MASS MEMO | 2020

Throughout this incubated period of Melbourne life, many local emerging artists turned their creative focus to the mundane details of the world around them, celebrating the ordinary and the everyday.” — Emma Walsh.

Is there a word for when a painting feels like a sound? Unfortunately, Google doesn’t have an answer.” — Victoria Loizides.

The Fibonacci sequence is a continuous fraction—a medieval discovery that describes how nature follows predictable ratios in spiral patterns.” — Jenna Grace.

Entering the Monash Bachelor of Visual Art Graduate show, I told myself I would leave behind all notions of Covid-19.” — Annie-Rose Morrison.

In normal circumstances, the VCA Grad Show opening has felt like a party.” — Sebastian Kainey.

Social Babel This year, I could not attend the VCA grad show in person.” — Sujin Jung.

A whirlwind tour of more than seven hundred works proved that the reshaping forces of COVID would not quash the creative output of the tenacious 2020 VCA graduating students.” — Ella Worth.

Walking round the Monash end-of-year show, four works caught my eye.” — Alice Mawhinney.

“When things get tough, make good art”, Neil Gaiman once said.” — ZiXin (Jessie) Chen.

Home is a contested site in the work of several artists at this year’s VCA Photography Department.” — Claire Osborn-Li.

The hypnotherapy technique known as Ego State Therapy suggests that we are made up of multiple distinct personalities and, depending on what we are doing, certain aspects of ourselves will be dominant while others are hidden.” — Leonie Leivenzon.

Walking through the dazzling drawing and printmaking section of the 2020 VCA grad show, it occurred to me that many of the exhibited works conformed in one way or another to the logic of seriality.” — Yugong Shao.

Art-making has always been an act of remembrance.” — Jasmine Penman.

Kissing has had a bad year.” — Giles Fielke.

More intimate than sight, closer than sound, more enduring than taste, and more certain than smell, touch is a sense inseparable from our experience of the world.” — Grace Watson.

Is there such a thing as a house style? Walking through Monash’s graduating Honours class we couldn’t help wondering where it all came from.” — Stuart Maxted, Paris Lettau.

The works in the Bachelor of Fine Art (Visual Arts) graduate exhibition show what is expected to be on the other side of a portal.” — Margarita Kontev.

It’s always fascinating to see how people view themselves.” — David Paicu.

Emma Kleeberg’s IT’S ABOUT YOU, bed as therapy (quilt), and bed as therapy (pillow) consists of a satin sheet hung from the ceiling, hovering in the centre of the room adjacent to a mattress set on the floor, adorned with one pillow and quilt.” — Rachel Pakula.

It feels futile to mention the context of these works; 2020 brought us all the same secluded, detached and anxious experiences.” — Olivia Fechner.

When did the VCA become a certified grotty girl academy? You know the sensibility.” — Cameron Hurst.

Honours, Victorian College of the Arts by Giles Fielke

Honours, Victorian College of the Arts by Sujin Jung

Bachelor of Fine Art (Visual Arts), MADA by Grace Watson

Honours, Victorian College of the Arts by Sebastian Kainey

Bachelor of Fine Art (Visual Arts), MADA by Leonie Leivenzon

Bachelor of Fine Art (Visual Arts), MADA by Margarita Kontev

Sculpture, Victorian College of the Arts by Ella Worth

Bachelor of Fine Art, MADA by David Paicu

Drawing and Printmaking, Victorian College of the Arts by Emma Walsh

Drawing and Printmaking, Victorian College of the Arts by Yugong Shao

Bachelor of Fine Art (Visual Arts), MADA by Annie-Rose Morrison

Bachelor of Fine Art, MADA by Victoria Loizides

Painting, Victorian College of the Arts by Cameron Hurst

Photography, Victorian College of the Arts by Claire Osborn-Li

Bachelor of Fine Art, MADA by Olivia Fechner

Painting, Victorian College of the Arts by Jenna Grace

Honours, Victorian College of the Arts by ZiXin (Jessie) Chen

Bachelor of Fine Art, MADA by Alice Mawhinney

Painting, Victorian College of the Arts by Jasmine Penman

Drawing and Printmaking, Victorian College of the Arts by Rachel Pakula

Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), MADA by Stuart Maxted, Paris Lettau

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