In 2015, Ms Hannah Chapman responded to a invitation advertised on the Museum of Contemporary Art’s website calling for senior Visual Arts students to contribute to critical art resources for the Sydney Biennale 2016.

Early in Term 1, Year 11 HSC students Jack De Lacy (11/ME), Tom Davids (11/MA), Edwin Hooper (11/JN), Sebastien Mills (11/KL), Rohan Gupta (11/FL), Fin Thompson (11/MO) and Ms Chapman travelled by ferry to Cockatoo Island to see artist Justene William’s stage installation and documentation of Russian artist Kazimir Malevich’s anti-opera Victory Over the Sun.

After meeting the artist, doing research on the original opera staged in 1913 in Saint Petersburg and analysing William’s practice, the boys decided on some questions to ask the artist in order to further their investigation.

On Monday 16 May, the boys returned to the MCA to take part in a live streamed Q&A session with Justene Williams. As a salute to the Russian artist, the boys choose to wear black t-shirts in recognition of one of Malevich’s most iconic works, ‘Black Square’ (1915) – a non-object painting.

The live broadcast was streamed onto the MCA Youtube channel and went from 1:00 – 2:00 PM. The six Year 11  students were the only interviewees for the event and throughout the course of the session they developed a deeper understanding of contemporary artistic practice and gained critical skills in researching performed and exhibited artworks.

The participating Sydney Biennale artist Justene Williams reflected at the conclusion of the interview that the boys’ poignant questions enabled her to reflect on the intentions of her own work and reconsider her own practice in a refreshingly critical way.

You can watch the recording of the live steam here: