AUT Grad Exhibition (oh yeah FINALLY)

Claudia Jowitt and Myself

Clare Keegan

Lainy Fleming

Josh Harvey

Sarah Whiteside

Natasha Pearl

Emma Mcfarlane

Maila Urale

Laxmi Jhunjhnuwala

Clinton Cardozo

Nick Berry

Alan Joy

Emma Fraser

Simon Stuart

Thomas Finn Stewart

Ahilapalapa Rands

Stella Castle

Phillip Good

Ena Kosovac

Carolyn Lawrence

Linda T.

Amber Claire Pearson

Elliot Collis

Anthony Cribb

I realised it's been two weeks since this exhibition and I haven't blogged about it for various reasons:

a) I've been lazy.
b) I've taken up a nasty Glee habit which means that watching episodes many times on the internet and trying to emulate the accompanying soundtrack has suddenly become my number one priority.
c) The pictures I took were crapola so I've been embarassed to post them.

Nevertheless, would be a shame not to show those who could not make it to the ol' WM Block the work that most of us have been spending the last 3+ years developing.

Opening night was huge, with a guestimate of close to a thousand people showing up as this year, it was a combination of not only third year graduates but the post-grad people as well. To top that off, the Fashion department were having some hoopla opening of their own which meant the whole building was filled to the brim. Note to self, Fashion sure know how to feed a crowd as their hors d'oeuvres trumped ours to boot.

But back to the art, my favourites this year were:

- Victoria Sheldon's photographs. Vinnie and I have been friends since first year and we've probably always had that painter versus photographer edge to our relationship. With that being said, her final works ended up being a huge surprise, five large prints of moody landscape photography were a far step forward from her pilot work. I liked how she thought about the way in which they were hung, one group of two and a group of three. Sometimes it's nice when photographs are given a little punctuation. Unfortunately i do not have any documentation as her works were hard to photograph and I just ended up with a black frame with my own reflection. Sorry Vinnie!

- Ahilapalapa Rands' installation of booty shaking Beyonce moves. It made me want to learn how to krump and wear leotards and ball dresses all day every day. She also had a quirky accompanying catalogue with a small piece written by her mum (awwwww) and some risque still shots. Extra sexy points for that.

- Clinton Cardozo's mask series coz no one does large format like Clint.

- Claudia Jowitt's painting. Finally finished and on display. So large that small bugs would get confused, fly into it and then eventually die. So large that you wouldn't believe that half of it was painted in the tiniest throughway that was about a metre in width. So epic that I don't think I could have asked for a better person to share my exhibiting space with.

It's always funny watching people behave in these exhibitions, which act as one part zoo cage, two parts family/friend reunion with a dash of 'I dont get it' or 'can I touch/take/consume that' in the mix. These were some things which I thought were obvious but obviously were not and shall act as a guide for the next grad show:

- Sometimes, we want you to step on the art work and sometimes we don't. However, all of the time, we do not wish for a trolley to be rolled over an artwork. Case being with Thomas' install, where he spent a long time laying a corridor of plaster on the floor only for someone to do obscene things with it. Trolleys = no, don't do it.

- Do not take catalogues which say 'Display Only', especially when there was a pile next to it which you were more than free to take from...

- If you trip over a prominent cord and in turn, knocked it out of it's power extension, it's not too hard to put it back, or at least inform someone of it. This is also extended to sculptures that have been accidentally kicked. Ta.

Aside from the above chuckles, I spent most of the night showing people around and receiving a hard to obtain 'I think I get it!' from my parentals. Yussssssss. Talking to friends though, I felt that most were only disappointed by the lack of accompanying material. The consensus seems to be that horrid business cards don't cut it and that some thought into a piece of writing or even a nicely presented catalogue would have been appreciated by the viewer. Things to think about for those exhibiting next year...

But our turn is over so we're outta here and onto the next grad show to check out the competition. Ahoy Elam!


- Agnes

p.s. Check out the grad website for better documentation of work