Racial discrimination and the impacts of Alzheimers Disease were the inspiration for two young Southern Highlands artists now attracting statewide attention.
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Bowral High School Year 12 class of 2019 students Monika Haselhuhn and Rebecca Risteska have had their HSC major works selected in the 2020 Artexpress exhibition.
This year's showcase will be delivered online due to COVID-19 restrictions, in the inaugural Artexpress Virtual Exhibition.
The works of the Bowral High students will be among 50 works featured in the exhibition after they were identified as exemplary works from the 2019 HSC Visual Arts practical examination.
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The selected works were taken across 12 expressive forms, and have been captured using 3D imagery.
Monika's work, Forget me Not, was created with ceramics, polaroid film, acrylic paint and wire and represented the effects of Alzheimer's disease on both the individual with it and their surrounding family.
She said she chose to use ceramic as it was a fragile, breakable material that represented the fragility of life and human connection.
"The decay of a person's mind is represented in the form of a building being destroyed," Monika said in the summary of her work.
Monika added that the "collection of polaroid photos and the sculpted hands gave insight into my personal experience, having witnessed my grandfather's decline due to this incurable disease."
The HSC marker described Monika's work as "expertly sculpted in expressive poses that are evocative and effective in communicating the decline and loss of the subject."
Rebecca's work, Sticks and Stones, created with clay and acrylic paint on canvas, is about racial discrimination.
She said the sculpture represented "the individual with a particular cultural background, with 'skin' revealing words spoken to others, and the parrot signifying Australians."
"Each phrase identifies words used by bullies, the feelings that are felt and the words spoken by the mother," Rebecca said in her description of her work.
"The shadow paintings represent the effect of time on the individual's growth and acceptance of their own identity."
The marker said the "sculpture cleverly integrates a modernistic aesthetic with overlays of contemporary practice in the found and constructed forms."
A third Bowral High School student also attracted attention for their HSC major work.
Magic Young's work was included in the art express exhibition in the Art Gallery of NSW and will be exhibited again in late August at Goulburn Regional Gallery.
The Artexpress Virtual 2020 exhibition can be accessed at https://artexpress.vr.artsunit.nsw.edu.au/
It is supported by the Teachers Mutual Bank.
Visitors to the website can explore the curated Bodies of Work in incredible detail, including virtual reality if you have a VR headset or viewer.