Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
Hatched National Graduate Show 2018
19 May – 15 July
Image: Tri Minh Tran, Untitled #2 From the series Causing a Commotion, 2017 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
Contents
3 About PICA
4 Exhibition Summary
5 Themes
6 Yusuf Hayat
8 Elham Eshraghian
10 Dean Cross
12 Jackson Farley
14 Mandy Quadrio
16 Year 9 /10
18 Year 11/12
20 Partners
2 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
About PICA
Housed in a large and striking heritage building in the heart of Perth, Western Australia, PICA is the city’s focal point for those wishing to experience the best of Australian and international visual, performance and interdisciplinary art.
PICA is both a producing and presenting institution that runs a year-round program of changing exhibitions, seasons in contemporary dance, theatre and performance and a range of interdisciplinary projects. It boasts one of the largest and most breath-taking exhibition spaces in Australia and has become known for the leading role it plays in the presentation of significant new work.
PICA’s key aim is to promote, support and present contemporary arts and to stimulate critical discussion around the arts and broader cultural issues. Providing a site for experimentation, critical analysis, discussion, and debate is fundamental to its charter. PICA is known for the rigour and breadth of its artistic and education programs, high production standards and impeccable presentation.
PICA is an icon of contemporary thinking – it is a catalyst for innovative and groundbreaking art and culture. Not constrained by convention, PICA gives artists and audiences a glimpse of what is possible.
To learn more about our coming program, or to make a booking, visit pica.org.au or call 08 9228 6300.
3 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
Exhibition Summary
Thirty artists from across Australia present their work in Perth Institute for Contemporary Art’s annual national graduate show, Hatched.
This education resource has been created to accompany the exhibition and assist middle to upper level Secondary students and their teachers with further information and context about 5 selected artists and their work.
While this resource focuses on the work of five artists, the material provides an overview of themes, curriculum links, and pre and post visit ideas that can be applied to many of the artists’ works in the exhibition.
Image: Dean Cross, Obey a Widow’s Son, 2017. Image courtesy the artist
4 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
Hatched 2018 includes broad themes, including;
CULTURE and cultural distinctions of Eastern & Western historical and contemporary philosophies and religion
GENDER IDENTITY and issues
SOCIO POLITICAL issues today including Australian Aboriginal and indigenous histories, cultural dislocation and displacement, migration/immigration, asylum, war, exile, violence and the artist as social critic, philosophy, ethics and politics
ENGLISH and English language, literature and languages other than English SCIENCE and psychology
VISUAL ART styles and periods including minimalism, abstraction, avant-garde art, conceptual art, performance art, post modernism and new-media art, contemporary art, media production, music and sound art
LANGUAGE dialects, interpretation and text in art
CURRICULUM LINKS FOR YEARS 9-10 & 11/12
THE ARTS: Visual Arts, Dance, Design, Drama, Media Production & Analysis, Music ENGLISH: English, Literature, English as an additional language or dialect HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES: Aboriginal and Intercultural Studies, Modern & Ancient History, Geography, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics & Law, Religion & Life LANGUAGES: Korean, Arabic MATHEMATICS: Mathematical systems and formats, dimensions, scale SCIENCE: Psychology TECHNOLOGIES: IT, Computer Science, Design, Materials Design & Technology
ARTISTS:
Yusuf Hayat Elham Eshraghian Dean Cross Jackson Farley Mandy Quadrio
5 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
YUSUF HAYAT b. 1975
Bachelor of Art and Design (Honours) University of South Australia https://australienartmatte.wixsite.com/australienartmatters
Noor, 2017 Wood, steel, aluminum, neodymium magnet, laser-cut MDF, acrylic paint, LED 220 x 60 x 73cm
ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Yusuf Hayat is interested in ‘difference’ within communities. He conveys his ideas by integrating symbols of Australian nationalism and European colonialism with elements of Islamic art, architecture and design. Committed to social justice, his research-based practice examines transcultural ethics, philosophy, psychology, sociology and anthropology in art.
Image: Yusuf Hayat, Noor, 2017. Image courtesy the artist.
6 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
IDEAS, STYLE & VISUAL TECHNIQUES
Hayat’s installation Noor is an installation with multiple overlapping geometric patterns of LED light cast out from within a six-sided ‘Arkan’ pillar. Significant in the Islamic tradition, Arkan pillars are stated in ‘hadith’ in the Quran as the foundation of faith and framework for Islamic life. By adorning the Arkan with ‘Mashrabiya’ (lattice screen) laser-cut ‘petals’, a traditional Arabic architectural feature, and positioning it with the Southern Cross star constellation, aligned and associated with the Southern Hemisphere and the Western skies, Hayat has created a work that is a metaphor for peace and hope for greater communication between Islam and the West. By utilising and projecting these symbols into the Gallery space, Hayat’s intention is to express his hope for the future that a greater sense of understanding will develop between Islam and the Australia within a peaceful coexistence.
QUESTIONS & RESEARCH
1. Explore the materials, Visual Art Elements and Principles in Yusuf Hayat’s installation Noor. 2. Examine Hayat’s use of light and how significant this choice of medium is in creating a sense of ambience, illuminating specific parts of the space while conveying significant meaning with particular patterns and symbols. 3. Examine the essential parts to the installation including the sculptural form and the significance of the ‘Arkan’ pillar as a metaphor for Islamic faith, together with geometric patterns selected from Islamic ‘Mashrabiya’ lattice screen designs and the Southern Cross to create critical areas of meaning. 4. Manipulating and intercepting the viewers’ pathway and activating the space is also significant in the work. Describe why this technique and the ‘projection’ of light forms has allowed Hayat to add meaning and enhance the physical and visual experience for the viewer. 5. Observe and discuss the way the work creates a certain feeling and mood and how the contrasting and limited amounts of light are essential. 6. Discuss and write about how Yusuf Hayat symbolises his personal position and views about Islam and the West and hope for what he calls greater transcultural communication.
MAKING:
1. Research and compare Hayat’s work to the Australian Indigenous artist Jonathan Jones and his use of light to express his ideas surrounding his Aboriginal identity, cultural history, community and displacement. Create an installation or sculpture that uses design elements and light that explores your cultural history and at the same time expresses a particular point of view. 2. Research particular designs that represent aspects of your cultural history to create a 2D, 3D work or installation which has an emphasis on geometric forms and negative/positive shapes and space.
7 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
ELHAM ESHRAGHIAN b. 1996
Bachelor of Design (Fine Arts) (Honours) University of Western Australia https://eeshraghianart.myportfolio.com
Bohrân, 2017 2-channel video on synchronised dual projection screens 4030H x 2320W x 60D mm Duration: 10 mins, 33 secs
ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Elham Eshraghian is an Australian-Iranian Baha'i artist. Her work explores the concept of cultural identity and loss with the aim of creating a poetic space. By combining historical narrative with evocative symbolism, she addresses the Iranian diaspora (a scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale) and the emotional impact of displacement and conflict. Revealing the deeper discourse surrounding the Middle East unrest and the tense and fragile relationship with the West, Eshraghian’s work particularly invites answers to the question, “how can we, through unity, create a complex and diverse whole?”.
Image: Elham Eshraghian, Bohrân, 2017. Image courtesy the artist.
8 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
IDEAS, STYLE & VISUAL TECHNIQUES
Elham’s Eshraghian’s video installation Bohrân is part documentary, part visual poetry that explores the story of the artist’s mother’s persecution and escape from Iran as a result of the1979 Iranian Revolution. In cinematic scale, the choreographed narrative and pixelated 'poor' quality archival and found footage communicates the relationship between the embodied personal experience of her family and the 'collective' historical memory of the Iranian war, inviting an empathic understanding of people engulfed in turbulences across the globe.
QUESTIONS & RESEARCH
1. After viewing the video Bohrân by Eshraghian,examine and write about the way the artist employs multiple dramatic moving and still image techniques and effects to create her work, including choreography, light, shadow, stills, slow motion, ghosting, short and long views and fade-in and out scenes. 2. Examine the structure and scale of the work and the presentation and format of dual screens and whether you think this adds to or detracts from the strength of the work for the viewer. 3. Discuss and write about the notion of ‘time’ in the work and how Eshraghian reflects this through her editing process as well as whether the artist has created a ‘poetic’ space. 4. Discuss whether you think the archival footage is significant to the work and if these images could be presented by other means to the same effect or by capturing and including more recent photographic or video images. 5. How do the careful yet improvised movements and sound add to the meaning or intensify feeling in the work and assist in conveying the dramatic emotional impact of displacement and conflict? 6. How is the theme of ‘identity’ poignant and how does Eshraghian present a narrative that expresses feeling, particularly fear in relation ot the plight of her mother during the Iranian war? 7. Explore the way the artist uses a form of visual narrative in which the story unfolds without language, and if you think it is successful and able to be easily understood. 8. As a class, set up a debate to discuss the political issues surrounding the Iranian war and East/West relations and by asking the question, “how can we, through unity, create a complex and diverse whole?”.
MAKING
1. Refer to Elham Eshraghian’s work, together with the work of Korean artist Kimsooja, Afghanistan artist Lida Abdul and Australian artist Angelica Mesiti and compare how these four artists explore issues of displacement, migration and war from a personal and cultural perspective. Investigate working with sound and in multiple video formats to create a choreographed work that explores your cultural heritage or viewpont about your homeland or a particularly potent political issue of interest to you.
9 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
DEAN CROSS b. 1986
Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) Australian National University School of Art www.deancross.com
Obey a Widow’s Son, 2017 from the series Best We Forget Sculptural installation Pure pigment print on smooth cotton rag and an Australian Army ghilie suit Dimensions variable
ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Dean Cross is a First Nations trans-disciplinary artist. Born and raised on Ngunnawal country, his ancestral roots lie within the Worimi Nation of New South Wales. Cross works across sculptural and pictorial fields, attempting to re-evaluate and re-construct what it means to be Australian in the 21st century. Having formerly trained in contemporary dance, Cross now combines this knowledge with his sculptural practice to imbue a unique sensitivity and physicality.
Image: Dean Cross, Obey a Widow’s Son, 2017. Image courtesy the artist
10 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
IDEAS, STYLE & VISUAL TECHNIQUES
Dean Cross’s installation Obey a Widow’s Son is part of a series, Best We Forget. Questioning the role of myth and memorialisation, seeking a reappraisal of representations of icons in a 21st century Australia, in his three-part installation Cross re-contextualises Sidney Nolan’s iconic Ned Kelly series, and inscribes it with Indigenous ontologies. A limp Ghilie suit, a possible metaphor for the lost Kelly body, hangs near a contemporary suit of armour alongside an image of a Kelly figure holding a banner bearing the translated text of one Kelly’s most famous statements.
QUESTIONS & RESEARCH
1. Consider the title of Dean Cross’s installation and express what you think the key meanings and messages are within the work Obey a Widow’s Son from the series Best We Forget. 2. Research Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series https://nga.gov.au/nolan/. 3. Discuss why you think Cross has chosen to refer to the story of Victoria’s notorious bushranger Ned Kelly, presenting the iconic helmet in the style painted by the Australian artist, Sidney Nolan? Examine the symbolic meaning of Cross’ and Nolan’s paintings, particulaly the figure wearing the Australian Army ghilie suit wearing the box helmet with the iconic ‘letterbox’ visor cut-out where the eyes would ordinarily be seen. 4. Express your ideas about the series title, ’Best We Forget’ from the common line ‘Lest we Forget’, written as a refrain by English writer Rudyard Kipling in his poem, ‘Recessional’. 5. What does the term ‘hero worship’ mean, and why are some people memorialised when others are not? 6. Could Cross’s work be an interpretation of the Australian landscape? 7. Research Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have been memorialised in history after serving in Australian defence contingents on the Australian War Memorial website. 8. Read the Australian writer Richard Flanagan’s recent press club speech in The Guardian online in which he discusses his concern for “this growing ‘militarisation’ of national memory” and key social, political and historical issues in relation to First Nations peoples.
MAKING:
9. Research the work of indigenous artist Tony Albert and his commission for the Australian War Memorial dedicated to Aboriginal men and women who fought and assisted in war in a memorial in Hyde Park, Sydney, titled ‘Yininmadyemi: Thou Didst Let Fall’. Create a work that might memoralise a person or group who you think is marginalised and deserves recogniton within your circle of friends, family, school or community.
11 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
JACKSON FARLEY b. 1994
Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) University of Sydney, Sydney College of the Arts www.jacksonfarleyart.com
Dance of the Dicks, 2017 Dye sublimation on synthetic suede & Digitex, found marble bust Video on CRT TV: Duration 5 mins, 32 secs
ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Jackson Farley is a multidisciplinary artist whose work focuses on what he perceives as outmoded notions of masculinity within a contemporary context. Juxtaposing classical Greek and Roman iconography with a rudimentary cartoon aesthetic, Farley’s aim is to explore symbols of male dominance and phallocentrism while searching for alternative understandings of masculinity.
IDEAS, STYLE & VISUAL TECHNIQUES
‘Dance of the Dicks’ is a collection of ideas relating to masculinity that includes anecdotes, bad jokes and representations of outdated forms of manhood. Blending collage, drawing, video, textiles and print, the work seeks to question hierarchies associated with masculinity, while simultaneously appealing to its toxic or degenerative side. Depicting crude ‘dick’ jokes and ‘hectic dance bangers’, the work is a critique of hypermasculinity, while attempting to create a more open dialogue about manhood and its position within society today.
Image: Jackon Farley, Dance of the Dicks, 2017. Image courtesy the artist.
12 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
QUESTIONS & RESEARCH 1. In Jackson Farley’s practice, he attempts to analyse and critique as well as seek to understand his own and other males’ ‘hypermasculine’ behaviour, particularly within a contemporary context. The work also symbolises the behaviour of men from earlier periods in Australia. Discuss the range of elements and images in his work and whether you think he has been persuasive in presenting his ideas. 2. Discuss the positioning of separate objects and images in his installation and particularly the format of the almost slapstick aesthetic of the TV screen on the floor. 3. Examine the way Farley combines appropriated imagery with loose linear lines and drawing style to create a cartoon-like aesthetic, also using the method of dye sublimation on suede, usually associated with mass produced commercial printing methods. 4. Is Farley simply depicting young men ‘innocently’ behaving badly and suggesting this is often misinterpreted within Western society, or is the work a joke or lampoon? 5. View the video ‘Dance of the Dicks’ and examine the filmic techniques achieved by a green screen with still and moving images, considering composition, action sequencing, layering, backgrounding and foregrounding, lighting, sound, zoom, cropping and fading. 6. How important to the meaning of the video is the method of duplicating and ‘cloning’? 7. Explore and analyse the relevance of Greek and Roman mythology in Farley’s work and what is referred to as the Apollonian and Dionysian philosophical and literary concept or dichotomy of opposing characteristics. 8. Farley’s song lyrics express the need to seek alternatives and find a different reading of masculinity, inspired by the ‘transdisciplinary’ approach of Femininity. Explore what this means in relation to his video. 9. Explore the meanings of phallocentrism and hypermasculity and research the way that the naturally occuring hormone testorerone in men and women increases the desire for physical activity, strength and virility. 10. Explore the idea of the male ‘action man’, the ‘strong man’ and ‘the hero’ and the meaning of male hegemony and how this relates to Farley’s work. 11. Debate the commonly held notion that Western men are broadly permitted to display characteristics such as lust to present sexual prowess, rage to show off strength, and bravado to display courage, and whether you think the characteristics of women and contemporary Feminist ideologies can be compared. 12. Do you think Farley’s imagery could easily be misread by an audience and if so, if it should be presented within the public realm?
MAKING 1. Research the work of the Australian artist Ben Quilty and compare how he explores and expresses manhood and masculinity with Farley’s approach. 2. Create a work that is a visual comment on gender in a naive style, referencing the work of Farley and Australian artists Richard Lewer, Jenny Watson and British artist David Shrigley.
13 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
MANDY QUADRIO b. 1959
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) Griffith University Queensland College of Art http://www.mandyquadrio.com.au
Holes in History, 2017 Steel wool, bull kelp, shells, found ojects Dimensions variable (approx. 4m x 5m x 5m)
ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Mandy Quadrio works across sculpture, installation and mixed media. As a proud ‘palawa’ (Tasmanian Aboriginal) woman connected to her ancestral home of tebrakunna in North- Eastern Tasmania, her practice acts to develop a visual language surrounding the silences and omissions in Australia’s violent colonial history. Quadrio’s found objects reference colonialism and her traditional material culture and to foreground ‘palawa’ resistance and resilience, asserting the artist’s history and sovereignty.
Image: Mandy Quadrio, Holes In History, 2017. Image courtesy the artist.
14 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
IDEAS, STYLE & VISUAL TECHNIQUES
In Mandy Quadrio’s sculptural installation Holes in History, harsh abrasive steel wool creates a landscape that symbolically and metaphorically exposes the attempted erasure of ‘palawa’ women. Using suspended forms, containing culturally significant materials as markers of colonialist annihilation, steel wool is a metaphor for the counter-history of emancipation and empowerment of Aboriginal women. Emphasising that there is no single, fixed position from which to view history, Quadrio’s work presents an unbridled colonialist view of history in which Indigenous philosophies are valued and a sense of renewal evident.
QUESTIONS & RESEARCH
1. Analyse Mandy Quadrio’s work Holes in History in relation to Australia’s colonial history, considering the work’s title, presentation and style, including her choice of materials and objects. In particular, what does the artist mean with the title of her work, Holes in History? 2. How important are the darkly coloured suspended and collapsed forms and the containment of objects in the forms to reading Quadrio’s work? 3. How significant is positioning of the forms in conveying meaning for the viewer considering the need to physically orient around, through and between the forms to view and fully experience the work? 4. How has the artist’s choice of harsh, abrasive steel wool with found objects created a metaphor for the violent attempted ‘erasure’ of ‘palawa’ women? 5. Analyse how Quadrio conveys the counter-argument and sense of ‘renewal’ in her work indicating Tasmanian women have been emancipated and empowered in the process and are able to retain and continue their traditions. 6. Examine the twisted, gnarled and globular forms and discuss how the material irregularities assist in building tension and emotion in the work. 7. Explore how Quadrio attempts to challenge conventional viewpoints on what might be called traditional Aboriginal art. 8. Discuss the cultural issues Quadrio examines and what could be called ‘invisible’ and ‘erased’ periods of Australia’s colonial history.
MAKING
1. Research your own cultural identity and history and create an installation, painting, drawing or video that incorporates particular designs and symbols and communicates aspects of your culture and also relays a particular point of view. Select materials that symbolise or are a metaphor for specific meanings and messages. 2. Consider and compare the installation style of Quadrio with indigenous artists Yhonnie Scarce and Megan Cope, who both work in installation, and address issues surrounding their Aboriginality and revealing of untold stories about Australia’s colonial history.
15 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
YEAR 9 /10 VISUAL ARTS
1. Visit the Hatched National Graduate Show 2018 artists’ websites and explore the similarities and differences between the five selected artists’ works and their individual work practices, analysing the themes and links that exist within their previous and current work. 2. Explore each of the artists’ works using art terminology and the Visual Art Elements and Principles and through the Critical Analysis Frameworks - Subjective, Structural, Cultural and Postmodern Frames to express and examine the artist’s ideas, meaning and messages. 3. Artists may create many meanings within the one work, including personal, historical, social and political ideas. Select two of the five artists and compare the way they have communicated multilayered meanings using different approaches, styles and media. 4. Explore and compare the media and material differences of installation, sculptural installation, video and video installation and how sculpture and installation can be presented in a range of internal and external spaces and observed from a range of different viewpoints. 5. Define digital art, video art and film and the difference to major cinematic filmic works. 6. Investigate differing types and forms of design often used to represent or symbolise a country or belief system, such as Greek fret or key design, and geometric patterns in Islamic art and architecture, including kilim carpets, Moroccan zellige tilework and jali latticed screens. 7. Explore The Antipodeans group, the Heide circle of artists, Angry Penguins and the work of Sidney Nolan and his Ned Kelly series. 8. Debate the difference between Nationalism and Patriotism in Australian society and how this could be expressed in art.
Image: Elham Eshraghian, Bohrân, 2017. Image courtesy the artist.
16 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
YEAR 9 /10 HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES
1. Research the background to the struggle of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for rights and freedoms before 1965, including the 1938 Day of Mourning and the Stolen Generations, civil rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples: 1962 right to vote federally: the Referendum on May 27, 1967, the 1992 Mabo Case, the National Title Act in 1993; Bringing Them Home Report (the Stolen Generations) and The National Apology to the Stolen Generations on February 13, 2008. Listen to Aboriginal singer/songwriter Archie Roach’s song ‘Took the Children Away’ and discuss the meaning and sentiment it expresses. Visit the National Film and Sound Archive to view further online resources. 2. Research the history of Islam and Islamic law, the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and the current position of East/West relations. 3. Examine the theme of ‘gender’ and what defines masculinity and femininity, together with Feminism and the recent same sex Marriage Act and how gender is now commonly discussed as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning and Intersex couples (LGBTQI).
Image: Jackon Farley, Dance of the Dicks, 2017. Image courtesy the artist.
17 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
YEAR 11/12 UNIT 1: DIFFERENCES
1. Compare the format of installations created by Yusuf Hayat, Elham Eshraghian, Dean Cross, Mandy Quadrio and Jackson Farley and analyse and write about how they all approach the subject of ‘difference’. 2. Research and compare the work of indigenous Australian artists Dean Cross and Mandy Quadrio in the exhibition, comparing their work to members of the proppaNOW artist collective including Richard Bell, Jennifer Herd, Laurie Nilsen, Tony Albert, Vernon Ah Kee and Gordon Hookey. Visit the National Exhibitions Touring Support (NETS) Victoria website to listen to the proppaNOW artists’ sound files and download the Education Resource from their exhibition, Jus’ Drawn to explore the way these artists create their work within a non- stereotypical indigenous framework. 3. Reflecting on the work of Yusuf Hayat, create a work that expresses your national pride and patriotism for your country of birth or belief system while expressing your feeling of difference. 4. Standards of manliness or masculinity vary across cultures and historical periods, with both males and females exhibiting masculine traits and behaviour. Examine how traits traditionally viewed as masculine in Western society including courage, independence, violence, assertiveness and machismo is often associated with a disregard for consequences and responsibility. Discuss cultural differences and similarities in masculinity across cultures and whether there is a need for a redefinition of what it means to be male.
UNIT 2: IDENTITY
1. View Jackson Farley’s work and discuss popular ‘macho’ films about ‘action men’ and ‘action women’ such as the ‘James Bond’ series, ‘Crocodile Dundee’, ‘Wake in Fright’, and ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, and analyse how these films relate to the stereotyped male and/or female in popular culture. Create a work as a parody of gender stereotypes, making fun of how that genre operates. 2. Create a moving image or animated self-portrait that reflects your character and aspects of yourself that you do and don’t feel comfortable about. 3. Explore the work of Yusuf Hayat and Elham Eshraghian and how each artist addresses and communicates their personal experiences of political friction and unrest, as well as ideas surrounding identity and cultural history, and whether you think they have been persuasive in expressing their views. 4. Research the work of Australian Indigenous artist Christian Thompson and his ideas surrounding identity and culture. Compare his ideas to Dean Cross and Mandy Quadrio and express what you think of Thompson’s ideas.
18 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
UNIT 3: COMMENTARIES
1. Consider the comment by artist Richard Bell and his stance on Aboriginal art; “Just the act of painting is a political act. Many people believe that the act of making art is political. People see things differently and you can’t tell them what they can and can’t see, they make their own conclusions. If a political element is there, then it’s there.” 2. Examine each of the artists’ works and discuss how they may be interpreted from a conceptual, minimalist, abstract or postmodern perspective. 3. Explain how all five Hatched artists have created art as a form of personal, social and cultural commentary, responding to current issues of our time. 4. Reflect on the work of Elham Eshraghian and the notion of the artist as ‘social critic’ and read about the recent film ‘Human Flow’ by Chinese artist Ai WeiWei. Research Ai WeiWei’s work and how he is influenced by his own exile and desire to expose global issues surrounding war and human displacement.
UNIT 4: POINTS OF VIEW
7. Express your point of view about Yusuf Hayat and Elham Eshraghian’s work, compared to Korean artist Kimsooja and Afghanistan artist Lida Abdul, Australian artist Abdul Abdullah and Chinese artist and activist Ai WeiWei, who all share an interest in East/West relations, war, human displacement, migration and political unrest. Explore and compare the way each artist approaches this subject and discuss the role of the artist as ‘social activist’. 8. Abdul Abdullah is an artist from Perth, currently based in Sydney, who works across painting, photography, video, installation and performance. Abdullah describes himself as an ‘outsider amongst outsiders’. Read about his work and art practice and express your point of view on his approach, style and ideas and how his work and art practice compares to Dean Cross and Jackson Farley.
19 Education Notes Hatched: National Graduate Show 2018 19 May – 15 July
Perth Cultural Centre 51 James St Northbridge pica.org.au | 9228 6300
@pica_perth
Major Exhibition Partner
Schenberg Art Fellowship Partner
Government Partners
Automotive Partner Major Partner Freight Partner
PICA’s ongoing programs are primarily supported by an investment from the State of Western Australia through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries in association with Lotterywest, assistance from the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. PICA is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.
20