Lithgow High student Lauren Trounce is one of the 48 students whose HSC artwork has been selected for the 36th annual ArtExpress.
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ArtExpress 2020 takes place at the Art Gallery of NSW and showcases outstanding works of art created by NSW students for the Higher School Certificate (HSC) Visual Arts examination in 2019.
The exhibition is open to the public from Thursday, February 6 to Sunday, April 26.
Lauren said that she didn't expect to make it in to ArtExpress but it was an 'incredible' feeling.
"It was a lot of hard work and I feel proud to get to this point," she said.
Lauren's textile and fibre work, titled The Social Fabric, explores issues of homelessness among the elderly and disadvantaged in Australia.
"The often hidden face of rising property values and insolvency is the elderly and disadvantaged who became displaced. They lose not only their homes, but their community connections and self-worth," she said.
When looking at the artwork, you may not first guess what it is made out of.
"It is made out of black hot glue, so it was very experimental and threw up many problems not least of which was finding a way to stop the hot glue I used from sticking to the horizontal surface I was working on," she said.
"I wanted the glue to a resemble woven fabric with voids and solid thread. I drew inspiration from the work of Japanese paper cutout artist Risa Fukui. state of each individual.
"Each portrait demands contemplation by the audience, a time to connect and engage with the shared human experience."
Lauren said she didn't consider herself to be an artistic kind of person.
"I want to show other students or visitors to the gallery that you can achieve great things if you put the effort in," she said.
"It was actually a really relaxing class for me, stressful at times but it became one of my favourite classes."
Lauren plans on taking a gap year now that she has finished high school, to go work and travel with her family.
"Then I am hoping to study a Bachelor of Creative Arts with a specialisation in music," she said.
Lauren also wanted to thank her art teacher John Bawden for his help throughout the process.
"He is incredible, I definitely wouldn't have come this far without him pushing me," she said.
Katoomba High student Sama Padmini Cooper was also lucky enough to be chosen for the prestigious showcase.
Sama said that getting accepted into ArtExpress was the "best thing to happen to me all year".
"ArtExpress was my overall goal for the year so to get in is just amazing, I have no words," she said.
Sama's drawing, titled Sonder, was created using ink on Stonehenge paper and explores the idea of the human experience.
Sama's work was inspired by the Baroque Period and artists William John Waterhouse and William Blake.
"My body of work intends to visually capture the collective experience of individual awareness and presence of mind," she said.
"I really wanted to capture and evoke emotions in the portraits I drew."
Sama said she chose portraits to capture personality and emotions in the moment.
"I was interested in the concept of sonder, the realisation that every other person has a life as vivid and complex as your own and I began to experiment with Indian ink and its fluid, spontaneous nature which captures the psychological and emotional state of each individual," she said.
"Each portrait demands contemplation by the audience, a time to connect and engage with the shared human experience."
Sama said it was to make everyone realise that there is a connection between people even if we don't know it.
Sama drew people she knew personally, such as sisters and friends.
"The aim was to have people I knew because I would be able to fully capture who they were," she said.
She said she wanted visitors to the gallery to understand and feel what she intended them to without having to read the artist statement.
"I would love to thank my art teacher who is the sweetest person and supported my ideas, as well as my Mum who is a full time artist and my Dad who is a photographer," she said.
Sama plans on taking a gap year to save up before going to the National Art School in Darlinghurst.
"It is my favourite place and my Mum went there as well as my sister, so I want to get a Bachelor of Art before doing my Masters," she said.
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