Questioning preconceptions, creating truth

A year that included infernal bushfires and seemingly eternal lockdowns also revealed the importance of art as a way to question our preconceptions in order to understand our world – as our graduating visual arts students have shown.

We understand truth not by consuming but by making it. As the artist Dorothea Lange – whose famous photograph, ‘Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California,’ captured both the dignity and suffering of ordinary people during the Depression – observed, ‘To know ahead of time what you’re looking for means you’re then only photographing your own preconceptions, which is very limiting, and often false.’

This turbulent year certainly impelled our graduating VCE Studio Arts, VCE Media, VCE Visual Communication and IB DP Visual Arts students to unpack their preconceptions in order to create the truth of their experience in artworks in many mediums.

As Michele Maher, Head of Faculty, The Arts, at Glen Waverley explains, ‘We all know that lockdown created may difficulties for Melburnians and for our students, but it actually prompted a lot of creative energy for them as well. They worked hard on their artistic practice from home, with art supplies being ferried out as required and teacher guidance online. Lockdown meant they needed to be more creative than ever and look for alternative ways to express their artistic ideas and create their works.’

Those artworks were on show in the annual Graduate Art Exhibition at the Coates Pavilion at the Glen Waverley Campus. The problem? Ongoing public health measures have prevented a live exhibition opening and public gathering. The solution? A virtual exhibition so you can still get a taste of the amazing creativity of Wesley’s graduating visual arts students.

Explore the Glen Waverley Campus exhibitions:

Watch the interactive visual arts virtual exhibition.

Watch the interactive visual communication virtual exhibition.