EMILY BEATTIE, KIRSTEN BECCARIS, NIKKY CHEN, ZHIHAN CHEN, STELLA JANSSENS, ALEXANDRA MERCADO, RYAN OUYANG, YI PAN (YUUMI), HANNA PARK, JIALU SHI (LUCY), WREN THOMAS, ELOISE TILBURY, ANTONIA TOMKINS, PERI WILSON-MORRIS, CHENYE XIANG
“THE COPY”
ARTBOX, LEVEL 2-3 FISHER LIBRARY (2024)
Kirsten Beccaris, Forever Unfinished, 2024, kiln fused/sandblasted float glass, copper wire and handmade lampwork glass beads. Photography by Estelle Yoon.
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
The Copy features Sydney College of the Arts second-year students reimagining ceramics, glass, and textiles. It's a study in duality: tradition versus innovation, fragility against resilience. Porcelain and banquet settings question functionality while invoking historical context. The painstaking creation of glass beads illuminates the incremental growth inherent to creative practice. Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence is explored, framing replication as both an homage and a step towards new beginnings. Each artwork is a dialogue around authenticity, suggesting that the act of copying is an integral part of creative evolution.
This class was tutored by Jane Gavan.
LEVEL 2
The Copy, 2024. Installation view. Photography by Estelle Yoon.
Zihan Chen, Digital Echoes, 2024, clay, ceramics. Jialu Shi (Lucy), sweet dream, 2024, ceramic. Emily Beattie, Utterly Useless, 2024
Zhihan Chen
Digital Echos
clay, ceramics
This work explores the themes of imitation and identity within the digital landscape. Social media often mirrors an endless stream of replicas, challenging our sense of authenticity. Through clay sculpture, I emphasise the material’s malleability, reflecting on how identities can be moulded and altered by external influences.
Jialu Shi (Lucy)
sweet dream
ceramic
The artists’ inspiration comes from a Chinese story called "Painting Cookies to Satisfy Hunger". This story tells of a person who is very hungry but lacks food, so he spends a big cake on paper to comfort himself, as if he has already eaten it. The meaning is that when you can't get something, you can look at a fake one, so you will have some comfort.
Emily Beattie
Utterly Useless
glass
The copy of knives, forks and spoons in glass that explores the concept of the original versus the replica. Their encasement in glass switches the domestic objects from useful everyday items, to useless domestic items. This explores the question of, can the copy diminish the value of the original, or can it amplify the significance and thought given to objects that were once mundane domestic objects?
@emily__beattie_
The Copy, 2024. Installation view. Photography by Estelle Yoon.
Kirsten Beccaris
Forever Unfinished
kiln fused/sandblasted float glass, copper wire and handmade lampwork glass beads
Forever Unfinished pays homage to notation and the documentation of ever-evolving progress within one’s own artistic practice. The work focuses on a simple, yet fundamental form in glass artistry – the glass bead – which requires systematic and repetitive hand movements to produce proficient and consistent forms. This artwork is an exemplar for the process of learning and celebrates both imperfection and success.
Nikky Chen
A Glass Kaleidoscope
engraved glass
In A Glass Kaleidoscope, the concept of the "copy" is explored through the lens of repetition and variation. This work draws inspiration from the kaleidoscope, where a single, repeated pattern creates complex and ever-changing visual experiences. By using transparent glass and engraved patterns, multiple viewers are invited to simultaneously experience the dynamic nature of repeated elements. Light filtering through glass further transforms these patterns, illustrating that copying in art transcends mere replication. It becomes a process of reimagining and redefining, where each iteration brings forth new perspectives and artistic expressions, challenging the notion that copies lack originality.
From left to right: Yi Pan (Yuumi), The Copy, 2024, crystal glass, borosilicate glass, resin gypsum. Zhihan Chen, Digital Echos, 2024, clay, ceramics. Photography by Estelle Yoon.
Yi Pan (Yuumi)
The Copy
crystal glass, borosilicate glass, resin gypsum
The Copy is divided into two parts: the first is a "copy" of a famous Greek sculpture of winged victory, and the other is a laurel-shaped glass wreath. Speaking to a history of appropriation, these works are based on Roman mythology which imitates Greek mythology. As opposed to blind plagiarism, “copying” can be a means of learning.
Ryan Ouyang, How to eat slower, 2024, ceramic, brass wire. Photography by Estelle Yoon.
Ryan Ouyang
@ouyang_ryan
How to eat slower
ceramic, brass wire
How to eat slower is the disruption of the routine of eating - experiences that blur together in their similarity. Working with the forms of dinnerware, the artist morphs them beyond practical use and so converses with the convoluted restrictions that we impose on our eating habits.
Peri Wilson-Morris, CtrlC 2024, glass, photography, 2024. Photography by Estelle Yoon.
Peri Wilson-Morris
CtrlC
glass, magazine scraps/collage, printed photographs
This work explores memory distortion and the brain's tendency to alter recollections. Inspired by the artists’ own past, Wilson-Morris examined old photo albums and discovered a photograph of themselves as a child with a koala. Wilson-Morris notes, ‘although I know the event happened, I remember it as an outsider, and each time I recall it the memory falls apart even more…’
LEVEL 3
The Copy, 2024. Installation view. Photography by Estelle Yoon.
Left to right: Wren Thomas, Swan Maiden, 2024, recycled materials (yarn, fabric, beads), wooden dowel, gold leaf, fishing line. Stella Janssens, The Epithet, 2024, porcelain. Photography by Estelle Yoon.
Wren Thomas
Swan Maiden
recycled materials (yarn, fabric, beads), wooden dowel, gold leaf, fishing line.
Inspired by the 1894 painting entitled "The Swan Maidens' by Walter Crane, Thomas’ piece aims to explore the relationship between women, their identities and the societal factors that mould them. The piece is woven, alluding to both the feminine histories of textile arts but also how one's identity is woven together over a lifetime.
@moss.weaver
Stella Janssens
The Epithet
porcelain
Following the themes of "Copy,” the artist sought to unify both the physical and metaphysical associations of reproduction. Janssens’ hand-sculpted porcelain work follows their own form in a semi realistic style, incorporating iconography from movements throughout history. These unify with the literal interpretation of "copy" manifesting throughout the construction of the sculpture.
@rosephelius
From top to bottom, left to right: Eloise Tilbury, Inheritance, 2024, terracotta clay and cotton thread. Yi Pan (Yuumi), The Copy, 2024, crystal glass, borosilicate glass, resin gypsum. Antonia Tomkins, Fragile Impressions, 2024, glass sculpture. Alexandra Mercado, Kumain tayo [let’s eat], 2024, ceramic dinnerware, cloth, acrylic on flowers. Photography by Estelle Yoon.
Stella Janssens, The Epithet, 2024, porcelain. Photography by Estelle Yoon.
Eloise Tilbury
Inheritance
terracotta clay, cotton thread
Inheritance explores maternal instinct through the passing down of feminine handicrafts that inspire deep familial closeness. I looked to spiders as being a symbol of maternity, weaving webs or homes whilst also being integral to the survival of their young. My work represents small nests as metaphors for the bonds created across generations through domestic practices.
Yi Pan (Yuumi)
The Copy
crystal glass, borosilicate glass, resin gypsum
The Copy is divided into two parts: the first is a "copy" of a famous Greek sculpture of winged victory, and the other is a laurel-shaped glass wreath. Speaking to a history of appropriation, these works are based on Roman mythology which imitates Greek mythology. As opposed to blind plagiarism, “copying” can be a means of learning.
Antonia Tomkins
Fragile Impressions
glass sculpture
Fragile Impressions is a glass sculpture that pays tribute to nature’s intricacies and beauty, capturing the visual appeal of various habitats through ridges, bumps, and spirals. It evokes the delicate yet striking characteristics of shells, reflecting on vulnerability and preservation. Encouraging appreciation of nature’s beauty through glass, questioning the complex dance between mimicry and inspiration.
@ant_tomkins
Alexandra Mercado
Kumain tayo [let’s eat]
ceramic dinnerware, cloth, acrylic on flowers
Kumain tayo [let’s eat] is an elaborate banquet, accompanied with a formal dinnerware set. The space is ornamented with candle holders, centrepiece and sculpture, celebrating the ceramics and the handmade object. Kumain tayo is a maximalist installation where ceremonial functions and organic forms meet, a desolate space that is hauntingly pure, formal and pristine.
@makeitworkig
From top to bottom, left to right: Hanna Park, Aqueous, 2024, glass. Alexandra Mercado, Kumain tayo [let’s eat], 2024, ceramic dinnerware, cloth, acrylic on flowers. Chenye Xiang, Forever Home, white raku clay, underglaze, gloss glaze. Photography by Estelle Yoon.
Hanna Park
Aqueous
hot sculpted glass and fused glass
Aqueous ironically mimics water through glass sculptures that replicate and question water's physical properties. Water adapts to its surroundings, acting as a conductor of forms. By mimicking this with glass, the materials appear identical but are fundamentally different. Aqueous challenges water's integrity and its inability to exist independently.
@hynparkd
Chenye Xiang
Forever Home
white raku clay, underglaze, gloss glaze
This artwork is inspired by the philosophical theory of eternal return proposed by Friedrich Nietzsche - that all events in the universe will recur infinitely over time. The work explores the eternal return to a particular place. For the artist, Xiang, the special place is their homeland “Xi’an.” Forever Home is coloured in bright yellow and designed following the shape of Xian’s map, sitting on the dark black “map plate”.