This body of work was created for my Masters of Fine Arts degree at The National Art School from 2023-24. 

Excerpt from Thesis:

      This MFA project, ‘Untitled Australia,’ focuses on the colonial identity of Australia through the impact of Australian media: film, painting, printmaking, and photography. Through these different artistic mediums, I focus on how each one has been used to construct a national identity. Birthed within the early years of colonial Australia, this national identity continues to mould and affect the ways in which contemporary Australians view themselves, both nationally and internationally.

       Within my work, I have used collage as a catalyst to bring together a variety of mediums onto a digital canvas to explore the various representations and symbols of ‘Australianess’. The resulting body of work becomes a melting pot of imagery and digital painting, aiming to critique and elicit an emotional response of selfhood in relation to nationhood. This exploration comes from my own inwards reflection of who I am and how my family history has been perceived by others and myself. Living in rural Australia, coupled with my long family history of working the landscape, has led me to question notions about how we, as Australian’s, perceive the history and legacy of our colonial past.

       My project seeks to represent a part of the Australian psyche, especially rural Australia, that elicits a strong emotional response. Anger, nostalgia, love, and envy are intertwined within a representation of a way of life that I believe is merely fictitious.