WA Art Gallery showcases Year 12 art

ARTWORK by four northern suburbs students features in a refreshed Year 12 Perspectives exhibition this year.

The Art Gallery of WA has renamed the annual exhibition Pulse Perspectives as part of a broader strategy to engage mid-late teens.

AGWA Pulse is a year-round program aimed at 15 to 21-year-olds, which will see a series of events, online content and the formation of a Pulse teen council.

The headline event remains the Perspectives exhibition, which runs from April 6 to July 22.

AGWA director Stefano Carboni said young people were agents of change, so the exhibition and gallery were changing with them.

“Today’s younger generations have grown up in a digital world, a conflicted world, a connected world, an unstable world,” he said.

“They are engaged, politically aware, and eager to participate and contribute to the social and cultural discourse.

“It is time to create a meaningful platform that connects with these teens and young adults in their world.”

Judge Dunja Rmandic said it was evident that the concerns of young people are global and political, reflecting themes such as “wilful human impact on the environment, social and political control and cultural hybridity”.

This year’s exhibition features 46 works by 2018 Year 12 visual arts graduates from 31 schools across WA.

Tapping resident Connor Fallon, who attended Wanneroo Secondary College, will have his piece Boys don’t cry on display.

Connor said the mixed textile work represented the gender ideals people ‘wrap’ children in from birth.

“The toxicity of traditional masculinity is detrimental to men’s mental health, as I have witnessed through the deteriorating mental health of the males in my own family,” he said.

“This blanket has been constructed with stereotypically masculine textiles.

“A baby blanket is something that should be used to protect our young and impressionable children, but instead this blanket may very well suffocate and do more damage than good.”

Lauren Hazebroek from Woodvale Secondary College found inspiration for her sculpture Knit me together in my mother’s womb in biblical verse.

“This speaks of our relationship with our maker,” she said.

“I have chosen to intricately crochet the heart and female reproductive system, which are vital for life.

“I placed them in a sterile environment to represent the crossroads of traditional and modern values.

“Although I wish to pursue a career in science, I am conflicted by the idea that my role in society is to create and care for new life.”

Quinns Rocks teen Thasa Hendricks, who attended Peter Moyes Anglican Community School, portrayed US President Donald Trump in her watercolour drawing, Mad world.

“I wanted to produce a piece that portrayed Donald Trump as a ‘clown’ and a ‘mad man’,” she said.

“The use of negative space in the work symbolises that Trump lacks substance, that his image is false and can often be constructed by the manipulation of the media.

“The Mad Hatter imagery is intended to convey my belief that his mental capacity is laughable and that he is putting on a show.”

In her Deliverance sculpture, Kingsley’s Rosie Janes, from Prendiville Catholic College, illustrated the lyrics from a song in the musical Les Miserables, ‘Do You Hear The People Sing’.

“I aimed to convey the power of literacy with reference to how knowledge has been withheld from vast populations throughout history,” she said.

“It has only been in relatively recent times that technology has provided access to empower the majority.

“I investigated and authentically recreated the main forms of writing throughout history, using as many traditional techniques, tools and materials as possible.

Visit artgallery.wa.gov.au for more information.