Two local Year 12 students will have their artwork displayed in the Art Gallery of Western Australia, as part of the Year 12 Perspectives exhibition.
Mandurah Baptist College student Adam Newsome and Comet Bay College student Brindy Donovan’s work was chosen to feature alongside 48 other WA students.
Adam said his piece Despair 2017, addressed body image.
”I used a perspex layer over the painting to act as metaphorical mirror,” he said.
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“This has created the appearance that the individual is leaning into the mirror...as though she is succumbing to society’s impossible standards.
“It is as if she is sinking into the belief that she herself doesn’t meet those standards.”
Brindy said her self portrait challenged gender stereotypes, using pink and blue colours.
“Strangers will often read my gender in different ways, based on whether they categorise characteristics of my androgynous appearance as either ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’,” she said.
“I encourage the viewer to become conscious of and challenge their practice of categorising the physical attributes of a person in this way.”
One piece will be chosen as the overall winner, by judges that include WA Art Teachers Association president Leith Elliott, artist Nathan Beard and gallery curator Dunja Rmandić.
The works span a variety of subject matter and media, ranging from painting and drawing to sculpture, digital moving image, photography and textiles.
Ms Rmandić said the students had lived their entire lives with technology.
“Their native sphere of engagement is the internet, social media and instant accessibility,” she said.
“Given this, it is even more intriguing to see what they have chosen to focus on in their art, and how they attempt to engage us with their work."
Year 12 Perspectives is on display at the Art Gallery of Western Australia from March to July 20, 2018.