Creative Generation: In Residence 2021

In 2021, the ‘In Residence’ program was led by Auckland-based artist Edith Amituanai who guided students through the process of creating a series of images to represent their idea of place.

For ‘The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10)‘ Edith presented a series called ‘La’u Pele Moana (My darling Moana)‘. Through still and moving image, she explores Moana (the Pacific Ocean) as a place of longing and aspiration, focusing on Samoans who have travelled — or want to travel — across this ocean to Australia. The series reflects on the complex feelings of connection and disconnection that we experience with place.

In response to Edith’s work, ‘In Residence’ students were asked to reflect on their own perspectives of place. Over the course of three days, the students used simple materials that included a paper mask, a piece of canvas, paint, and whatever they could find around them, to capture a series of images that express what place means to them.

Scroll down to view their artworks.

Octavia Iarossi
Tamborine Mountain State High School
Untitled 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, linen, wire

Place, it’s something we all know. It is where we feel most free, safe, or comforted. Nature is my place; it is where I feel most secure. The dark soil and earth hold me and make me feel comforted. This is displayed through the earthy tones placed on the headpiece, body, and backdrop. Soil, dirt, and plants were used as tools to create the piece as nature was a key element in the artwork. The main message I wanted to get across to the viewer is that place does not have to be physical it can be a feeling, smell or image.

Teisha Martin
Spinifex State College – Mt Isa
When Is A Mask Not A Mask? 2021
Acrylic paint on paper mask, digital photography

These images present the idea of ‘place,’ which to me is sitting with my family to watch crime documentaries and playing guessing games as to who the killer is. I have represented these aspects of place through the use of colour, ideas, and models. I decided to split the mask in two to represent the double-sided coin known as the killer and their victim. The victim is in colour whereas the killer is in black and white to show the different ways in which they are seen. The exposed side of the face shows the victim with blood covering their face and the killer having nothing, representing that no-one fully looks into the lives of the people on trial. The models are my sister and I as we look very similar and do well to represent the family to which I belong to.

Zoe Simpson
Nambour State College
Perceivable 2021
Acrylic and water colour paints on canvas, paper mask, markers, digital photography

In Perceivable, the concept of place is explored both physically and conceptually. The series of photographs explore how the mood or feeling of a place may change based on how it’s perceived by the viewer, as well as experimenting with collaging items of nature for various textured elements. It depicts a figure made of ‘place’ in front of its fantastical origins, in various experimental compositions, to challenge the perception of the creature. In our everyday lives, we see a situation and make a decision based on our perceptions of what we already believe. This series challenges the initial decision based on the figure—whether it be positive or negative—and allows the viewer to reflect on why they made their decision. Was it the environment or lighting? The figure itself or a preconception? No answer is wrong, but it might make you wonder why you think the way you do more often.

Grace Hodgson
Indooroopilly State High School
Cacophony 2021
Collage on mask, digital photography

We are all manifestations of who we surround ourselves with. The individuals we allow into our lives dictate our expectations, etching themselves into our minds and souls. They reflect the true meaning of comfort and stability, providing a place not only of belonging but of existence.

Cacophony communicates the impression of unity between the human form and the impact people have on the sentiment of ‘place’. The dense multitude of faces and the gentle glow of the background create a melancholy harmony within the piece. Incorporating intimate colours and a blurred filtration, Cacophony leaves the audience in an uncanny state of symphonic nostalgia.

Eloise McKeon
Moreton Bay College
Picking Up The Puzzle Pieces 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask, digital photography

My collection of photographs was inspired by the nostalgic and melancholic feeling of looking back on one’s childhood. To convey this, I played with bright and rudimentary colours to hint at the simplistic colour-blocking style associated with childhood. I emphasised the colour yellow to contrast the joyful experience of childhood against the reflective and muted feel of the blue. The incorporation of the mask represents the unveiling of the inner child of the figure. Finally, the background shows the journey taken to explore childhood, and how it is necessary to let go of rationality to make that journey.

Alice Li
St Hilda’s School
Holding On 2021
Acrylic and water colour paint on canvas, clay mask, digital photography

Holding On is a photographic series comprising five photographs that present the theme of past. The work uses mixed media including clay, paper mask and painted backdrop to express the idea of being affected by previous personal experiences. The heavy mask symbolises awareness of the situation but also the idea of being trapped inside the memory, unable to move forward. The backdrop represents a childhood memory, recreated as a fantasied and suspenseful place, the abrupt black block and the eyes on the tree demonstrating the mixed feeling about the space. Holding On views the traumatic experience as a burden, exhibiting the artist’s helpless and powerless position.

Romchut Srikam
Our Lady’s College
Devil’s longing for a place in heaven 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask, digital photography

Devil’s longing for a place in heaven represents an unreachable place, in this case, heaven. My response to the prompt is a place we would go once everything ends, for example after death. This then formed my impression of heaven which I incorporated into this piece as a devil trying to disguise as an angel to reach heaven. The devil ultimately fails and never reaches the place it longs to be in. Therefore my artwork represents an unreachable place in which some people may dream of going to or being at but they can’t reach it in the end.

Francis Lau
Brisbane State High School
You are what you eat 2021
Soy sauce, rice, paper mask, digital photography

You are what you eat is a series of photographs depicting a sculptural display of a meal, highlighting a mask split into two contrasting halves: a clean, empty side, and a developed, littered side. The series explores how food develops one’s identity, perpetuated by the artist’s contemporary process and personal connection established through the artwork’s contemporary materials. In a literal sense, the mask’s rice beard and soy sauce skin depict how individuals are made out of food, whilst the use of significant Filipino foods such as rice and soy sauce incorporates a personal connection to the artist.

Sharlize Althaus
Yeppoon State High School
Freedom of Creativity 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask, paper

This artwork is called Freedom of Creativity. The media used to create the backdrop and on the mask is water-based acrylic paint and I used standard printing paper to create the paper cranes and the branch coming off the mask. The model with the mask is in the foreground of the picture and the backdrop with the eyes is in the background. The artwork represents human creativity with all of the photos showing man-made objects or activities. The colourful branch of paper comes off the right side because the right side of the brain is the creative thinking side. I want my artwork to provoke positive and inspired feelings in the audience.

Pierrick Cartier
Mountain Creek State High School
Introspection 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, pencil, marker, digital photography

Place can be a personal introspection in our mind; a simple but skillful snapshot of a personal life process. From a personal environment, a deep thinking arises while the creative side explores without boundaries. But for how long? Does it matter how the sides are the brain are used? The duality between the two sides mark a certain connection but also distinction between the need to elaborate about a problem or a solution.

Patrick Courtney
Matthew Flinders Anglican College
Untitled 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask, digital photography

We are reflections of the places we surround ourselves in. In every person, their experiences are evident in their being: the scars they bear, the memories they cherish and the people they meet. In my work, I communicate the unity between subject and place by repeatedly utilising a split-complementary colour palette of red, to symbolize blood and humanity, violet for visual appeal, and green to satisfy personal context. The subject’s intimate comfort establishes a personal connection between him and his surroundings, leaving the audience uninvited. The subject reinforces that if the person is substituted, everything would change to fit them.

Olivia McCafferty
St Peters Lutheran College
Untitled 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask, digital photography

When thinking about place my mind thought about home. Home is an important place for every human and for me that place is Hong Kong. I wanted to use bright saturated colours to show how I feel when looking back at how I grew up there. The flowers in the middle of the canvas are orchids that we used to have in our apartment. The red is the red on the Hong Kong flag. The lantern pattern symbolises my favourite time of the year which is the lead up to the Lantern Festival and going shopping for lanterns. It’s a romanticised version of where I grew up and the place most important to me.

Oliver Johnson
Spinifex State College – Mt Isa
Untitled 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask, digital photography

My work has created the image of a discarded mask slowly being covered with foliage. Everyone wears a mask at some point to cover something they enjoy, their sexual or gender identity or so on. Everyone hides a part of their identity. The work I created was intended to represent how discarding and leaving the mask allows someone to bloom and become the person they were born as, represented by the flowers and leaves growing over the mask. This then makes the dark, cold, and lonely place become bright and beautiful. It represents growth and the changing of a place.

Madison Lindgren
Kirwan State High School
Heartstrings 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask, paper, digital photography

My collection of images is centred on how my love for music is an integral part of me. Bright, colourful light sources were utilised spatially to depict how I approach making music with both clarity and curiosity. A major portion of everyday life for me is centred on music, which is demonstrated through objects such as my headphones, notebook, guitar leads, and accumulations of lyrics from artists I idolise (Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker). The backdrop depicts a large replication of a guitar internally which manipulates size – as I feel that music is conceptually bigger than one single person.

James Beling
Marist College Ashgrove
Different Worlds 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask, digital photo editing

Capturing the lack of originality in our society, this series of images reflects the masks people put on, day-to-day, in an attempt to fit in with the crowd. Taking inspiration from the 2019 film ‘The Joker,’ my work portrays a realisation of the disconnection in today’s world, shaped by media, technology, and popular trends. The character portrays an overall lack of care about what other people think by accepting differences and individuality. The overwhelming care about what those around us think leads to the character’s loss of sanity and evident neglect from society. It shows how we are all together in the crowd, yet all alone in our own world.

Lauren Scrivenor
Highfields State Secondary College
Communities 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask, digital photography

The artwork is based on the concept of place, and where the audience may feel most comfortable, which is around friends, family, and peers. The mask was photographed to appear like the face of the subject, to communicate that they are reflecting the personalities of the people around them. Neutral colours were used for the skin tones and hair, as well as on the backdrop to provide simplicity to the artwork. For the mask, a pale blue colour was used to represent mirrors, to signify the way people tend to reflect the personalities and sometimes the appearance, of people they are around the most.

Mali-Ann Morley
Ingham State High School
Emotions of District 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, photographs, paper mask

Emotions of District captures the belonging and memories associated with place. Through a combination of saturated acrylics, photography, light and material, this artwork conveys the raw emotions and experiences of the Hinchinbrook community. The photographs scattered on the right side of the mask represent memories which connect to ‘place’. Personally ‘place’ involves thoughts of family, happiness, sense of security and sentimental locations. The use of fishing line to dangle the images references the region’s fishing identity and gives the effect of lures on a line.

On the mask is a cane train traveling beneath a mountain range, which refers to the Ingham’s sugar industry. The barramundi represents people coming together in a place to share food. Strokes of orange, red, yellow and pink in the backdrop all symbolise sun, happiness, the warm temperature and tropical environment. The inclusion of the sand covered hand is used blend into the environment and represent the community.

Kelly Belford
Spinifex State College – Mt Isa
Things We Cherish 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask

Family and friends are an important ‘place’ for me through the love and connection we have with each other. I have shown this by having each family member place a colourful handprint in the centre of the canvas and mask. Vibrant colours enhance the personality of a room, which I used throughout the artwork, to convey how I view my family and our friendship. I’ve also shown my love for nature as I painted flowers on both objects and used leaf prints, with a variety of dark and light tones along the edge of the canvas with the tips pointing inwards. Photographing my artworks in a birds-eye view, captures the love of family and nature and shows how important it is to care for the things you love. Lastly, painting a black love heart in the centre of the canvas makes a clear view of love shown in the artworks as well as using a black outline around the handprints; shows you will always be protected.

Dilen De Silva
Rochedale State High School
Maha Kola Sanni Yaka 2021
Acrylic paint on paper mask, pencil on paper, digital photography

Ritual is deeply embedded in Sri Lanka’s sacred and rich culture. From birth to death, ritual is part of key moments of our lives, reaffirming our traditions and communion with grounding benefits. Masks play a vital role in rituals, hiding the true face or in the adoption of a shared design. The mask creates a disengagement from modernity and a connection to the ancient. The Sanni Yakuma ritual is a traditional exorcism, involving 18 demons, each representing a different illness. The Maho Kola mask features the demons’ faces surrounding the prince who is said to have created them. My contemporary rendition is shown encircled by offerings, symbols, and decorative items, each with their own cultural significance. The suit both highlights the contrast between modern and ancient, symbolising ritual’s power to detach the two.

Eleanor Fraser
Stuartholme School
Consistently Inconsistent 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask, digital photography

Throughout the program I focused on the concept that ‘we will always be able to count on the change that place will bring’. In my artwork, the colour gradient in the sky represents periods of consistently inconsistent change that occurs throughout our lives. As we journey through life, the notion of place becomes ourselves because we are one of the few constant aspects of our changing lives.

The mountains are depicted in the form of a pyramids, differing in size and height, with the apex of the pyramid symbolising intensity of the challenge. The mask directly mirrors the changing sky, the notion that change changes us but allows us to grow further as ourselves. The form of the mask remains the same, while the colours change. The front on and bird’s-eye view intentionally positions the audience in such a way that they witness the colour change directly.

Alivia Clark
Cairns State High School
Bella Bimba 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, papier-mâché mask, digital photoshop (Procreate)

In this program, we were asked to respond to the theme of ‘place.’ My thoughts instantly turned to my home, which for me was a beautiful cat named Bella. I have used the mask to represent Bella in my artwork. I used papier-mâché to transform the mask into a feline face and I recreated her stunning markings and colouring with paint. After she passed away I found a new home in the digital world of an action role-playing game Genshin Impact. I referenced this by painting a warm scene inspired by the environment from Genshin onto a large canvas. To immerse myself into the paintings, I used my iPad as a portal and photo shopped myself in my digital home. To further illustrate this immersion, I angled myself so it appeared that my real hand looks like it is reaching into the painting.

Alice Ye
St Hilda’s School
Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, charcoal on canvas, paper mask, digital photography

‘I am not what I am,’ said Sartre.

‘Forever, I shall be a stranger to myself,’ echoed Camus.

In the summer of 1952, on the River Gauche, the friendship between the existentialist philosophers abruptly ended. Was it merely a philosophical disagreement? Both dedicated their lives to creating art and meaning from within themselves in an essentially absurd, godless world.

To me, both were condemned to carry a place of exile and solitude within them; a condemnation to the absurdity of the human condition, a separation of the actors and their stage, the props and the setting. It is the war of all against all, bellum omnium contra omnes, a war waged against the self. It was a metaphysical solitude that they belonged to, and that metaphysical solitude has continued inside every great mind scattered across the landscape of time. It is the absurdity of the world that we all belong to. My task is to capture, however unsuccessfully, the solitude of such brilliance, with the absurdity of art.

Charlotte Wyatt
Highfields State Secondary College
Untitled 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask, digital photograph

Bali Kohring
All Saints Anglican School
Untitled 2021
Acrylic paint on canvas, paper mask, digital photography

Creative Generation: In Residence

All works are © and courtesy: The artist and were created as part of the 2021 ‘Creative Generation: In Residence’ program held online from 31 November to 2 December 2021.

The ‘Creative Generation: In Residence‘ program is a partnership between the Queensland Department of Education and the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA).

Banner image: Edith Amituanai / Aotearoa New Zealand b.1980 / View from Matavai resort, Niue (from ‘La’u Pele Moana (My darling Moana)’ series) 2021 / Eco inks on 100% natural silk ed. 1/5 / 80 x 110cm / Commissioned for APT10. Purchased 2021 with funds from the Jennifer Taylor Bequest through the QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: QAGOMA / © and courtesy: Edith Amituanai