CAPA NEWS
ARTEXPRESS EXHIBITION AT HAZELHURST REGIONAL GALLERY
On Saturday 10th February, HSC Visual Arts student Achan Ajak along with her family attended the opening event for ARTEXPRESS 2024 at the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery in Gymea. ARTEXPRESS is an annual series of exhibitions of exemplary artworks created by New South Wales visual arts students for the Higher School Certificate examination. It was a very prestigious event, featuring various political state members and NESA officials.
Achan’s Visual Arts body of work; ‘Stories of the Dark’ was selected for this exhibition amongst the best in the State. Her work drew praise from La Perouse education officer Aunty Maxine Ryan who gave the Welcome to country address. Congratulations to Achan who was also a NSW Distinguished Achiever, achieving a result in the highest Band; (Band 6) in last year’s HSC Visual Arts alongside eight others in her class.
Students in this exhibition push aesthetic, conceptual and formal boundaries, experimenting across a range of expressive forms including drawing, painting, photography, time-based forms and designed objects.
Achan’s Artist Statement:
Belonging is not a given. It is constantly challenged. The question “where are you from?”, while seemingly innocent, symbolically deports dark skinned people back to faraway places. This question particularly confronts those who have no other place to call home. While Australians of different descents may live in Australia as law-abiding and productive citizens, the ongoing scrutiny, questioning and unending construction of foreigner status positions them as “perpetual strangers”. My body of work represents how a particular racial identity is imposed on an individual or a group, without their consent. Recognising the hyper-visibility of their skin colour, the different colours reflect on the difficult and transcendental journeys of embracing their blackness, resenting it, or feeling separated from it. Therefore, to be non-white, particularly to be black, is to occupy the space on the margin.
Mr. Peters
Creative Arts Coordinator