Tasmanian School of Art, Centre for the Arts, Hobart
Friday 7th May 2010
By Anneliese Milk
When the work of eighty secondary school art students from across the state is brought together under the one roof, you can expect the atmosphere to be diverse and electric, with the occasional nuance of teen-angst. Presented by the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, ArtRage 2009 encapsulates all of that and more. It is an engaging and sprawling exhibition representing every possible medium, theme, colour and emotion.
What is initially striking about these emerging artists is their evident mastery within their chosen mediums. A sweeping statement, perhaps, yet a large portion of the work on display is as technically sound as you would expect to encounter in the work of artists twice their age.
Take for instance Will Brown’s Super Street. In this witty and colourful digital print, the subject is duplicated several times along a streetscape in various stages of undress before revealing himself as a superhero taking flight and saving the day.
In Faces of Time, Kristy Holmberg transmutes photocopies of clock faces, shellac, gold paint and a discarded mattress frame into a rusted sculpture that conveys the eerie silence of passing time.
Sophie Einoder depicts a larger-than-life scene of partygoers entitled Born or Bred? Using a combination of acrylic and spray paint, the garishly coloured party-scene brings together a group of fun-loving individuals, united by their youth and lust for life. On closer inspection of the crowd, you soon discover the hauntingly indelible face of Martin Bryant blankly staring out from amongst them. Einoder’s poignant question resonates.
The Examiners’ Choice winner Katherine Goudsouzian explores the fragmentary nature of photography in her digital inkjet photographic series Piece by Fractured Piece. Overlapping fragmented images of the one interior, Goudsouzian gradually builds up an entire scene of a room. This technique is then repeated across several panels to create different rooms of the same house. Emphasising the transitory aspect of human existence, Goudsouzian avoids representing her subjects as whole – a detached pair of legs, for instance, are all that remains of human presence in a bathroom scene.
On show at the Tasmanian School of Art until the 29th of May, ArtRage 2009 ushers forth an exciting revelation: art in Tasmanian schools is alive and well, paving the way for a rich and exciting arts’ community of the future.
