RMIT UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ART
MASTERRMIT
OF FINE ART
UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL
GRADUATE SHOW OF ART

MASTER OF FINE ART

RMIT UNIVERSITY
School of art
MASTER OF FINE ART 2010

Conditions of practice: Conversations, Attentiveness and Sensitivity. 6

Coordinating S taff 2010 10

Postgraduate candidates 12

Artists works 14

Acknowledgements 84
 CONDITIONS OF PRACTICE:
CONVERSATIONS, ATTENTIVENESS AND SENSITIVITY.

6
CONDITIONS OF PRACTICE:
CONVERSATIONS, ATTENTIVENESS AND SENSITIVITY.
The process of making art requires attentiveness
and sensitivity. Attentiveness is an attitude of mind
that entails paying close attention to a breadth of
knowledge, influences and ideas. It is a state of
being receptive and perceptive: an active state of
engagement that draws knowledge in. In simple
terms being receptive might be considered as
having ones radar up, scanning and tuning into
relevant frequencies of information.
Sensitivity involves a state of thoughtfulness and
consideration. Within the process of making art
works this is a refinement and focus of ideas, that
engages intuition, insight and discernment. It is
a filtering of ideas, knowledge and influences to
create connections and understandings through a
prism of personal reflection and responsiveness.
Making art involves a constant bi directional flow
between attentiveness and sensitivity. It is both
an awareness of a field of knowledge in which
an individual’s practice is being situated and an
understanding of difference: the demarcation of
ones own practice from this broader field where
an individuals sensitivities and sensibilities locate
avenues for making. This requires an astute
awareness of one’s individual approach to practice
and methods of making that give knowledge
relevant form as art works. The outcome of this
enquiry through the public display of art works is
additive. It brings personal insights to a tableau
of knowledge and partakes in a dialogue through
practice as a cultural contributor.
The studio is the principle site for this enquiry and
the place in which new knowledge in the form of art
works is generated. Learning happens in making
and through conversation. These conversations are
a generous exchange of ideas and knowledge that
happens on a peer-to-peer level and between staff
and students.
 The conversations that happen in the studios
on a daily basis can range from how to use wall
plugs to existential discussions about the state of
the world and our place within it. Politics, popular
culture, beauty, the sublime, personal histories,
paradox, intuition and the inexpressible fill the
air of the studios as students test their inner
content and means of expression. What makes
this activity so challenging is the personal nature
of this undertaking, and the incredibly broad and
varied discourse that informs contemporary art.
Meaning processes continually shift in relation to
visual cues, unexpected outcomes and stimulating
contexts. This can be overwhelming or indeed
underwhelming, however, every now and then a
new insight arrives, prompting an inspired idea
or process. The outcome if this is artwork that
can surprise and delight. Works of subtle nuance
that give a voice to individual insights and make a
valuable contribution to their field of knowledge.
It is a privilege as staff members to be engaged in
8
and contribute to this process. In assisting in and
guiding students through their learning we learn
with them. This exchange of knowledge enriches
the program, the staff and the student body. While
this graduating group of students is preparing to
leave the educational framework they will continue
to engage their sensitivities and attentiveness in the
making of artworks. Conversations will enhance this
creative process and assist in the development of
these works. This will be with their peer group that
they move forward in to professional practice with
and an expanding network of a community of like-
minded art practitioners. While the MFA program is
an ending the journey is just beginning.
Sally Mannall
With a contribution by
Laresa Kosloff on conversations in the studio.
 Coordinating Staff 2010

10
Program Coordinator of the MFA Australia and NZ
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DAVID THOMAS PHD
SALLY MANNALL (ACTING JULY TO DEC 2010)

MFA Academic Advisors Seminar Contributors

GREG CREEK ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DAVID THOMAS PHD
MARK EDGOOSE GABRIELLA & SILVANA MANGANO
MICHAEL GRAEVE RAAFAT ISHAK
DR RUTH JOHNSTONE BALA STARR
LARESA KOSLOFF DANIEL VON STURMER
SALLY MANNALL ADRIEN ALLEN
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DAVID THOMAS PHD JOY HIRST
HEATHER HESTERMAN
Postgraduate Administrative Officer AIMEE FAIRMAN
KATHRYN WARDILL ANGELA CLARKE
MEREDITH TURNBULL
Technicians KATIE LEE
ALAN ROBERTS PETER ELLIS
JASON WADE SAM LEACH
ROBERT DOTT NATALIA TOLEDO
Dr. PETER HILL
MFA Advanced Seminar PETER CRIPPS
Seminar Coordinators: SUE CRAMER
GREG CREEK STUART RINGHOLT
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DAVID THOMAS PHD LOU HUBBARD
SUH YONGSUN
 Postgraduate candidates

12
RUSHDI ANWAR
NICK BERRY
STEPH BOLT
JAKE CARTER
HELEN DILKES
SARAH EDWARDS
FERNANDO GARCIA VASQUEZ
K ATE GECK
LOUIS GUYLIM
NICK HALL
JESSICA HONEY
NADA JA ZA
CARMENZA JIMENEZ
CHRISTINA KERK VLIET GODDARD
DAVID ASHLEY KEER
TODD ANDERSON KUNERT
ALICJA KUZMYCZ
JUDY LEONG
MATT MINCOFF
SIMON MOORE
TRUDY MOORE
ANNEKE MUIJLWIJK
TIA PARKER
CATHERINE PLANT
NANI PUSPASARI
SUSAN RALEIGH
MATTHEW DOMENIC SALVO
WILLIAM SIT
POLLY STANTON
MELANIE JAYNE TAYLOR
K ATRINA TYLER
GEORGE TZIK AS
K AVIN VIASUWAN
STEPH WILSON
ELMEDIN ZUNIC
 Rushdi Anwar
I am interested in creating a surface with real materials. I used nails, rust powder,
ash, earth, charcoal, paper, wood and books as materials to evoke historical and
political metaphors. I choose not to use any illusory effects: the surface exists as
a real object in its own right. From this point I attempt to encourage the viewer to
experience my work whose ambiguity creates questions rather than answers.

IMAGE
Shadow Of History, 2010
books, nails, rust powder, wood shelf,and mixed media
540 x 100 x 50 cm

E: contact@rushdi.com.au
T: 0411 091 365
www.rushdi.com.au

14
 Nick Berry
I make a series of small installations and paintings, which consider the idea of a
“finished” work .I seek to explore paintings’ interpretive nature and viewing processes
and discuss through painting and installation how language can operate and/or
affect the viewers reading of it. My practice provides a lighthearted take on painting
through the modes of painting, drawing and installation based work.

IMAGE
Blue Horizon, 2010
acrylic on canvas
100 x 100 cm

Email: solflavin@gmail.com
Tel: 0420246485

16
 STEPH BOLT
Photography, travel and colour are my obsessions and are essential elements of
my art practice. I photo-document daily life and use this source material to produce
work that incorporates both print and sculptural media. I am interested in the
common person in their natural environment. My photographs are not posed and
the subject matter is deliberately non heroic. The commonality of everyday life
fascinates me. My work is about people and their everyday journeys.

IMAGE
here there elsewhere, 2010
ink, stencil and paint on wood
dimensions variable

Email: steph.bolt.artist@gmail.com

18
 Jake Carter
I am interested in illuminating the contingent in order to reveal significant dimensions,
true to the circumstances unfolding.
Exploring processes of spatial sound installation and kinetic painting, my work
organically articulates dormant presences and active energies that are often
overlooked in everyday materials and circumstances.

Email: tempstime@hotmail.com

20
 Helen Dilkes
Duration… recollection investigates the nature of experience; exploring how qualities
that draw attention – are salient, can provoke reminders of the moment to moment
of being. Philosopher Henri Bergson conceived of the cone as a kind of metaphor
for the state of co-existence of past and present; multiple slices through the cone –
ellipses, are all past recollections experienced in the present. Form, shape, surface
– via cone geometry and construction method, intertwine in this work. Duration is
captured and expressed in the making and the experiencing of the work.

IMAGE
Duration… recollection: conic slices, 2010
installation: silver & pigment
120 x 55 x 55 mm

Email: helendilkes@optusnet.com.au
Tel: 0407 948 154

22
 Sarah Edwards
Sarah Edwards’ art practice is inspired by nature and her experience collecting
specimens for scientific research. She uses multimedia and installation techniques to
trigger remembered and imagined encounters with natural phenomenon.

IMAGE
Rain Shower, 2010
polypropylene strips, muslin support, mirrors, video
300 cm x 300 cm x 250 cm

24
 Fernando Garcia Vasquez
I recycle, appropriate and manipulate found objects and iconic works from art history
in order to generate in the spectator the curious act of re-exploring an image. These
mental games also attempt to represent the sensation of loss and absence, inspiring
the spectator to consider these ideas in relation to our Natural environment.

IMAGE
El Agujero en la Hostia (Nudes), 2010
oil on marine plywood
16 x 16 cm

Email: fernandogarciavasquez@hotmail.com

26
 Kate Geck
The MFA body of work has focused on the creation of soft energy chambers,
which are hyperactive audiovisual spaces designed for one person. A playful, lo -fi
aesthetic is used to generate a sensory, immersive installation experience inside
silk screened chambers saturated with frenetic animation and ambient sounds.
The works explore memories of 80s and 90s TV and video games, and attempt to
repackage these memories into an experiential space.

IMAGE
Soft Energy Chamber #1 , 2010
Silk screened panels, video, sound.
Dimensions variable

www.kittykake.com

28
 Louis Guylim
My works are inspired by psychedelic music, in particular 1960’s psychedelia and
1970’s progressive rock to explore ideas of euphoria as a personal response to
freedom

IMAGE

Flower Travellin’ Band “anywhere” , 2010

Gouache, acrylic and home paint on 2 wood panels
45 x 90 cm each panels

Email: oznak@yahoo.com
www.oznak.blogspot.com

30
 Nick Hall
The paintings in this project explore apathy, disengagement and inaction as
manifestations of the guilt and anxiety experienced in response to knowledge of
environmental issues.

IMAGE
Miles Away, 2010
Mixed Media On Canvas
180 x 200 cm

Global Dread, 2010

Mixed Media on Canvas
150 x 150 cm

Email: nickhallartworks@yahoo.com.au
Tei: 0422516781
www.nickhall.com.au

32
 Jessica Honey
This project investigates representations of children and childhood in children’s
fashion media. Through a series of painted portraits the slippage between child and
adult content is brought uncomfortably close to the surface, exposed through the
child’s self-awareness, direct gaze, posture and performance.

IMAGE
ladia, 2010
Acrylic and Oil on Board
29 x 42 cm

louis, 2010
Acrylic and Oil on Board
29 x 42 cm

Email: dearjessicahoney@gmail.com

34
 Nada Jaza
My research explores my personal experience of migration from Lebanon to
Australia and adjustment within two cultures. The project addresses personal and
cultural barriers, ideas of concealing and revealing, and traditional and contemporary
influences. In this work I have transformed a Middle Eastern rug into a contemporary
art piece. The functional use of the rug is now ‘fading’ away, and its usage is being
replaced as a commodity.

IMAGE
vanishing, 2010
Original Rug, Plasterbandages, Paint
200 x 135 cm

Email: nadajaza@hotmail.com
Tel: 0402 640 544

36
 Carmenza Jimenez
My work focuses on the physical, political and ideological barriers that divide
nations in the world. I’m impressed with the monumentality of some of those walls,
the message that they send to us and how intimidating they are. The iron bars that
separates families on both sides of the border between United States and Mexico
were my inspiration for this project, called Bilateral Borders.

IMAGE
BILATERAL BORDERS, 2009
paint on wall
2.60 x 9.50 mts

Email: carzajim@hotmail.com
Tel: 0433559938

38
 Christina Kerkvliet Goddard
Valiant sky blue
Over her shoulder a familiar tune catches her ear
She dismounts the see-saw and follows her legs over to the school playground fence
Here she accepts 17 cents from a sky blue valiant who tells her his name is ‘Dad’
It floats down the road and away
In the inkling of the ‘time to go inside’ bell she writes his name in the sand and quickly rubs it out.

IMAGE
Valiant sky blue, 2010
Chenille pipe-cleaners
350 x 200cm

Email: Christina.8@bigpond.com
Tei: 0400168554
www.ckgoddard.com.au

40
 David Ashley Keer
David-Ashley’s photographic practice is a visual inquiry into the semiotic relationship
between
culture and environment. He explores the staged lone figure in contemporary
landscape photography, attempting a representation of archetypes in mainstream
culture that bridge a relationship between
cultural identity and physical environment.

IMAGE
I hear the sea, 2010
lightjet photographic print
90 x 150 cm

www.david-ashleykerr.com

42
 Todd Anderson Kunert
‘This project explores emotional, physical and psychological dynamics in intimate
relationships through the combined use of photography, sound and installation.’

IMAGE
This is everything, 2010
Chromagenic print and sound installation
80 x 80 cm

Email: toddakphoto@ yahoo.com

www.toddanderson-kunert.com

44
 Alicja Kuzmycz
Through my work I’m hoping to create a vehicle for discussion on feminine identity -
it’s creation, performance and judgment.

IMAGE
Faceme 1, 2010
Electrophotographic Print on bond paper
1189 mm x 841 mm

icam, 2006 - 2010

video/animated photos
150 mm x 80 mm

Email: alicja@alicjakuzmycz.net
www.alicjakuzmycz.net

46
 Judy Leong
As a migrant I have had to deal with being different, physically and culturally. My
emigrational journey explores the complexity of overlapping of societal hierarchies
and cultural behaviors that I had to negotiate in order to be accepted. As reminders
and triggers of identity, colors and symbolisms favored by the Asians, folded
paper boats and travel artifacts are used to encourage the exploration of personal
stories.

IMAGE
The boats of my losses, 2010
mixed media
size variable

Email: leong815.judy@gmail.com
Tel: 0400 886 672

48
 Matt Mincoff
Through the construction of plastic models of hyper-dimensional form, this body of
work explores sacred geometry and model making as a metaphorical representation
of invisible forms and the mind’s capacity to transcend. I have used contrasting
materials such as plaster and plastic to explore contrasting properties and effects
including opacity and transparency, positive and negative space, repetition and
uniquely varied forms.

IMAGE
source, 2010
plastic, inkjet transfer film
17 x 17 x 17 cm

Email: mattmincoff@gmail.com
http://mattmincoff.tumblr.com/

50
 simon moore
Memory is to time as movement is to space.

IMAGE
Memory is made of this (I), 2010
etching on somerset textured soft white 300gsm
dimensions variable

Email: simondotmoore@gmail.com

52
 Trudy Moore
I use paper and charcoal to make three-dimensional rubbings of furniture and
architecture. These works evoke a sense of absence and presence, while also
dealing with ideas of artifice and illusion. The techniques I employ to manipulate the
paper indicate an expenditure of physical energy, illustrating both force and support
and creating a tension between resistance and collapse.

IMAGE
Chair, 2010
charcoal on paper
80cm x 120cm x 110cm

Email: trudymoore.art@gmail.com

54
 Anneke Muijlwijk
My art work draws on knowledge I have gained in the fields of Geography, Town
Planning and Psychology and references environmental, socio-cultural and
psychological concerns. I am interested in the relationships between people and
place and aim to create drawings and watercolours representing everyday activities
and reflecting the different realities and dynamics of a community of people that is
facing change.

IMAGE

We are the custodians of the land, 2010

watercolour on paper
500 x 700mm

Email: Email: annekem@ihug.co.nz

Tel: +64 027 4434484

56
 Tia Parker
My work usually is derived from personal and universal narratives through which
I try to describe and contemplate a mythical realm while utilizing kiwiana and
pacific iconography. I enjoy employing a range of media and techniques from such
disciplines as digital photography, sculpture, painting and printmaking. I also have
an interest in Pacific arts, outsider and folk art from all around the globe and this is
often expressed through my practice.

IMAGE
Pohutukawa Carcass , 2010
mixed media

Email:tiaparker24@gmail.com

58
 Catherine Plant
This project uses as a catalyst the personal experience of migration. The work utilises
a personal visual language of memory and displacement, and a psychological space
of the home through representational paintings and collage to generate readings of
internal reflection and belonging.

IMAGE
The Tiles, 2010
acrylic, fabric, and charcoal on canvas
112 x 91 cm

Email: create@catherineplantdesign.com.au
Tel: 0417 770 270

60
 Nani Puspasari
My work explores narratives to create an imaginary world based on everyday lives,
childhood memories, and popular culture to communicate feelings of innocence,
naiveness, loss and sorrow. The subject matter represents female iconography and
female-associated materials with feminine decorative devices as the concept of
femininity.

IMAGE
The Sister, 2010
color marker on paper
25 x 31 cm

Email: nanisakurai@yahoo.com
www.designani.net

62
 Susan raleigh
In this body of work artificial, fluorescent and iridescent colour is used to portray
a dynamic energy that is usually associated with the sublime; it expresses fluid
elements that convey energy and movement. Through the process of pouring;
dynamic, erupting explosions are depicted on Perspex in order to reference visual
phenomena and stimulate the visionary, bodily and intuitive senses.

IMAGE
INTOXICATION, 2010
INK ON PERSPEX
120 x 240 cm

Email: susanjane6@gmail.com

64
 Matthew Domenic Salvo
Capturing urban sounds, the sound of the ‘everyday’ as a reference for time, space
and interactivity evokes a glimpse of transitory observations of the human connection
in our habitual environment. I aim to point out the dynamics of patterns that occur in
a moment of singularity.

IMAGE
Urban environment, 2010
photo still
size variable

wall skin, 2010

film still
dimensions variable

Email: maggymoore57@gmail.com
Tel: 0431447490

66
 William Sit
The project aims to engage the viewer in a process of active contemplation through
collagic methods of layering and juxtaposition in painting. Concerned with the
experiencing of multiple happenings in thought and perception, and a subsequent
state of continual comprehension, the project draws on a conjunction of historical,
natural and personal imagery to activate an understanding of spirituality and one’s
being in relation to the world.

IMAGE
Untitled (Wolf), 2010
Oil on Canvas
100 x 75 cm

Email: williamzifungsit@gmail.com
Tel: 0401449809

68
 Polly Stanton
This studio-based project engages the act of duration and the site of the ruin as a
means to consider the passing of time and the ephemeral qualities of experience
and memory. By using the temporal mediums of video and sound I aim to create an
encompassing environment that affects the viewer’s experience of time and space,
encouraging a contemplation of life and its finite nature.

IMAGEs
Hallway, 2009
HD video

Email: hello@pollystanton.com
www.pollystanton.com

70
 Melanie Jayne Taylor
By using imagery from my personal photographic archive in combination with
installation strategies and titling, my project aims to develop a range of pictorial and
spatial structures that are capable of generating contemplation on the transitory
nature of image, meaning, memory, loss, and absence.

IMAGE
An Interruption , 2010
Inkjet Printe
65 x 40 cm

Email: melaniejaynemail@gmail.com

72
 Katrina Tyler
Having developed a language of hand-made metal components, utilising organic
patterns, structures and methods of construction, I have created self-supporting
sculptural objects and jewellery that explore the forms of man-made vessels and
decorative objects. By exploiting museological display techniques, and the object’s
inherent ability to offer a pause for reflection and contemplation, the works aim to
convey notions of time, duration and the ever-present simultaneous, eternal cycles
of growth and proliferation, and decay and disintegration.

IMAGE
Colony Brooch, 2009
Mild steel, stirling silver, enamel
2.5 x 6cm

Cluster fragment, 2010

Oxidised copper
5.5 x 8cm

Email: mail@katrinatyler.com
74
 George Tzikas
My work draws inspiration from my meditation practice of twenty years and from
the Buddhist Heart Sutra commentary: “Form is empty....emptiness is form”.
I make large scale paintings that sit on the threshold between abstraction and
representation. They allude to ambiguous internal/external “architectural” forms
and spaces
I explore the notion of form and emptiness from the perspective of the Buddhist
Heart Sutra and attempt to engage the viewer in somatic, perceptual and ocular
experiences.

IMAGE
Untitled , 2010
Oil and acrylic on canvas
180 x 160 cm

Email: tzikasart@optusnet.com.au
Tel: 0417 527 900

76
 Kavin Viasuwan
Social problems, personal problems and local politics are to present by the symbolic
imagery of drawings

IMAGE
A man with the red head , 2010
Drawing, red marker
41 x 59 cm

Email: k_vias@yahoo.com

78
 Steph Wilson
Through painting modern interior spaces I aim to explore ideas relating to social
psychology within public space, as well as pictorial conventions and artifice within
painting. I am interested in the nature of these spaces that are encountered by many
people on a daily basis, and the ways in which they can dictate human interaction.
I am also interested in the staged nature of the interiors and how they can imply
human presence.

IMAGE
semi transpaent world , 2010
Oil on Canvas
107 x 137 cm

Email: stephw30@hotmail.com

80
 Elmedin Zunic
According to Sartre, man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the
world and defines himself afterwards. We carry an image of ourselves and it is upon
reflection of this image that we understand who we are.
The main concerns that my work deals with are the question of existence and our
constant quest to understand our own identity.

IMAGE
Parallels. 2010
Detail from the installation
Plaster, Iron B Metal Coating, Bronze B Metal Coating, Light Green
Patina, Fe Nitrate Patina and digital photographic print Year:2010
Dimensions variable

Tel: 0434614665

82
 Acknowledgements

84
MFA 2010
RMIT UNIVERSITY
MASTER OF FINE ART
GRADUATE EXHIBITION
2010 CATALOGUE

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School Of Art
Graphic design: Rushdi Anwar
Rmit University

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