It is my favourite time of the year in Melbourne: autumn and the annual display of Top Arts at the National Gallery of Victoria. Every year, I accompany one of my daughters and her family to find out what the pick of the VCE Art and Studio Art students from the previous year have created. We discuss the work on display, wonder how much the teachers influence the media chosen by each young artists, and marvel at the creativity and ingenuity of these young "students". Each year, the children in the family get a little bit older and develop their own responses to the works on display. Each year, I appreciate anew the fact that all art appeals in different ways to different individuals.
This year, we were greeted with an exhibition outside of the gallery by an installation by Kathy Holowko called "Batmania". In spite of their tendency to eat my fruit, destroy trees and spread awful diseases, I am still very fond of the Fruit Bat/ Flying Fox and really miss them spiralling round and round the art gallery spire. They always used to remind me of flying dark angels. So, I was rather keen on this display - especially against the gridwork of the building. Master One and a Half and Miss Four were pretty chuffed too, though they would have liked to be be able to touch them.
This year's Top Arts Exhibition was called Start Up, and, as usual contained a range of media. Unfortunately, due to the lighting and the use of glass, and the limits of my camera, I couldn't photograph them all, but I am sure you'll get an idea of the range from the photos that follow.
A lot of the pieces were portraits. Miss Four's favourite was Ashleigh Newman's presentation of two coloured pencil portraits and an accompanying speeded up video presentation of the creation of a few of her portraits, from blank piece of paper to finished work. She kept going back to the video and watching it spellbound. Her mother and I were struck by the fact that the artist did not usually start on the eyes, like we do, but at the hair, and that she did a small area at a time, rather than working on a tone at a time.
I thought the portraits, "John and Jane" by Sabrina Lewis using synthetic polymer paint on polymer clay were very effective and admired the patience required, and achievement of individuality out of apparent uniformity.
Another set of portraits, by Hayden Reid, called "Pride", inspired by a field trip to South Africa, were very photorealistic, and demonstrated a lot of control by the artist over his medium - the graphite pencil.
Working in a different media again, Kate Fitzgerald embroidered her portraits, which could be viewed from the front or the back.
I was quite keen on this little oil painting, "Self-portrait: Jabberwocky", by Alana Meehan. Her use of underpainting and control of light give this piece a strongly atmospheric feel and leaves it to the reader to determine the mood. Very beautiful.
This piece is one of a series of photographs by Megan Fraser, called "The mask". It is quite a contrast to the above work. Not very subtle at all as she distorts the features of her subjects with clingwrap and stresses their pallour and heightens their unattractiveness.
Not all the work was portraits however. Miss Four was intrigued by this still life called "The widower". All the objects in the installation by Molloe Binnsare painted so that the piece echoes a flat painting on canvas and tricks the viewers eye. Very, very clever.
Some works were abstract, like this piece by Natalie Cain, which is synthetic polymer paint, ink and gold leaf on canvas.
Others are expressive, like this piece called "Haze" by Emily Caudry.
Some work was drawing on wood bark, like this beautiful piece by Sophie Kons, which I adore. She has decorated the wood bark with chalk pen. It reminds me of the scribbling designs many insects make on trees.
I also liked "Dress" by Migle Zvirblyte. The cotton dress is sewn with chia seeds and is photographed when the seeds sprout. The photograph is displayed beside the dress after the plants have died and the demonstration of life's finiteness, and the value of both life and death, is strikingly displayed.
All the adults loved the beautiful fabrics created by Callum Crocker who digitally transformed his own pencil and ink drawings and then had them printed onto fabric.
I also liked this instillation of digital photographs on synthetic polymer resin, with light globes behind them. Really effective. They are the work of Eliza Bussell.
Another artist that we all admired was Lauren De Ryke. "As we destroy nature, we destroy ourselves" consists of two photo-based pieces which masterfully demonstrate the impact of the destruction of the environment on mankind.
Miss Four also liked works that had intaeractive displays, like Emerson Zandegu's book "Dullahan", which is also displayed digitally.
My absolute favourite was this gorgeous, but disturbing, dress by Olivia Gardiner, called "Carnage" which so aptly shows the link between animals and human beings. The workmanship and attention to detail is amazing.
Mind you, not everyone shared my taste. One viewer was heard exclaiming "yuk". And, Master One and a Half found the whole experience just too exhausting to give an opinion.
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