically, as being both foreign and familiar.
Claire
Dunne
The Cathedral College, Rockhampton
History Repeats Itself – Mixed media,
wood, turps released on calico
I wanted to portray the injustices of adulthood throughout the modern world.
To portray this unfairness between marginalised groups and people in power I have
decided to make a circle of significant events in history that seem to be occurring
over and over again. The concept I have used is history repeats itself. My idea is
based around a circle. That a circle’s beginning and end is an illusion; where is the
start and finish of something? Focusing on this concept, the viewer is asked the
question — when will horrific events in history stop — I hope the project will have
the viewer walking away questioning the injustices of the world and adulthood.
10

Sophie
Farmer
Goondiwindi State High School
The Last Lie – Installation
Thirteen muslin, wine-soaked bottles are a metaphor for the last lie, symbolising the story
of Saint Sophia, who watched her three children killed before her. This analogy satirises the
confessional and communion ceremony performed to wash away sin and plead for forgiveness.
The thirteen bottles, made of wine and muslin form a drunken line, making a contemporary
mockery of Jesus and his disciples. The swaddling muslin forms the bottles, configuring the last
supper where betrayal, guilt and lies prevailed. The thin veils of muslin struggle to maintain the
form and contain the leaking of the last lie.
Ashleigh
Firmin
William Ross State High School, Townsville
Underground Alley – Watercolour/mixed
My work was inspired after discovering a book registered with the
Bookcrossing.com website, which encourages people in the practice of
leaving books in public places to be passed on. These books are identified
by their labels, which can be seen in the background of my work. While
books take their readers on journeys, books also take their own journeys,
hence the book passing from hand to hand.
11

George
Gabey
Tagai State College – Thursday Island Secondary
Spirits of the Totems – Lead pencil on paper
This artwork was produced as part of my senior art studies in drawing
techniques. The image represents my relationship with my totems, how
they influence the way I act, move and think; where I come from in the
spirit world. The faces in the drawing represent my ancestors, their tears
showing them looking down and watching over me.
Mirika
Guffin
Centenary Heights State High School, Toowoomba
Yupik Unknown – Digital photography
12
Born in a small town located in north-west Alaska, I grew up learning about aspects of Yupik culture.
Dance played a very prominent role. As a young child, I took this for granted and unfortunately, this
unique part of native Alaskan culture is fading, disappearing from today’s modern world. I wanted to
portray the importance and pureness of the Yupik culture. The photos are composed of a traditionally
dressed Yupik woman posing in various dance postures. I chose black and white over colour because
I believe it presents the truth with the powerful contrast between black and white — much like the
contrast between Yupik and contemporary culture.

Melany
Hayes
Mirani State High School
Work Will Set You Free – Mixed media on unframed canvas
Auschwitz–Birkenau, the notorious Polish extermination camp, was the
fundamental site of the systematic and efficiently executed genocide at
the hands of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Its incarcerated
victims of mass executions, starvation, disease and medical experiments
were disposed of at the purpose-built incinerators, the ashes being
processed like merchandise and physically recycled for consumption.
Ultimately they became absorbed by the landscape, supporting life in
a horrific and paradoxical cycle of cannibalistic recycling. Through the
ephemeral quality of the clay and the symbolic use of hair and ash, the
physical human condition of Auchwitz–Birkenau is represented.
Neil
Hiscocks
Rosewood State High School
Voices – DVD
Voices was created as an interpretation taken
from the broad stimulus topic of the human
condition. Specifically the work reflects on the
condition of schizophrenia through a visual and
auditory interpretation of the emotions that
could exist within a sufferer of this disorder.
I attempted to provoke mystery, uncontrolled
tension and a sense of fear onto the audience
through shot composition, soundtrack and
editing.
13

Carmen
Holmes
Centenary Heights State High School, Toowoomba
Silhouettes – Digital photographs
Silhouettes is a series of photographs which reflects upon the concepts of
consumerism and conformity. It represents how the world and its people
are changing around us. Each element reflects upon one of society’s many
growing issues and how that issue is absorbed by people. The characters
represent views of the way I see certain people and social groups.
By creating this series, my aim is to train a spotlight on my interpretation
of human issues and make that interpretation creative and interesting for
the viewer. Silhouettes presents images of our ever changing society and
its people.
Bridget
Hooper
The Cathedral College, Rockhampton
The Evolution of Nature
– Wire encased in perspex
The theme for my artwork is adulthood. I chose
to use wire and metal-related materials to create
my artwork. By using these materials I was able
to incorporate binary opposites (man-made and
natural). I did not want my message to be obvious.
I wanted the viewer to think and see different things
when they look at my artwork, like the stages of a
butterfly. When people look at this artwork, I would
like them to see that, just like us, the environment
matures, as well as the evolution of nature.
14

Ruby
Hughes
Emmaus College, Rockhampton
Wolf! Run like Hell! – Mixed media on board
There is a reference to the fairytale Red Riding Hood in my response to the question ‘Who are we?’
The first layering of torn newsprint and photocopies of my younger self represents the memories and
things we are told as a child. The wolf symbolises the pressure and truths in growing up. The forest,
painted like a children’s illustration, represents the safety of family and home, and then a self-portrait
of me is casting a shadow of threat towards the chaotic, muddy torn newsprint of the way the world
really seems to be. This artwork represents what it feels like (to me) to be a teenager.
Sarah
Hylton
Immanuel Lutheran College, Maroochydore
Stuck in the Suburbs – Wall hanging
Single-family homes, commuters and cookie cutter houses — these are all characteristics of inner
suburbia that are now beginning to show around the world. The long represented ‘American dream’ is so
sought after nowadays that its original values have been lost to the test of time. It may take more than
119 houses for people to realise what has truly become of suburban living, but this is my attempt to draw
attention to this ever changing societal structure.
15

Dylan
Janssen
Nerang State High School, Gold Coast
The Janssen Portable Steam-Powered Rhythmitical
Audio Developing Machine – Sculpture
Appearing old, yet able to communicate with the future, The Janssen
Portable Steam-Powered Rhythmitical Audio Developing Machine, 2009,
follows a rich history of the readymade and the guitar as subject matter
in art history, while adopting more contemporary, steam-punk inspired
techniques of construction. This object questions the concepts connected
to the mass production of consumer goods. An imagined future, where
electricity no longer exists, and steam power is the main power source
driving our modern technologies, is proposed as a result of the creation
of The Janssen Portable Steam-Powered Rhythmitical Audio Developing
Machine.
Yui
Kimura
Trinity Bay State High School, Cairns
Tortured Bonsai – Installation
16
The motif of a much loved but slowly tortured bonsai tree expresses
the conflicts I experience in my own life – between wanting to
make my own choices and being constantly constrained by others’
expectations. The cultural control associated with the art of Japanese
bonsai, can be related to my struggle living in two cultures.
The organic shapes of the tortured bonsai tree suggest the fragility
of the tree. The tacked together transparent layers, and traced lines
depict how interconnected and tangled my emotions are.

Samantha
Knight
Urangan State High School,
Hervey Bay
Untitled – Digital images
Happiness can be used as a mask, hiding
feelings behind bright colours and smiling
faces. In time these masks become
transparent and people see what is really
there.
Brighde
Lewis
Holland Park State High School, Brisbane
Wired – Wire sculpture
My technological space is fundamental to my sense of self. I have
spent a large portion of my life in the virtual world. I use technology
to create private space for relaxation, inspiration, communication
and entertainment. Cyberspace is as real to me as the real world. I
am interested in the sculptural properties of wire. Wire is strong but
flexible and allows fluid manipulation to create both organic and
man-made forms. The time that it took to construct the various pieces
reflects the time I spend using them in my space. In order to control the
weaving of the wire, my unprotected hands suffered cuts and blisters.
I derived satisfaction from the physicality of this hands-on art. It made
me examine every detail of the technology and contemplate just how
important each individual piece is to me, and what it represents.
The sound piece I created to accompany the work is made up of various
sounds of all the systems in work — another representation of the
sound of my life.
17

Megan
Mabin
Mackay North State High School
Am I Normal? – Digital photograph
A quirky composition about what society perceives the average
person to be. Many young people, it seems, don’t know who they
are. My artwork is a comical question about what is normal and how
I fit the mould.
Natalie
Maher
Cairns State High School
The Changing Individual – DVD
Referencing Buber’s ‘I and thou’ philosophy, I filmed a recent trip to
Brisbane from Cairns. I projected the footage onto a wall surface and
myself and recorded the event. This film became the base for the next
process. Juxtaposing multiple projected recordings (to reference the
affect of movement on place and self) I immersed myself within two
overlapping projections allowing the lines of reality to blur. The film
of this event is the resolved work. I am interested in the relationship
between my normal life and the changes that occur when I confront
new experiences. In this work I have visually explored the changes and
alterations that I experience in new locations.
18

Romany
Maunder
St Joseph’s College, Toowoomba
Family Ties – Sculpture and mixed media
Family Ties is a sculptural
representation of my identity,
based on my ancestral history.
The balsa wood tree, which
has been embedded into
the driftwood centre of
the sculpture, refers
directly to the notion
of the family tree. I have
included images, text and
information sourced from
my research into my family
history on the base. The driftwood
and wish bones are metaphors for
my family’s connection to water and
water divining. Moreover, this piece
expresses how I see myself
as an extension
of my family’s
blood line.
Ashleigh
McInnes
St Andrew’s Catholic College Redlynch Valley, Cairns
Paper Dreams – 2D, mixed media on paper
This piece was created as part of a school unit ‘Metamorphosis’.
Any medium or support could be used: however, incorporation
of printmaking was a criterion for this unit. I chose to use a
combination of acrylic paint and newspaper. The concept behind
this art piece is that as humans we limit ourselves by fear, and
as long as we play it safe we can never reach our full potential.
Paper cranes flying off the page represents breaking through these
constrictions which inevitably allows us to achieve our wildest
dreams and reach towards unprecedented heights.
19

Susan
McTaggart
Rockhampton Grammar School
Fleeting Moments – Digital prints on paper
The concept behind my arrangement of photographs is simply
movement. I was interested in capturing previous movements of
the subject as they twirled through a dance routine.
The adjustments made to the shutter speed and aperture
enhanced the desired effect, and the contrasting blue and
orange colours brighten the blurred images. The movement of
the human body is the key aspect captured in my artwork, in all
its amazing and different forms.
Chiho
Miyagi
Trinity Bay State High School, Cairns
Reality – Installation
This work depicts my changing emotions to and conflicting perceptions
of my country of origin, Japan. The top sequence of woodblocks
represents the warm atmosphere and cultural affinity I experienced
when visiting Japan as part of a large school tour group. The bottom
tiles depict my sharp contrast in perceptions when I have more recently
travelled to Japan independently for a longer period of time.
This experience left me feeling almost a state of culture shock
and a lasting impression of a culture that is often cold, controlled,
manufactured and contrived.
20

Laura
Moffat
Whitsunday Anglican School, Mackay
An Unfinished Journey – Mixed media and collage on shellac board
My work captures the essence of memory and how these unique moments shape our lives. The work displays a procession
of roughly constructed boats upon a series of postcards and collaged pieces of paper. Each boat displays a sense of
incompletion. The gaping holes in their sides represent the moments in our lives that make each of us unique.
The dripping lines flowing through the prints attempt to traverse the pitfalls between our own biography and those around
us, connecting them together. The oars suspended on either side of the boats are symbolic to my own personal journey.
Kirstin
Payne
Warwick State High School
The Domino Effect – Mixed media
The Domino Effect: A theory that a particular development or event will
trigger the next. Looking at defining moments in the history of the human
race we see wars, scientific breakthroughs, political progressions, pivotal
individuals and prominent civilisations. One event inspires another,
creating connections. My work looks at human history with images
collaged and painted onto dominoes depicting significant moments —
good or bad — toying with the theory of history’s interconnectedness.
21

Sarah
Poulgrain
All Hallows’ School, Brisbane
Facets of a Personality – Pastel on canvas
Youth, as depicted in the three colour images (detail shown here), may
seem to be different in the pensive black and white portrait; yet all are
expressions of the one personality, a combination that adds depth to
the subject. Three facets of personality are displayed, capturing the
moment in colour. The black and white portrait is the source of these
emotions. The serious tone is balanced by the lighting and colour in the
smaller portraits. Suggested in the position of the mouth is the look of
disapproval, while the tongue is simply ‘in your face’, a youthful action.
Eloise
Soper-Smith
Sunshine Beach State High School
Ferry Man – Monoprints/screenprints on paper
Life is a journey, through the exploration of the human condition.
I explored the notion of the journey ... we are born ... we grow ... we
work it out along the way, making choices and decisions that alter
and change the course we are to take ... and then we pass over.
These nine images represent that journey between birth and death
... from the moment we enter the world to the moment
the ferry man takes us to the other side.
22

Alanah
Toleman
Toomwoomba State High School
Graffiti Voices – Photography and mixed media
Graffiti Voices explores the method of communication and selfexpression
which ‘soaks’ school communities in particular.
Society’s perspective on this teenage method of emotional release
is illustrated in the work’s presentation. Graffiti Voices catalogues
students’ attempts at self-expression as inscribed on the bottom of
school desks; photographed and digitally enhanced to highlight the
messages of silent communication.
Stephanie
Tomoana
Albany Creek State High School, Brisbane
Artificial Autopsy – Three Sculptures
Dissect with a Photoshop scalpel, add 15 acrylic blood slices and frame in a Dexter style slide box. An autopsy
is a performance. An examination of the body, brain and heart. We dissect and slice into the core. When life is
attributed to the mundane — a fire extinguisher, a shoe, a mobile phone — their bodies replicate a carcass that
can be sliced into the five major layers: the skin, the blood vessels, the muscles, the bones and the heart.
23

Nicholas
Warfield
Iona College, Brisbane
Bloodlines – Mixed media on canvas
Bloodlines is a self-portrait. Through this work I explored the
physical journeys of my day-to-day life. I collected tickets from
places I travelled to, on trains and buses as well as places I have
been (football games, movies and theme parks) over the past few
months and stitched them together using red thread to canvas.
The tickets express my connection to the city and illustrate how the
train lines act like bloodlines in the city; feeding people through its
veins to keep it alive.
Hannah
Whiteley
St Peters Lutheran College, Brisbane
Bagged – Digitally manipulated images
The viewer is confronted with a complex assemblage of images that
carry a message of conflict between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
society. The artwork is another reminder to Australian society of
its shameful relationship with Aborigines around the time of 1880
to 1960 — which now is called the Stolen Generation. The oval
vignetting on the photograph is isolating and therefore illustrates
the passage of time in which the destruction of Aboriginal society
occurred. The nation turned a blind eye to this social issue, which
is represented by the placement of the Aboriginal faces within the
paper bag.
24

Bernadine
Yong
Macgregor State High School, Brisbane
Lotus Feet – Acrylic, pen and stitching on canvas
This work explores Chinese foot binding. I am a contemporary
Malaysian Chinese. I have no immediate connection with this
aspect of my heritage. In my investigations, I have attempted to
bridge the gap between the old world and the new. These canvases
present the binding process and represent the irony of torturing self
in the name of beauty. The stitching simulates the ornate shoes that
shod the grotesque lotus feet, while the increasingly ornate patterns
from the first to the last canvas represent the elevated status that
the women obtain as a result.
Chris
Yung
Macgregor State High School, Brisbane
The Other World – Digital print
Anxiety, seclusion and depression influence modern teenagers. Various aspects and events in a teen’s life can cause this. Modern youth
is so overwhelmingly pressured by the heavy demands of school. Some teens choose to escape through the internet and exist in another
reality. They use technology to build a less pressured environment away from school. I have deliberately utilised the stressful landscape of
school to construct an alternative, happier other world. This is a place where we as teens are not burdened. The imagery, though, is intended
to suggest that this alternative utopia only further serves to dislocate us and makes our connection to what is real more intangible.
25

26
Notes

Jaimee Abbay
Brayden Doig
Carmen Holmes
Megan Mabin
Sarah Poulgrain
Allison Beech
Claire Dunne
Bridget Hooper
Natalie Maher
Eloise Soper-Smith
Philippa Cary
Sophie Farmer
Ruby Hughes
Romany Maunder
Alanah Toleman
Rachel Choi
Ashleigh Firmin
Sarah Hylton
Ashleigh McInnes
Stephanie Tomoana
Laura Collins
George Gabey
Dylan Janssen
Susan McTaggart
Nicholas Warfield
Ella Cottle
Mirika Guffin
Yui Kimura
Chiho Miyagi
Hannah Whiteley
Nicola Curro
Melany Hayes
Samantha Knight
Laura Moffat
Bernadine Yong
Jenna Daley
Neil Hiscocks
Brighde Lewis
Kirstin Payne
Chris Yung
DET MAR 2010