Congratulations to Makayla Staehr (Class of 2022)

07/03/2023

Makayla Staehr (Class of 2022) has been chosen to exhibit at the Geelong Gallery in the Future Creatives exhibition.

Makayla’s piece named ‘The Australian landscape: her beauty and her pain’ was created during Makayla’s VCE Arts studies and consists of clay, ochre, metal and wire.

In her artist statement, Makayla describes her piece as the following:

Drawing on inspiration from Tim Winton’s romanticised prose of the powerful and strong Australian landscape, this clay sculpture uses elements of colour and texture to celebrate Australia’s endemic beauty. Found ochre was used to pigment the clay into rich, natural tones as well as to create unique, organic patterns in each piece. In contrast, elements of time and negative space reference the latter half of the work’s title: her pain.

Feelings of urgency and hopelessness are conjured by depicting the clay pieces as if they were falling towards the ground, consequently communicating the narrative and subject matter of environmental degradation. Ultimately, this artwork aims to ignite a sense of appreciation for country within each member of the audience as well as to raise awareness to the ‘pain’ it endures and hopefully inspire change.

Congratulations to Makayla Staehr (Class of 2022)

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