VCA Grad Show 2025
Jess Chow
The thing that stuck out to me about the 2025 VCA grad show was the swathes of space each artist had. Some had whole walls, others had whole rooms. It definitely seemed like each grad had probably about four times the amount of room that each of the RMIT students had in their recent grad show install. I heard through the grapevine (gossiping with other ex-students I ran into) that the painting department only had 20 graduating students this year, in comparison to 35 last year. Considering the starting cohort sits around 40 students, this is a huge drop out rate. This is a trend across all departments (although painting definitely has the biggest difference in numbers), which makes me wonder why exactly the drop out rate was so high for the class of 2025. I’m disappointed with the lack of information available about each artist and their work on display. Sticky wall labels show name, title and materials, but there’s no contact information or social media handles on display to help these artists build their audience. I also can’t find the link anywhere to a grad show website, which they usually have had available in previous years. If the grad show is meant to be the platform for which these young artists launch their careers, this one is letting them down. It feels perhaps linked that there were so many drop outs from a graduating class that isn’t being fully supported in their grad show. Yet despite this, I was blown away by the work on display at the VCA.
Obviously I had to start in the department that was my home for three years; Drawing and Printmaking. While there are lots of cool things in the DPM department, it's Finn Keighley’s series of screenprints on stainless steel, IN NOISE V-IX, that stand out to me. Hovering slightly away from the wall, the vague depiction of what look like various pieces of obsolete technology create a texture where the metal sneaks through the ink of the print to catch the light. These prints are very well executed, and that same care and technical knowledge can be seen throughout the work on show. The quality of the work on display is so high overall, I can’t help but compare it to the RMIT grad show. Perhaps the work of the VCA students was able to be developed more and have more time in focus due to their smaller class sizes this year. Another work that feels luxurious are Felix Oliver’s Cicada Trails, which are probably my favourite works in the whole exhibition honestly. Oliver has hand made wooden windows from blackwood which frame up large scale photographic prints. These feel like you’re glimpsing through the windows of a magical mansion into the soft memory of a childhood fairy tale. Jess Chow’s Some things that remind me of you are similar in the soft nostalgia the works invoke in me. At first glance these large paintings are dreamy and whimsical, but upon further inspection these aren't just regular old paint on canvas. Instead they’re painted on silk stretched over a welded steel frame. The thin silk allows you to see the frame through the membrane, creating a shadow behind the work that lifts it off the wall and adds to its mysterious whimsy.
Aurelia Myers’ Birthday Hats are so fun and playful. The felt party hats feature different thoughts someone might have when hosting a birthday party, all spelt out in letters from different sources like rhinestones and kids foam stickers. My favourite reads “I will not cry” but other often internal thoughts are spelt out including “I don’t want to kiss the closest boy” and “I don’t know what to wish for”. The hats are mounted on the wall at general head height so viewers can duck under and snap a pic as if they’re wearing the headwear. Similarly playful was Leila Edelstein Humps and Wings photography installed downstairs. The photos meander across all four walls of a smallish room and interact with each other; lines from one photo flow into the next which is displayed sideways. Pictures have been cut up and woven together. Some are overlapping, others are upside down. This install feels like I’m being allowed an insight to explore Edelstein’s practice and photographic world.
I finished up my tour of the grad show in the stables and the octagon to visit the Honours and Masters students. We know that I have a hankering for work that’s all about texture, so it’s no wonder I was instantly drawn to Fiona Shewan’s pieces of paper whose texture has been created by poking holes through the page. Some holes came from the front, leaving just a pin prick in their wake, others from the reverse, the disrupted paper bursting out creating little textural explosions. Most holes are of a uniform size, but some have been punctured too close together and the paper rips between them forming larger holes. Who knew holes in paper could so thoroughly entrance me. These works also remind me of Yvonne Norton’s embossed paper works I’ve just left over in the undergrad area. Also from the post-grad cohort is Georgia Boseley. Her work Different Flowers, Same Garden sees two vases held in tension with raffia woven into the vessels, pulling them together. The rigid ceramic vessels play off against the organic flowing form of the weaving between them. This piece is captivating. Boseley’s installation also includes THIN BLAK LINE, a security camera made from woven raffia and mounted high on the wall. A commentary on the security state we currently live in, and the disproportionate representation of Indigenous people within the justice system that are targeted by law enforcement through these colonial surveillance systems.
Again, the quality of the work throughout the show is incredibly high, yet I’m left wondering what these students might have been able to do with more support in this final showcase of their university work. I look forward to following these artists into their careers.
You can catch the VCA grad show on campus until December 4th.