Young artists travel to shine in exhibition

Eight talented students from Fitzroy Valley District High School are taking their place among Western Australia’s emerging young artists, with their work featured in this year’s Young Originals exhibition.

Students Christopher Wurrkjidj, Lyla Boland, Travis Burgu, Harley Green, Alfonzo Collard, Ananya Aneesh, Autumn Myers and Hailey Fredericks-James, were selected to exhibit their artwork in the 17th annual state-wide exhibition.

Travelling from Fitzroy Crossing, located about 400 km east of Broome in the Kimberley, with Visual Arts Teacher Marc Bikim, the students attended the exhibition’s opening night at Gallery Central, North Metropolitan TAFE, where they had the opportunity to see their work displayed alongside artwork by students from across Western Australia.

Young Originals showcases the creativity and talent of students in Years 7 to 12, with this year’s exhibition featuring 106 young artists from across the state.

The collection features a diverse range of mediums, including painting, photography, printmaking, graphic design, computer-generated works, wearable art and time-based video.

For the Fitzroy Valley students, having their work selected for the exhibition provides a special opportunity to share their creativity with a wider audience and celebrate the role of visual arts in their school and community.

Year 11 student Autumn created a wearable art piece inspired by her Bunuba language and Country.

“My dress is called Gajari, which means water lily in Bunuba, the language group I am from and Country I live on in Fitzroy Crossing,” she said.

“Water lilies are found in Garuwa, the word for water places in Bunuba language. I used Batik technique to paint the flowers on the fabric by applying melted wax to the fabric.

“I used plastic melted bottles that I found and cut them into flowers to use as part of the headpiece of the Gajari flowers.”

Year 10 student Hailey was selected for her acrylic painting ‘The Four Echidna Sisters’, inspired by the unique lives of echidnas in the Australian landscape.

“My painting represents four echidna sisters in the wild looking for food,” she said.

“Only sometimes they’re lucky to find a water stream to drink from, like the one in my painting.

“It also shows the beautiful embryo where the baby is formed before being laid to live in the mother’s pouch. They live

such an extraordinary life in the wild and in captivity. They are so unique and this is why I chose them as my source of inspiration.”

Students from across the state drew on their own experiences, families and communities to inspire their work.

Esperance Senior High School Year 10 student Charlie Wooldridge looked to a treasured family tradition for inspiration, capturing memories of her annual visits to the Nannup Music Festival.

Bob Hawke College Year 11 student Cassandra Ford created a symbolic portrait of her teacher, Georgie Perrott.

Champion Bay Senior High School Year 11 student Eliza Porcaro created a multimedia work drawing on her experience of the world as a person on the autism spectrum.

“It means a lot. People seeing my artwork means that they can physically see how I feel, as well as being able to put themselves in my shoes with the projection and the audio,” she said.

“It means anyone else who experiences the same things as me knows that they aren’t alone, that there are other people out there who understand what they are going through.

“I feel honoured to have been chosen. It feels amazing too, knowing that I’m the only one representing Geraldton this year.”

The Young Originals Exhibition is open to the public until Tuesday 25 August at the Gallery Central, North Metropolitan Tafe in Perth.

You can view the works through the Young Originals website.