Year 12 Visual Arts
Congratulations to our Year 12 students on their dedication and creativity in completing their Bodies of Work. Each student explored themes that reflect their individual passions and perspectives, resulting in an inspiring showcase of talent and effort. Special commendations go to Bo Chang and Veronica Surawski, whose exceptional works have been nominated for Art Express. What a wonderful achievement!
Artist: Bo Chang
Title: Where I Am Not
Artist Statement:
Dissociation destabilises the foundations of identity, collapsing the coherence of thought, memory, and presence into something unfamiliar. From my personal experience, it offers a fragile escape from the irrevocability of life, a retreat from regrets and undesirable circumstances. My body of work captures this sense of slipping between recognition and self-estrangement, inhabiting one’s body while simultaneously becoming a distant witness to it. Charcoal’s fragile, powdery surface—easily smudged, erased, and unsettled—mirrors this precarious experience of dissociation and impermanence, where the self remains recognisable yet continually slips away. By visualising dissociation, my work invites reflection on what it means to momentarily lose oneself, and the struggle to regain coherence in a disorienting world.
Artist: Veronica Surawski
Title: Veronica’s Dab Neeg (story)
Artist Statement:
Veronica’s Dab Neeg is about celebrating and remembering my grandmother Yeng’s life. Through her many sufferings and sacrifices as a Hmong refugee, Yeng was able to build a home in Australia as a loving mother and grandmother. These paintings serve as a visual timeline of her life that ultimately led to my journey as an artist. By painting portraits of my family I have created truly personal and meaningful artworks that capture our growth, connection, and lasting memories. Hence, this collection of acrylic paintings is a tribute to Yeng and my family to thank them for their love.
Artist: Hitomi Nogawa-Lewy
Title: Subliminal
Artist Statement:
Advertising is shoved in our faces everywhere we go, making it easy for us to consume products and media without thinking. Through representing the Seven Deadly Sins (as seen in Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy) in a modern shopping mall setting, my body of work aims to expose the amorality of companies and individuals who promote unhealthy standards as well as our collective responsibility to moderate our “sinful” behaviour, encouraging the audience to think critically by considering whether they are falling for marketing schemes. Some of the societal issues I’ve attempted to depict in this work include the objectification of women in entertainment, overconsumption and the thirst for social media attention.
Artist: Rachel Ng
Title: From Bloom to Ash
Artist Statement:
From Bloom to Ash explores the fragile balance between freedom and destruction through both sculpture and painting. The hands in the sculpture symbolize strength, connection, and the potential for good, while also reflecting humanity’s capacity for chaos and harm – a duality expressed through their yin-and-yang form. The painting mirrors this contrast, with trees representing growth, life, and hope on one side, and devastation through fire on the other, embodying the sudden shift from harmony to destruction. Together, the works highlight the paradox that freedom, while full of possibility and beauty, is equally vulnerable to collapse and ruin.
Artist: Yuma Rush
Title: Sharing Moments
Artist statement:
My artwork ‘Sharing Moments’ explores the emotional significance of everyday acts of sharing and their role in fostering human connection. Through a series of acrylic paintings, I depict gestures such as sharing a drink, dance, laugh, view, umbrella, meal and flowers – each highlighting the physical and relational aspects of togetherness. Drawing from personal memories, I aim to evoke recognition and warmth, encouraging viewers to reflect on the small exchanges that shape relationships. By highlighting these small yet meaningful exchanges, my work invites audiences to consider how acts of sharing contribute to emotional closeness and social cohesion.
Artist: Nicole Dias Prates
Title: Traces of a Smaller Self
Artist Statement:
My work explores the intersection of childhood memory and nostalgia through the familiar associations embedded within everyday spaces. By focusing on the ordinary, I aim to uncover the warmth, intimacy, and emotional resonance of environments that have faded from conscious recollection yet remain deeply formative. These spaces, though seemingly unremarkable, carry both personal and collective significance, transforming the mundane into something enduring and meaningful. A recurring motif in my practice is the depiction of my younger self, repositioned across each composition. These figures are not intended as literal portraits but as symbolic echoes of childhood, evoking the curiosity, wonder, and sense of expansiveness that once shaped the way spaces were experienced. In doing so, I seek to honour the persistence of memory and the subtle yet powerful ways in which childhood environments continue to shape identity and perception. Ultimately, my work reflects on how the everyday becomes a vessel for memory, inviting viewers to reconsider their own connections to place, belonging, and the enduring influence of the past.
Artist: Bhavna Alagiri
Title: Echoes of my Tamil Kalacharam (culture)
Artists Statement:
This collection of works encapsulates my evolving relationship with my South Indian heritage, particularly the emotional disconnection I experienced after migrating to Australia. This deeply personal work mirrors the complexities of navigating identity when cultural roots are broken and the familiar sense of belonging fades. Growing up in Tamil Nadu, my culture is integral in shaping my identity and brought me a pure sense of colour and meaning to my childhood. However, the transition to a new country challenged this connection. I found myself questioning: Who am I, if the essence of where I come from no longer surrounds me? Through each of these pieces I attempt to give voice to the ‘untranslated’ parts of myself, seeking a way back to the cultural heartbeat I once lived by.