rmit master of fine arts graduate catalogue 2015

CARAGH BROOKS

PEARL FEARN-WANNAN

ZAINAB HIKMET

SHAUN-JOEL LIEW

CATHY MUHLING

XIAO (SENYE) SHEN

SIMON CROSBIE

LEE GOLLER

RAHIMA JACKSON

CHENGLIN MIAO

JUDITH ROBERTS

JINGYI (CICI) WANG

MARTIN GEORGERAHAF GHONEIM

KATIA HONOUR

RAPHAELA MAZZONE

SARAH RANDALL

NIGEL TAN

NICOLE EVANS

PEIZHI (PEARL) HAN

AMANDA LAMING

LILACH MILEIKOWSKI

RALF REHAK

SHANGDA YE

© RMIT University 2015, Copyright in the individual essays and artwork remains vested with the individual authors and artists. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process, electronic or otherwise without the permission in writing from the publishers and authors. Neither may information be stored electronically in any form whatsoever without such permission. All opinions expressed in the material contained in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily of the publisher.

School of Art RMIT University PO Box 2476 Melbourne Victoria 3001 Australia t. +61 3 9925 1988 F. +61 3 9925 3755 www.rmit.edu.au

Copyright

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Contents

List of StaffIntroductionCaragh BrooksSimon CrosbieNicole Evans Pearl Fearn-WannanMartin GeorgeRahaf Ghoneim Lee GollerPeizhi (Pearl) HanZainab HikmetKatia Honour Rahima Jackson Amanda Laming

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Shaun-Joel Liew Raphaela MazzoneChenglin MiaoLilach MileikowskiCathy MuhlingSarah Randall Judith RobertsRalf Rehak Xiao (Senye) ShenNigel TanJingyi (Cici) WangShangda YeFinal Note

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MFA Program Manager: Assoc Prof Dominic Redfern

Academic Advisors: Dr Michael Graeve Jan Nelson Steven Rendall Sally Mannall Dr Laresa Kosloff

Sally Cleary Peter Cripps Dr Mark Edgoose Dr Ruth Johnstone Dr Nikos Pantazopolous Prof Lesley Duxbury Assoc Prof Kevin White

Technical Officer:  Alan Roberts

MFA Professional Practice Advanced Seminar:  Phip Murray

2015 Presenters: Atticus Bastow Philip Samartzis Polly Stanton Tara McDowell Tama tk Favell Sam Comte Liang Luscombe Martina Copley Tessa Blazey Justin Clemens Charles O’Loughlin Antoinette J. Citizen Martine Corompt  Joanna Bosse

List of Staff

Astrid Krautschneider  Maryanne Sammut David Chesworth Tassia Joannides  Jess Johnson Penny Modra Max Olinjnyk John Wolseley Helen Berkemeier Jeremy Wortsman Melissa Loughnan Naomi Cass Tony Yap

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Introduction

It’s hard to believe it is 9 months since I joined the MFA community – the time has flown by. It would be nice to think that’s because it’s my first year but I fear it is simply the pace of the MFA!

When Sally Mannall first showed me the documents students produce to map their progress across the program, I was shocked at the pace and scope of their development. I found it hard to imagine how such rapid and expansive progress was possible in the short time frame of the MFA. Well I have witnessed it now. It is possible, and entirely due to the hard work of students and teachers alike.

I really need to congratulate and commend the wonderful staff of the MFA: Dr. Michael Graeve, Sally Mannall, Jan Nelson, Dr. Laresa Kosloff, Steven Rendall and the specialist teachers Dr. Mark Edgoose, Professor Lesley Duxbury and Associate Professor Kevin White who give so generously of their time. The range of practices enabled and supported by the MFA is a great source of pleasure and pride to me: we are a home to ceramicists – they like to say they’re not ceramicists, don’t ask me why; we have painters who can paint – hallelujah; an artist who draws beautifully and so has abandoned it altogether to scrawl her thoughts across walls; an engineer following in the tradition of RMIT engineers turned sculptors; a man who knits; a woman who knots; female armourers; a poetic post-photographer; a caricaturist of withering acuity; an architect using the three little pigs as his template; and of course our very brave and hardworking international students which include a Syrian grappling with the geo-political nightmare that has erased her home, two thoughtful and playful Singaporeans grappling with abstraction across media and meaning; and our five Chinese students who have taught us so much about the evolving and critical sensibilities of the emergent Chinese middle class.

We are so very excited to be a hub of critical practice for our region and look forward to growing this capacity in years to come. I want to congratulate all of you on your hard work and enormous growth and rather than wishing you farewell I welcome you into the community of practice that is the RMIT MFA Alumni.

Associate Professor Dominic Redfern

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My practice explores self-representation within contemporary western youth culture through autobiographical caricature and acerbic cartoons.

You’re Not Lazy 2015, copic marker on paper, 21 x 29.7 cm.

Ugh Everyone, 2015, copic marker on paper, 21 x 29.7 cm.

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Caragh Brooks

caraghbrooks.com

caragh_brooks @hotmail.com

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My practice uses knitted sculpture and sound performance to explore themes of childhood trauma and memory. These include: victims and perpetrators, institutional environments, authority and powerlessness, care and neglect, affect, disclosure and non-disclosure. Through creating exaggerated and incongruous garments my intention is to invoke powerful symbols and a sense of horror that plays on the idea of abuse as a violation of nurture.

The institutional environments of these transgressions are explored through scored performance and sound works. Using many participants, they are designed to create

Trauma Piece: The Church, 2014, wool, cotton and polyester, 4 x 4 x 1.5 m.

Simon Crosbie

simon-crosbie.squarespace.com

isoetes @internode.on.net

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tension through playing with audience expectation, and stretching compositional elements that are seen and unseen.

At the core of my work is an individual experience of trauma. However the constituent parts and approaches that go into it are equally individual. My use of the recurrent motif of the distorted jumper/sweater, my recourse to specific techniques of machine knitting, and my engagement with processes that cross over into sound and performance are effectively a personal statement of my way of attempting to deal with the past. The end result is a body of work that conveys the horror of abuse and maps a tortuous journey of affect.

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The idea that feminine identity is constructed or controlled via visual culture is the central concept of this project. Feminist theory as well as psychoanalytic theory informs much of this questioning of feminine identity and the space we inhabit in contemporary society. The resulting artwork from this enquiry is a series of portraits appropriated from contemporary popular, Western visual culture.

The images I appropriate exemplify what the media constantly presents as the perfect woman and I find myself paradoxically drawn to these unattainable beauties yet loathing them simultaneously. This tension or bind creates a kind of dichotomy within the psyche and it is this tension that my work aims to highlight.

Voiceless, 2015, oil on board, two panels, 80 x 60cm each.

Nicole Evans

nicole_evans_

n_evans @bigpond.com

nicoleevansart

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My work is investigating protection from a feminine viewpoint. In its entirety the work is an army of warriors. Each piece functions as a unit designed to guard one element of the individual. There are ten warriors. Each fighter is wearing protective body armour as well as gear specific to the body part they are responsible for. They are deliberately aggressive as their purpose is to stave off attack; only taking action if compelled to.

Ballistic Face Mask, 2015, soft plastic fishing lures and 23 carat yellow gold, 430 x 260 mm.

Pearl Fearn- Wannan

pearlthegirl01

thepearlofnutfield @hotmail.com

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Martin-George is an Australian born artist who investigates the tension between sincerity and irony, often inviting his audience to participate. Martin brings a playful narrative to sculpture in all metals and stone.

Gold Bling, 2015, painted steel chain, 700 x 70 x 70 cm.

Industrial Pommel, 2015, painted steel and pommel horse, 300 x 150 x 130 cm.

Metastasize, 2015, painted steel, 350 x 300 x 90 cm.

Martin George

iammartingeorge.com

info@iammartingeorge.com

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This Project explores the effects of war on the children of Syria, specifically those who are fighting on the front lines and are labelled as child soldiers. The project symbolises the mass recruitment, deindividuation and loss of innocence through print, photo manipulation and installation.

Masked: a visual reality of child soldiers, 2015, print, 260 x 220 cm.

Rahaf Ghoneim

behance.net/rahafghoneim

Ghoneim.rahaf @gmail.com

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Layered Reality 1, 2015, collage, drawing, paint, papers, wire, frames and objects, 100 x 85 cm.

A Layered Reality 2, 2015, collage, drawing, paint, papers, wire, frame and objects, 100 x 85 cm.

In my work – a series of mixed collage and assemblages – there is a non-literal visual narrative exploring the chaotic and multi-layered richness and confusion of post-modern reality. I have attempted to show the magic and poetry, and the intensity of experience inherent in the awareness that there is no single perspective, but many. These make up a composite narrative which is obscure but fascinating.

Lee Goller

lee.goller4 @bigpond.com

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Filters, 2015, watercolour paint, 38 x 38 cm.

Chinese Scale, 2015, watercolour paint, 52 x 52 cm.

This studio based project will focus on feminine identity in contemporary Chinese culture and will explore such issues as censorship, the popularity of the selfie and plastic surgery. All the works will be created using realistic watercolour painting on paper.

Peizhi (Pearl) Han

tigerpearl0818 @gmail.com

Pearl Han

pearlpearltiger

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Zainab’s practice aims to articulate the fluidity of time through the use of temporal materials. Sculptural art objects are produced using materials undergoing physical transformation – tracing moments in time. She intends to evoke notions such as presence and absence, and a blurring of borders between past and present, in order to expose certain melancholic undertones within her works.

Emulsion on Raw Linen, 2014, photographic b/w liquid emulsion, primed raw linen, pine, 40 x 40cm.

Zainab Hikmet

zainab.hikmet.co.nz

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Katia Honour’s paintings speak of spirituality within contemporary psychedelic counter-culture.

Her use of light, colour and shifting forms express the confused and beautiful hunt for Utopia through spiritual practices involving altered states of consciousness. Each work is an offering of her disorienting, sensorial and sincere experiences obtained through altered states of consciousness during the art making processes.

Katia’s methods and mediums have evolved by abstraction and fusion of past painting styles and their depictions of transcendence and unseen worlds. Her innovative language speaks to festival counter-culture sensibility through the painterly styles of psychedelia, fantastic realism, romanticism and abstraction. To respectfully receive the influences of Fantastic Realism and

Entheo, 2014, oil on canvas, 180 x 112 cm.

Between Worlds, 2015, mixed media installation, 1 x 2 x 2 m.

Katia Honour

katiahonour.com

redbubble.com/people/katiahonour

/KatiaHonourPainter

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Surrealism, Katia supplemented her MFA with an apprenticeship under the esteemed ‘abstract-realist’, Wolfgang Widmoser, who himself was past assistant of Ernst Fuchs and Salvador Dali.

Authenticity and respect for traditions is important in her work. To imbibe her work with trance and altered states of consciousness, she created works while residing and following the cultural practices within a Balinese ashram, an indigenous shamanic community and on-site at counter-culture art & music festivals in UK, Austria, Indonesia and Australia.

The depth of her sincere commitment to content and devotional art practices has lead Katia to be recognised as one of Australia’s foremost “visionary” artists. Her work features at counter-culture festivals and psychedelic symposiums internationally.

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Rahima Jackson’s artwork investigates imagined conscious and subconscious psychological spaces, exploring individual perception in relation to ourselves, others and the external world. She explores these themes through the construction of sculptural ceramic forms. Miniature figures positioned within, activate the spaces inviting contemplation of subjective narratives.

A fictitious separation of ‘mind’ and ‘body’ within the artwork facilitates characterisation of imagined internal conscious states. These manifestations exist as entities contained within unique individual environments; spaces of safety and familiarity, which also inhibit and restrict a contained force. This inhabitation investigates the human desire

Cultivating House Plants, 2015, porcelain, 35 x 40 x 25 cm.

Rahima Jackson

rahimajackson.wordpresss.com

rahimajackson.art @gmail.com

/RahimaWJ

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to be understood and to understand outside of the individual ‘self’, and contemplates the role of perception in the decoding of individual realities.

A sense of ‘whimsy’ removes an overt seriousness from the artwork; narratives utilise objects and actions which resonate with the ‘everyday’, formulating scenes – often light-hearted – which employ a form of metaphorical story telling.

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Witnessing Silence, 2013-2015, Jute thread, ink, gesso, MDF board, liquid graphite, shellac, brushwood, wire, PVA and polaroid frames, dimensions variable.

Witnessing Silence, (detail of crochet), 2013-2015, Jute thread, dimensions variable.

Witnessing Silence, (detail of drawings), 2013-2015 Ink, medium and water, dimensions variable.

Witnessing Silence is presented as an installation comprising three parts. These include crochet hanging sacks, a wall of handwritten text and a mass of diaristic drawings. This project reflects upon and becomes a process for the collection and manifestation of stories of transference, vulnerability, obsession and trauma. This project is conceptually located within psychoanalytic thought and contemporary art practice.

Amanda Laming

amandalaming @live.com

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Untitled (Ether), 2015, untreated pine, synthetic polymer paint and zinc alloy, dimensions variable.

Untitled (from Growth), 2015, untreated pine, zinc hinges, branches, thread, plywood, synthetic polymer paint, steel wool and vinegar, dimensions variable.

This project explores both the visual and sensory language of ethereality and notions surrounding energy and multidimensionalism.

Departing from ancient practices of meditation, mainly from Buddhist, Taoist and Hindu philosophies, I investigate my own spiritual process of (re)connecting with the perceived and conceived Universe. I have adopted a pragmatic coalition of Eastern and Western spiritual beliefs that have been the grounds of the mathematical and analytical processes of uncovering the universality of nature, cosmos and the consciousness of being.

The utilisation of geometry points to a unified symbolic language between fundamental structures of nature and the universe, of micro and macrocosmos, acting as an esoteric mediator between dimensional realms. This has further

Shaun-Joel Liew

www.shaunjoel.com

/shaunjoelliew

/shaunjoel

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developed into Platonic structures to further enact the iconography of creation, expansion and destruction cycles.

The inclusion of natural materials within the body of work seeks to encourage a breakdown of mental boundaries between subject and object, by allowing the materials to ‘purely exist’ in space; postulating thought, consciousness and existence as interconnected and undifferentiated to the internal and external nature of the human experience. 03

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This project uses extended hand-written ‘wordscapes’ created through collaborative Happenings to examine the possibilities, limits and power of language in its role as a mediator between internal and external worlds.

Stream of Consciousness #1, 2015, copic marker on wall, 3 x 13 m.

Raphaela Mazzone

raphaelamazzone.com

raphaela @themazzone.com

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This project explores ideas of stillness, contemplation and mindfulness. Inspired by Zen aesthetic principles, it utilises light and composition in photographs and video. I approach the process of making art as a kind of meditation which challenges rational thinking as a path to knowing, and engages in a secular search for wholeness and calmness.

Night of City, 2015, printed photographic image, 100 x 75 cm each.

ChengLin Miao

ermiao105-6 @qq.com

/lin.miao.372

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Lilach Mileikowski

Embodied Hybridity, 2015, layered ceramic glaze, 1240 x 530 x 95 mm.

Embodied Hybridity, 2015, layered ceramic glaze, 240 x 110 x 190 mm each.

Embodied Hybridity, 2015, layered ceramic glaze, 240 x 110 x 190 mm.

This studio-based project explores protection and fragility as symbolic metaphors for cultural place and belonging. This is facilitated through the use of translucent clay objects reminiscent of protective structures such as shelter and body armour. My practice investigates the spiritual and political concerns of identity through my attachment to the land of Israel by using Hebrew text, fabric texture, and the manipulation of ceramic forms.

lilachceramicart. com.au

/LilachMileikowski CeramicArt

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Remembering ……through veils of light and time.

The work reflects on human emotion and the elusiveness of memory using landscape as a metaphor for the psyche. My relationship to the natural environment precipitates a personal space in the picture plane. Pared back subtle hues of colour glow; amorphous shapes suggest inner presence. Soft transposing spaces and dark velvet glazes tell of the power of reminiscence.

Cathy Muhling

Fragment Installation, 2015, oil on linen, 15 x 15 cm (small), 35 x 35 cm (medium).

Veil, 2015, oil on linen, 76 x 86cm.

cathymuhling.com

cathy.muhling @optusnet.com.au

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My body of work acts as a metaphor for the family and speaks collectively to the notion of communion. When the individual plates are brought together, the family comes together; and so these paintings facilitate the integration of both object and person. The unremarkable may secretly harbour the extraordinary, as humble everyday objects provide a way through which we can understand one another… and remember the ones we have lost.

Preschool Plates, 2015, oil on wood, 40 x 40 cm (4 panels).

Sarah Randall

s.randall@outlook.com

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Judith Roberts

Altered States: Clay Drops Video Still 01, 2015, video, 4 mins 38 secs duration.

Altered States: Clay Drops Video Still 02, 2015, video, 4 mins 38 secs duration.

My project centres on process, performative action, repetition and the materiality of clay. Through video documentation I examine the potential of repetitive action to reference labour and continuity.

To create this work I used the framework of ceramics production practice which I disrupted by repeatedly dropping clay forms to the floor. In presenting the project as a video I aim to amplify the moment of deformation thereby foregrounding the material quality of clay. The video form allows for the inclusion of incidental sounds which underscore the action while simultaneously highlighting the time and labour invested. Duplicating the video across a number of monitors, each playing out of phase, further emphasises the persistence of labour and action.

judithroberts.com.au

judithroberts55 @gmail.com

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This studio-based project aims to investigate the relationships between home and impermanence, both in a psychological sense and in relation to discarded building materials.

The works are reconfigurations of scaled architectural forms constructed with minimal or no fixings using recycled wood, straw, doors, fly screens and discarded building materials.

My interest in home has among its sources my real-life loss of home in a fire. This history contributes to my need to explore the concept of home, particularly in relation to memory and impermanence. My experience as an architect has deepened an interest in the relationship between form, materials and space, and developed an acute appreciation and ongoing interest in the value of materials.

Within this project I seek to create imagined spaces within architectural objects to examine how the relationship between form and materials can evoke memory and meaning associated with the house and home.

Ralf Rehak

Room 02, 2015, reclaimed doors, hinges and fibreglass sheet, 82 x 84 x 204 cm.

Room 03, 2015, straw, reclaimed wire, wood and hand made feather bedding, 180 (diameter) x 78 cm.

Room 01, 2015, reclaimed timber, electrical light fittings and recycled plastic strips, 137 x 137 x 198 cm.

ralfrehak@gmail.com

/ralf.rehak

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My current projects involve printmaking as installation and my work explores the invisible forces and energies in nature to create a sense of reverberation. Through invoking motion within stillness and by seizing the rhythm of existence my aim is to create a heightened awareness of visual sensation as a portal to a molecular world that is beyond what is visible, and to open up and reconnect to the notion of the world, of being and of becoming.

Xiao (Senye) Shen

Shelter, 2015, tissue paper printed from plywood, corridor size– 242 x 115 x 300 cm.

Shifting Shadow, 2015, 60 relief prints from linocut, 160 x 315 cm.

senyeshen @gmail.com

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My work primarily revolves around a theme that evokes curiosity through a multi sensory environment with the use of various mediums, blending form and texture to build layers within a chaotic structure. I use sound as a basis for my work, creating diverse sonic spectrums through experimentation, intuition and self-discovery.

I am inspired by daily life. From thought and unanswered questions to the simple use of our senses, evaluating and understanding that which is around us. My main body of work delves into experimental and abstract form that explores everyday life through contrasting cultures, space and environments. These sonic spatial structures bring about a holistic awareness that is necessary to provoke thought that in turn brings about a change.

I feel a connection between sound and visuals in an organic way that formulates into a reality that we are all familiar with. This creates an experience that challenges and opposes comfort by discovering something new through the unique process of interpretation. Coming from a film background, I am always seeking new ways to interconnect my ideas through audiovisual experimentation, taking away the usual approach to filmmaking. I want the simplicity of silence and a blank frame to speak the same as a piece of music paired with a narrative.

I feel the importance of creating works that are interactive, though static in appearance, by allowing audiences to participate through simple gestures and create their own unique experience.

Nigel Tan

Am I?, 2015, sound, video, sculpture.

nigeltanmusic.com

vimeo.com/nigeltan

soundcloud.com/nigel-tan

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Jingyi (Cici) Wang

cciiiiiiii

Lego Mini Tea2 Store, 2015, mixed media, 18 x 6 x 10 cm.

Rotating Show Case, 2015, mixed media, sculptural installation / performance, 210 x 210 x 550 cm.

White X’mas Tree, 2015, mixed media, 120 x 150 x 240 cm.

The project explores questions of consumption, waste and class (status) by creating collections of photography and sculptural installations. My work illustrates how consumption and waste are complex issues, involving desire and degrees of happiness. The project will also investigate marketing and the influence of advertising, packaging and presentation.

ceciliawang_china @hotmail.com

/cici.wang.73

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In this project I explore ideas of the materiality and movement. Each work represents the relationship of dynamic performance to static installation. My work concentrates on collecting materials from the street and restructuring them in studio space. My intention is to resonate the audience’s experience visually, aurally and through context.

Shangda Ye

Tent in White Cube, 2015, mixed media, 300 x 174 x 280 cm.

Infinity Explosion, 2015, mixed media, 170 x 90 x 60 cm.

zeits0219@gmail.com

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This book is a memento of our Masters of Fine Art studies at RMIT. While it highlights the strengths and diversity of the group, it cannot adequately describe the journey of each artist; their struggles and successes, endless hours of work and effort towards making this final event a triumph. For us, this book represents the culmination of a long road that we have walked together.

We extend an invitation to future students who will soon inhabit the studios that were ours for a while – to share this journey. The course will challenge you but then support you to rebuild your artistic self with a new vitality so that you flourish and create phenomenal works. We hope you, too, will surpass your own expectations and investigate avenues you would have never considered.

To the staff: Jan Nelson, Sally Mannall, Michael Graeve, Dominic Redfern, Steven Rendall & Laresa Kosloff, we can never thank you enough, your insights will stay with us.

To Alan Roberts, who put us back on our feet with a pat on the back and a kind word, you are like an Uncle to us all.

Lastly, special thanks to Raphaela Mazzone, Sarah Randall, Ralf Rehak, Cathy Muhling and Judith Roberts, for their almighty work.

Design by Jess Nesbitt.

Final Note

RMIT UNIVERSITY STUDENT UNION

RMIT Building 49Level 3 / 67 Franklin St, Melbourne

Opening Event6 - 8pm, 25th November

Open to the public26th November - 4th DecemberMon - Fri, 10am - 5pm / Sat, 12pm - 5pm

RMIT UNIVERSITY STUDENT UNION

RMIT Building 49Level 3 / 67 Franklin St, Melbourne

Opening Event6 - 8pm, 25th November

Open to the public26th November - 4th DecemberMon - Fri, 10am - 5pm / Sat, 12pm - 5pm

Front Row: Raphaela, Michael, Katia, Miao Middle Row: Mandy, Caragh, Zainab, Simon, Sarah, Cici, Pearl Back Row: Lilach, Cathy, Ralf, Judy, Rahaf, Martin, Steven, Dom, Nigel, Shangda, Shaun Absent: Jan, Lee, Senye, Rahima, Nicole, Pearl