My BOW Family Dynamics aims to explore the individual within the collective. It can be challenging to grasp the idea of a person within the collective before first seeing their personal representation. Specific images of my cousins were chosen to stimulate the audience's thoughts so that they may look closer at the person in each drawing. Pushing the audience to make connections between the subject's age, facial expression, movement and objects within the work to build a story without the pieces interacting with one another. My choice to use graphite as my medium was strongly influenced by André Kohn and his atypical portraits, and my cousin's personal connections with the art world. 

All three of my subjects have enjoyed drawing from a young age and doodling with lead pencils on paper during kindy and primary school. At first, I was unsure of the connection I could make between them and my medium however I discovered it more recently when I found drawings they had given to me, inspiring me with their personal connections to creativity and drawing.

Grief is universal. It is a complex process encompassing a range of emotions, thoughts, and behaviours experienced when someone or something of significance is no longer present. Using charcoal powder and charcoal pencil on watercolour paper, my artwork drew great inspiration from the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). 

The large triptych displays three emotionally different perspectives on grief. Initially, the first face resembles extreme anger and pain, embracing an abundant amount of water. The second face embraces the stages of bargaining and depression, and concluding the triptych, the final face displays the stage of acceptance. As the visual emotion in the faces becomes more subtle through the triptych, the water also simultaneously decreases, reflecting the progression of grief. 

Moreover, the pentaptych below represents a more accurate perspective of the five stages of grief - from left to right: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance - physicalising the phenomenon of loss. The pentaptych embraces a tactile and emotional dual meaning in its ability to establish both a physical and mental reaction to grief. 

In its various forms, water has long been associated with emotions and the depths of the human psyche. It contemplates the connection between grief and water as metaphors for both destruction and rejuvenation. Through technical refinement and employment of chiaroscuro, the notion of water invites viewers to “submerge” themselves in the depths of their own emotions and reflect on the nature of loss. In this sense, the water is a physical symbol of grief. However, the incorporation of water also serves as a motif for the progression of time as the faces in the triptych and hands in the pentaptych become more acceptant and “dry”.

SCS HSC SHOWCASE: MCGLADE GALLERY

In my triptych series of black and white portraits, titled ‘Fragments of Expression’, I embark on a visual exploration of the profound depth and complexity of human emotion, and contemporary societies' value of perception of the individual self through social media creating the undying sense of anonymity, evident across all three panels. 

Through the deliberate absence of colour, I aim to distil the essence of these emotions, focusing solely on the raw composition of the subject, enabling the audience to intuitively interact with the anonymous nature of each subject to find each portrait's obscured identity. By removing the distractions of colour, I invite the viewer to engage with the raw essence of human emotion, transcending the boundaries of identity and auras, rather, than connecting to the audience from a raw perspective through the interplay of light and shadow. I invite viewers to engage in a visual dialogue that goes beyond mere recognition of the individual, encouraging a more introspective and imaginative response. 

At first glance, these artworks have merely an aesthetic appearance, yet as the audience focuses on the large-scale works, they will realise the identity of each portrait is covered, forcing the audience to look at the delicate nuances of expression and the subtleties of the ‘human’, the absence of colour elevating the beauty and power of simplicity to create a deeper contemplation of the emotions presented. 

The three portraits also convey subtly the notions of perception, and through a contemporary eye, one will understand the power of social media to ‘fragment’ or perceive themselves one way from who they truly are; unknown identity, personality and expression. Within the short vignette, images of my works are overlaid with short, thought-provoking statements, forcing the viewer through the purposeful red contrasting hue, to engage and understand the concept of obscured identity excitingly and engagingly, simultaneous with the instant gratification of social media as a means of further communicating the concept of fragmented expression and anonymity. Hence, each painting through the motif of anonymity, demonstrates the stripping away of external markers of identity and allows the viewer to focus solely on the fragments' expression, obscured by the social media-driven lens of society.

My work, titled ‘In Absence’, consists of a structural replication of my grandmother's home to demonstrate the concept of Alzheimer's and the disassociated familiarity it leaves behind when memory is shredded and home is no longer home. My work was conceptually inspired by what my grandma has unknowingly left behind as she is no longer fit to live independently which has been explored through the use of l materials including cardboard, cork, wood and clay. During the creation process of my work, I was able to appreciate the features of my grandma's home that I never had the opportunity to view in its full capacity of detail, which allowed me to capture the abilities my grandfather and grandmother had when they built the house together. My work offers an homage to their hard work and even lost in memory, the infrastructure continues to stand tall. 

Mia Di Giacomo

"Entwined Essence " 

“Entwined Essence”, is a work that explores the extensive depth of cultural and personal influence. We are here, encompassed by it. This collection of photographs aims to emphasize how one's interactions, collective values, and experiences form one's perception of self. The subjects of this work, my family, significantly influence how I as an individual have formed my own sense of personal identity via both collective and individual factors.

The subjects are as follows; 

Sebastiano. A post-war Italian migrant whose connection to cultural influences, Maintaining bonds and the existence of unique connections posed challenges that led to personal development and progress.

Ake Matarau. A pacific islander, single mother; who pushed through hardships with the help of commitment to her cultural heritage and family. 

Isabella. A 28-year-old modern-day Greek Orthodox identifying as a woman who breaks norms and expectations by challenging the boundaries of gender roles.