We heard from a number of speakers, including
The following artworks were exhibited by Preshil students:
Self Portraits with Nature – Leila Edelstein
This work explores the intimate dialogue between humans and nature. We have become more industrialised, commercialised and commodified. We strive to feel rewilded, we year for the time when the land was cared for by its traditional owners. I find myself collecting nature, leaving it altered and less wild. I aim to depict the complex emotions I have in regard to making peace with the idea of living with more cultivated versions of what is longed for instead of the mythical wildness.
Murdoch – Hugo Long
This portrait of media mogul Rupert Murdoch was created to convey some of the terrible power an individual can exercise in a modern, global context. Murdoch controls much of the global media and this painting depicts his great ego.
Tempestuous – Poppy Phillips
Tempestuous embraces nature and life; my intention was to create a connection between the artwork and the viewer, rendering it subjective and personalised. The piece is a birds-eye-view of the landscape, inspired by Aboriginal artwork, enabling the viewer an introspective experience in correlation to the artwork. The detail within the work portrays the metaphorical environment that I portray, in an attempt to remove the viewer from the predisposed understanding of landscape and nature, in order to analyse the tempestuous essence of nature from an external, and removed, perspective.
Buries in these Mountains – Leila Edelstein
These works continue my exploration of the human desire to feel rooted in nature, as opposed to feelings of alienation in institutionalised schools and workplaces. I grew up at the foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, and I am fascinated by the emotionally grounded feeling that ensues when walking on mountains. I chose to carve two images of mountains that feel like home to me… they were inspired by photos my dad had taken in Cape Town and in Victoria, Australia, where I live now.
Screenprint III – Ailsa Potter
With this work, I wanted to look outwards, and photograph and screen print others. This work highlights the uniqueness of the individual, while also being a cohesive unit. I was inspired by vintage photography projects that used portrait-style photography such as Handsworth self-portrait in 1979. Visually these. tie in with my previous screen printing works, but I wanted to expand the concept of my work through inspiration from the past.
Colour on Black – Will Weinberger
By holding a lighter to some old oil pastels, I allowed them to melt and drop onto the canvas. I enjoyed using his media and I faced some unpredicted fragility when moving the candle over the composition. I aimed to deconstruct social constructs by representing quirks and differentiations through the contract and disorganisation of the final artwork.
Our 2023 Visual Art students also attended the exhibition recently as part of their reflection and inspiration process, and to support their peers.
