St Pats College year 12 student Oriana Santamaria, 18, has spent hours moulding faces to celebrate multiculturalism.
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Her three busts were inspired by refugees she has met in Launceston.
It stemmed for her passion for refugees to be accepted onto Australia’s shores, Santamaria said.
“It’s about acceptance and celebrating the diversity refugees bring to our community.”
Her initial pieces took about 15 hours from start to finish as they needed to be fired four times.
Santamaria’s work will join more than 100 individual student artworks on display at the Queen Victoria Art Gallery for ArtRage.
The exhibition helped to young people to share their stories and express themselves as they poured their heart and soul into their artwork before it was shared to the public, Santamaria said.
“It’s very freeing and it feels like your opinion is valued.”
Exhibiting her work at the art gallery was a “real privilege”, Santamaria said.
Art was a powerful medium to express thoughts and ideas in a multitude of ways, she said.
ArtRage curator Ashley Bird has been travelling the state, discovering pre-tertiary artworks at colleges and schools.
There was an incredible diversity of expression and work on display, Bird said.
Students explored traditional painting and sketching mediums while also using 3D printing, video animation and multimedia displays.
“It’s a joy to curate because you don’t know what you’re going to find,” Bird said.
“It’s a real treasure hunt.”
The artworks on show explored a range of different themes, opinions and ideas, he said.
“It’s not making for makings sake.”
Bird had watched the exhibition evolve as different trends came and went.
Although he did find people could relate to themes from when they were teenagers.
They were just viewed through a contemporary veil of social media and modern culture, Bird said.
Curating could be a challenge as it meant selecting and exhibiting work in a way that showcased the story and ideas behind the work while on display with a variety of different mediums and themes, he said.
Bird had to find connecting threads between the works and weave them together to form the exhibition.
The ArtRage exhibition has been running for 23 years, offering a snapshot of young creative minds of Tasmanians as they create beautiful, challenging, inspiring and mature works.
The exhibition delved into how students negotiated their final years of schooling and their expressions of their hopes and fears for the future.
- The ArtRage exhibition will be on display at the Queen Victoria Art Gallery at Royal Park from December 16 until March 15 next year.
Tess Brunton
I recently returned from across the ditch where I worked at New Zealand Fairfax paper The Timaru Herald and developed a love of mountains. Originally I'm a mainlander from an area known for cheese, the Bega Valley, who also dabbled in radio at ABC RCAFF before finding a place in newspapers. I can often be found hiking, caving or climbing when I'm not cursing at my work computer or technology in general.
I recently returned from across the ditch where I worked at New Zealand Fairfax paper The Timaru Herald and developed a love of mountains. Originally I'm a mainlander from an area known for cheese, the Bega Valley, who also dabbled in radio at ABC RCAFF before finding a place in newspapers. I can often be found hiking, caving or climbing when I'm not cursing at my work computer or technology in general.
