Former Figtree High School student Audrey Napper was inspired by her own cultural diversity when completing her HSC major artwork.
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Now she is one of just 43 students whose work was chosen to be exhibited at the Art Gallery of NSW as part of ARTEXPRESS 2023, which opened February 2.
ARTEXPRESS, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is an annual series of exhibitions showcasing the outstanding artworks of Visual Arts students for the HSC. Works on display were selected from 8028 submissions, with the Art Gallery of NSW given first pick as the principal exhibition venue.
This year's works explore topics that impact today's youth, including family and personal identity, ideas of home and place, and environmental concerns, and cover a range of mediums, including ceramics, designed objects, drawing, graphic design, painting, photomedia, printmaking, sculpture, textiles and fibre and time-based forms.
Napper's work, Ce n'est pas une maison de poupée, which translates to "This is not a dollhouse", is a sculpture that explores the concept of identity and how it affects our everyday environment.
Napper, 18, of Figtree, was born in the US, where she spent some of her childhood years, to a French mother and an Australian father.
"In Australia we have a very multicultural community and I wanted to explore that," she said.
"I wanted to show that while from the outside we all look the same, we are different on the inside."
She came up with the concept of creating a sculpture that included three terrace-inspired buildings, each representing a different culture.
She adapted each home's exterior to reflect the cultural identity of the occupants, and her own background.
"The first one is Australian, and has yellow and green walls outside and a clothesline with a lot of clothes, showing it is a large family," she said.
"The second one is French and has a couple living there, which you can tell from the small table and two chairs outside.
"And the third is American, which you can see from the fire stairs outside, and is home to a single man who lives alone."
Once she came up with the concept and the back story for the occupants, she began gathering items for the sculpture.
"They are all found items which I collected and repurposed. There is a lot of old wood and metals and cardboard," she said, adding a lot of trial and error then went into fixing them together using nails and different types of glue.
She said the final product came together pretty quickly, and helped her earn a band 6 in Visual Arts.
However, she was surprised and excited to learn it had been selected for ARTEXPRESS.
She plans to take a gap year this year to earn money and travel, before starting an interior design course at Torrens University Australia. She hopes to one day find work as an interior designer, set designer, or make miniatures.
The Art Gallery of NSW exhibition is one of nine ARTEXPRESS showcases at galleries across NSW between now and September.
A virtual exhibition will also be launched in July.
Details: ARTEXPRESS 2023 is on display at the Art Gallery of NSW from now until May 7. Entry is free.
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Merryn Porter
Journalist with more than 25 years' experience in print and digital media who has covered most news rounds, including health, education, politics (local, state and federal), police and courts, with a special interest in women's and family matters. Highly-skilled interviewer and storyteller.
Journalist with more than 25 years' experience in print and digital media who has covered most news rounds, including health, education, politics (local, state and federal), police and courts, with a special interest in women's and family matters. Highly-skilled interviewer and storyteller.
