New Contemporaries

Following another unprecedented year, and with the Sydney College of the Arts community spread across Australia and abroad, New Contemporaries provides the opportunity to collectively present the works of students across Screen Arts, Photography, Painting, Print Media, Sculpture, Ceramics, Glass and Jewellery and Object.

“In parallel to our physical exhibition, this platform brings our students together after many months of being unable to gather in person,” said Julie Rrap and Andrew Lavery Co-Directors and Co-Chairs of Department, Sydney College of the Arts.

“Led by Dr David Haines, a practising artist and academic who will show at the Biennale of Sydney next year, the cutting-edge online space was created in consultation with a colourful cohort and designed to mimic the textured experience of wandering through studios located on campus.

“Each profile can be accessed through an object captured from the artists’ own working space and is personalised to echo their creative ethos.

“Unlike the physical exhibition, it offers glimpses into their working process and provides pathways to explore their work further via personal website links.”

Highlights from New Contemporaries include:

·       Morgan Hogg is a third-year student who utilises installations as a visual representation of the ongoing issues within the Pacific islands and Indigenous cultures in the Southern Hemisphere. Morgan’s final work Ranginui + Papatūānuku is an immersive video installation, which reflects upon the Polynesian cultural connection with the land and sea.

·       Sinta Wijaya, who received the Directors’ Award for best online presentation, created a profile designed to be mediated through multiple devices, providing a portal to the realm of her online persona “Marimog1rl”.

·       Charne Greyling, a third-year student undertaking a Bachelor of Advanced Studies in Visual Arts and Art History, produced Exaltation, a series of three large-scale portrait oil paintings, portraying events that take place in the queer nightclub scene. The works are post-punk style oil paintings, intertwined with multimedia video elements to light up and bring movement to the work while exploring themes of identity in relation to sexuality and gender.

·       Edwina Darling is a contemporary visual artist studying a Bachelor of Visual Art specialising in photo media. Edwina’s current work, Powercry, focuses on the intersection of photographic stills and moving pictures looking specifically at the physicality of human emotion.

·       Master of the Moving Image students, Weijie Deng, Tongtong Liu, Di Wang, Jialing Wang, Gaohan Zhang and Qianting Cai produced Unfair Love, winner of the Sydney College of the Arts Jury Award. The drama tells of a young girl who, faced with the blame for a fire in her countryside home, grapples with her parent’s greater love for her brother.