An exhibition of outstanding HSC Artworks opens at Hazelhurst Arts Centre on April 9.
Curated by Hazelhurst, this collection from students across NSW is the visual voice of Generation Z.
Nominated for inclusion by their teachers, ZOOMERS features more than 50 artworks, including the work of nine students from St George and Sutherland Shire, who showcase the best practice in Visual Art Education.
ZOOMERS takes its name from the informal term for a member of Generation Z and is a play on the online learning experiences of senior students in the past two years and the challenges and disruptions that it presented.
The isolation of the pandemic can be seen in the emerging themes that strongly emphasise students' inner worlds. These include the impact of time, memory, sense of place, and connections to identity, values and family. Broader issues of life in the digital age, environment and the climate crisis were also clear areas of focus. The exhibition includes a broad range of approaches to artmaking, including ceramics, drawing, graphic design, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and digital art forms.
Marina Kawabe of St George Girls High School explores the fetishising of Japanese women due to orientalism and popular media in her work 'Ecchi'.
Referring to a term popularised by anime and Japanese pornography, the title directly confronts audiences who consume this media and, as a result, contribute to the objectification of East Asian women as submissive and infantile, the student said.
"Each piece expresses a different abhorrent facet of fetishisation, and I hope that my work prompts audiences to reassess the media they consume and how it may impact their view of women," she said.
"Hazelhurst is delighted to once again host a significant HSC exhibition and provide young artists with a platform to exhibit," Hazelhurst Arts Centre Director Belinda Hanrahan said.
"ZOOMERS recognises the challenges faced by Generation Z and applauds the extraordinary efforts and achievement of students and their teachers to create such high calibre works in such demanding circumstances."
Sutherland Shire Mayor, Councillor Carmelo Pesce, welcomed the exhibition and congratulated students on their ability to find new ways of artmaking and collaborating despite facing challenging remote-learning environments during their studies.
"It's encouraging to see yet another fantastic exhibition on show at Hazelhurst which supports young talented artists and celebrates their resilience and devotion to their studies in very challenging times," he said.
"Hazelhurst is an important and treasured community asset, and while the gallery often draws artworks from across the nation, it's always exciting to see artworks on show from budding Sutherland Shire artists."
ZOOMERS was co-created in association with the Visual Arts and Design Educators Association of NSW (VADEA).
See the exhibition until June 13.
