On Tuesday, 8 August, Concordia Gallery and the Newington Visual Arts department had the pleasure of officiating Constructed Realities, the Year 12 HSC Visual Arts Body of Works Exhibition.

Constructed Realities presented the work of our graduating Visual Arts students as they questioned the nature of the world around them; interrogated the liminal edges of philosophy; explored the physiological manifestation of pain and reproduced simulacrums of our contemporary aesthetics.

Each work offered a window into the world to come; a world determined and defined by the processes of adapting and existing within a contemporary setting. Whether an investigation into meaning and repetition, the intersection between the global and the personal; a questioning of the present saturation of images and our on-going anesthetisation; or an examination of gender boundaries, these works pushed and pulled at the question of what it means to live, participate and understand.

The HSC boys have been working on these installations, sculptures, performances, books, drawing and videos since Term 4, 2016. The resulting exhibition displays the thoughtfulness and skill with which they have engaged with their projects. Along with their teachers, each student has made manifest a range of timely and insightful critiques on the politics of navigating life.

Drawing on school, home life, television, gaming, art history, cinema, genealogy and pop culture each budding artist has manipulated a unique range of materials and processes to express art and life, as they know it.

Concordia Gallery and the Visual Arts department would like to extend their warmest congratulations to the boys and wish them all the best for their upcoming marking and Art Express stages. We would also like to thank the Creative Arts Association for their fantastic spread of food and drinks, and for helping to make the opening night one to remember.

Ms Kailana Armstrong-Sommer
Concordia Gallery Curator