MASS MEMO | Sculpture and Installation, Queensland College of Art by Louise Truan
Painting, Queensland College of Art by Tara Gouttman
Honours, Victorian College of the Arts by Pepa Neralic McPherson
Honours, Victorian College of the Arts by Thomas Stoddard
Master of Architecture Design Studios, Melbourne School of Design by Felix Pollock Tie
Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), Monash Art, Design and Architecture by Juliet Day
Painting, Victorian College of the Arts by Rachel Liu
Photomedia, Sculpture, Bachelor of Fine Art, National Art School by Joshua Di Mattina-Beven
Drawing, Print, Queensland College of Art by Robyn Wood
Masters of Art, Bachelor of Art (Fine Art) (Honours), RMIT by Lucy Gordon
Honours, Victorian College of the Arts by Rose Gertsakis
Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), UNSW Art & Design by Siri Wingrove
Fashion, RMIT by Ethan Langholcs
Painting, Victorian College of the Arts by Pru Anderson
Printmaking, Bachelor of Fine Art, National Art School by Uma Rogers
Bachelor of Fine Art, Master of Fine Art, RMIT by Ebony Maurice-Wilmott
Sculpture, National Art School by Lachlan Thompson
Master of Architecture Design Studios, Monash Art, Design and Architecture by Lily Di Sciascio
Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), Monash Art, Design and Architecture by Indigo Meara
Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), UNSW Art & Design by Claudia Blane
Masters, Victorian College of the Arts by Nadhila Iffa Zakira
Photomedia, Sydney College of the Arts by Siobhan Seeneevassen
Bachelor of Fine Art, Monash Art, Design and Architecture by Jessica Wedding
Photography, Victorian College of the Arts by Ella Peck
Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), Monash Art, Design and Architecture by Neil Twist
Painting, Sydney College of the Arts by Solomiya Sywak
Jewellery and Glass, Sydney College of the Arts by Victoria Gillespie
Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art, Queensland College of Art by Andrew Ruffle
Bachelor of Fine Art, UNSW Art & Design by Elle Monera
Painting, Bachelor of Fine Art, National Art School by Callum Gallagher
Fine Art, RMIT by Jacinta Little-Woodcroft
Bachelor of Visual Arts, Sydney College of the Arts by Josie Witherdin
Bachelor of Fine Art, Monash Art, Design and Architecture by Charlotte Renfrey
Bachelor of Fine Art, Monash Art, Design and Architecture by Leah Edwards
Photography, Queensland College of Art by Cassius Owczarek
Bachelor of Fine Art, Monash Art, Design and Architecture by Jennifer Alvin
Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), Monash Art, Design and Architecture by Ned Dwyer
Bachelor of Fine Art, Monash Art, Design and Architecture by Leon Rice-Whetton
Sculpture, Installation, Queensland College of Art by Louise Truan
Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), UNSW Art & Design by Ava Lacoon
Master of Architecture, RMIT by Ruby Caruana
Painting, Victorian College of the Arts by Hugh Magnus
Sculpture, National Art School by Rosario Aguirre
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Sculpture, Installation, Queensland College of Art

By Louise Truan

05 December 2024
  • Deb Lansdown, Rosemary Tamas-Cao, Fiarrah

What have you left behind in your past? The sculptural works in this year’s Queensland College of Art and Design graduate exhibition explore what remains, or the “Remainder,” in both tangible and nostalgic ways.

Deb Lansdown, Sunskin, 2024, gold foil, builder plastic, 5 x 2.5m, QCAD, Brisbane. Deb Lansdown, Sunskin Hues, 2024, gold foil, builder plastic, takeaway containers, 1.4 x 2.4 m, QCAD, Brisbane. Deb Lansdown, Shore, 2024, gold foil, builder plastic, sand, gold glitter & shards, 3 x 2m, QCAD, Brisbane. Photo: Louise Truan

Deb Lansdown’s Sunskin (2024) series is made up of three hanging gold-foiled plastics. In her artist talk, Lansdown shared that Sunskin (left) was prompted by asking herself: “What if the sun had skin?”, turning something intangible into something real. Sunskin Hues is positioned in the centre of the room, by an open wall for maximum effect, and creates a fluttering of golden light as you walk around it. Sunskin Shore, with its sand and glittering waves on plastic, evokes memories of trips to the Australian coast. The warmth of this series, along with its tactile and reflective materials, evokes memories of summers spent at the beach, waves crashing, collecting seashells from the sand, and embracing the sun.

Rosemary Tamas-Cao, ee with ellow owers, 2024, Vietnamese rice paper, onion peels, cotton thread, fridge shelf, Perspex, no dimensions provided, QCAD, Brisbane. Photo: courtesy of Queensland College of Art and Design.

Rosemary Tamas-Cao’s installation ee with ellow owers (2024) is a room made of rice paper. There are rice grains and onion strips strewn on the ground, golden brown onion skin in a gutter overhead, a single fridge shelf on the ground, and Perspex containers in the cube-shaped room. Rice paper with hand-stitched poetry and rainfall data hang from the ceiling. ellow owers works on two levels: it is a personal story about the artists’ family living in temporary housing, sheltered from Meanjin’s stormy season. You can see this in the structure: data, poetry, and Tamas-Cao’s degradable materials (rice paper, onion, and rice) are each cultural mediums. On a broader scale, it is also a topical critique on housing and the challenge of climate change. By telling a personal story of temporary housing, chaotic weather, and enduring culture, Tamas-Cao has created a thoughtful installation that combines intimacy and ephemerality.

Fiarrah, God and Satan Were Lovers, 2024, short film 4:38 minutes, timber, concrete and rope, no dimensions provided, QCAD, Brisbane. Photo: Louise Truan

Fiarrah’s God and Satan Were Lovers is a short film that asks us to examine society’s capitalist values, and how they relate to religion and climate change. Set in a river, Lovers features a serious-looking God in a black bikini, and a mischievous, white horned Satan in short black leather pants and what looks like chunky red jam spread over their skin. Throughout the clip, God and Satan grope each other’s arms and exchange meaningful looks. Satan takes Jesus’s place by lying on the cross in the river, and Satan mugs it up for the camera, having a wickedly good time. On the floor of the gallery in front of the video lies a timber cross, concrete, and rope from the film. Fiarrah describes their artwork as “a navigation of the individual’s quest to find comfort while confronting various discomforts,” which I would say it achieved. The setting, outfits, and God and Satan’s kinky relationship make it all weirdly enthralling to watch.

Using the concept of a “remainder” as a theme, QCAD’s 2024 sculptural graduates explored the remainders of their both own histories, and society’s, in their artworks. These emerging artists have addressed what is left behind, physically, culturally and morally, by evoking memories of summers past, uncertain living arrangements, and raising questions about what values we are left with in our capitalist society.

Louise Truan is an arts worker and Art History (Honours) student at the University of Queensland. IG: @lou.travels.ig.