Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours)

DR FAYE NEILSON
BFA HONOURS CONVENOR


The Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) program at the University of Newcastle is a formative year of focused study, which follows the completion of a three-year Bachelor of Fine Art degree or equivalent. Each Honours candidate works in close consultation with a nominated supervisor to determine an individual path of study, related specifically to their skills and research interests. Nine Honours candidates finalised their studies in 2015, with the presentation of a professional exhibition of art work and the submission of
a linked theoretical exegesis.

Libby Eckersley reworks the humble material of newspaper in order to re-evaluate notions of today’s quick
time information and news saturation. Her measured crafting of long strings of text-based information obscures meaning, highlighting the ultimate importance of process. Slow-time crafting is also the foundation for Louisa Magrics’ rhythmic works in crochet. She utilises complex mathematical designs to create fluid biological forms, which filter responses to music and activate space.

Eloise Genner’s intricate models form the basis for works which engage with themes of nostalgia and memory. Her images question the notion of photographic truth, with the creation of imagined domestic spaces that seem to exist in the real world, but become uncanny through illusion. The photographic installation works of James Rhodes also trade on illusion. Here, Rhodes considers the photograph
as an object, which shifts dimensionally in relation to its spatial installation.

John Heaney’s ceramic forms are solid material depictions of a fluid and experimental process. His interest in Japanese ceramics has led to the ritual embracing of simplicity and spontaneity, where finished objects are balanced in a quiet state of vitrification. Also working in ceramics, Charlotte Patterson has created an installation of serene tributary figures, which commemorate the laborious work of the coal miners in her family history. Shandele Pascoe evaluates her relationship with her pet rabbit Franklin in a project of documentation which more broadly considers the rabbit in popular culture and the emotional connections we form with our pets.

Shelagh Lummis finds her own place in relation to contemporary landscape painting in New Zealand and Australia. Personal memories of the landscape in both countries have informed her study, negotiating questions of identity, change and belonging. Kalinda Nelson-Boyd has blended illustration and photography to create shadowed images which confuse stereotypical notions of gender and sexual identity. Here, notions of femininity and sexuality are individually formed, embracing ideas of gender non-conformity.

We commend these students for their professional achievements and congratulate them on the completion of the Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) degree. Read Less