Course Information

Offering Studio & Studio Lead/Coordinator

Franz West exhibition, Installation View, Tate Modern 2019, Photo credit: Simon Perry 

In the first half of this course you will develop your sculptural practice by producing a series of experimental works which build upon and extend your thematic, material and research interests. In tandem with these processes of production, you will research and document a series of artists, works and themes and begin to build an archive of research material to draw on in the future. In the second half of the course you will use these early works and your research archive to develop and present a major work. This course aims to provide you with the conceptual and technical skills and tools to consolidate your work to date and to assist you in developing directions that you can potentially expand on as a professional artist or in further study.

Kristin Burgham 2017 

In this course you will undertake a semester long research project to produce an archive of your process and final resolved ceramic works. You will extensively investigate an area of direct interest to you and your ceramic practice, that will engage you physically and mentally, working independently with the guidance of your lectures. This course will assist in developing your ability to conduct and document research that is integral to the ongoing practice in all creative disciplines. .

Ellie Tessa Godworth, 2019

In this course, you will undertake a series of projects to explore notions of the interior and exterior as a material and conceptual condition to create both jewellery and objects. You will consider the jewellery/object work as a whole that discusses a dialogue between the internal and external spaces. What are the ambiguities and paradoxes between these spaces? How do the questions of inside and outside inform the wearability and/or functionality of jewellery/object? You will explore metal forming through working with processes such as forging, stretching and surface relief. Through the use of simple dies, punches, hammers and wire drawing, you will manipulate and transform the surface qualities of the metals you use. You will work on a body of both silversmithing and jewellery objects. Image:

 

John Lund, Complex Freeway Interchange Network 2018. Photograph.

In this course, you will engage with contemporary art practices that deploy studio theories and philosophies of print imaging as a springboard to art making that go beyond the workshop edition. You will engage in conceptual and technical explorations that expand your current understanding of the analogue digital interface. You will investigate and experiment with handmade, machine made and screen based methods to consider your practice in relation to local, national and international contemporary ideas and practices in printmaking & photography. You will also be encouraged to develop your own practice with consideration of audience, the practice of your peers, and how these operate within the art community and society in general.

Kirsten Haydon, 2012 

In this course, you will undertake a semester-long research project to produce a Research Archive and in response to this, a body of Final Resolved works. During this time, you will choose a specific technical direction to explore along with a conceptual subject that is relevant to the direction of your work. Students will identify the technique for material and process based exploration. You will develop these methodologies in your Research Archive and you will then incorporate your findings into a group of conceptually based jewellery or object-based works. This course will assist in developing your ability to identify both a technical and conceptual area of research, to conduct experimentation and to complie a series of documented material experiments. This major project will be integral to your ongoing creative practice and will assist you in developing your artistic position and the directions of your future work.

Katharina Grosse, The Horse Trotted Another couple of Metres, Then it Stopped, (Detail) 2018 

Paint on 8000 metres of fabric. 

Photo: Peter Ellis 

In this advanced course you will experience an expanded view of painting as image and as material presence. Through a variety of established and experimental research strategies, you will discover new ways to develop form, content and methodology to advance your studio production. The aim for this course, is for you to develop a focussed, sustainable, exploratory individual studio practice that relates to your own ideas. Generalised thematic propositions are introduced, leading to the development of an individual studio investigation, where you will build upon your established strengths and explore new concepts and methods of production. You may investigate painting, drawing, performance, video, digital media, installation and more. You will investigate a variety of making strategies and pictorial systems of visual information that inform how expanded painting practices can create individual meaning, new ways of seeing and limitless possibilities. You may experience diverse ideas of – Materiality, abstraction, the human image, the landscape and the natural world, identity, hybridity and migration, pop culture, digital and time-based practices, and personal symbolism. You will develop a draft studio work proposal that is directed to your individual studio projects. This course is studio based complemented by online learning, student presentations, demonstrations, visual lectures, individual and WIL group tutorials and feedback and field trips to exhibitions in a supportive and stimulating environment.

Dana Schutz 

Trouble and Appearance 2019, Oil on canvas

This course advances your practice inspiring you to discover an expanded view of what painting can be in contemporary art. Painting is a way of thinking equally as a way of making. You will explore painting through material, space and colour to produce “pure” and hybrid works. Through studio research you will explore different forms of imagery and abstract practices expressed through a range of concepts, techniques and media. You will expand upon the use of traditional, historic and experimental media to build upon your established strengths. A variety of projects will lead to your individual studio projects that are based on your own interests. You will engage with ideas of figuration, narrative, mythology and abstract and non- objective art practices; exploring the found image and object, screen media and text. You will experience strategies to increase the scale and production of your work. You may experience how the concepts of painting as image may be transformed to the investigation of painting as object, installation, ephemeral and site-specific work. You will experiment with systems to document and display artworks. This course is studio based and complemented by online learning, visual lectures, field trips, class discussions and student presentations that focus on the development of a body of exploratory, experimental and resolved artworks relating to your individual interests.

Emily Kooter, Corridor-butterfly affect, 2018, pigment on paper, torchlight

In this course you will develop your emerging practice as contemporary art employing and disrupting conventions of making and extending ideas of authorship and agency beyond the studio to exhibition. We are in a critical time where histories and narratives are being challenged and rethought/reactivated. A lot of this work is being done by artists testing the idea of art as an experiential threshold. You may explore personal, public or political ideas relevant to your studiowork leading to the development of resolved and self-directed projects. The course is framed by theories of the viewer and the art object, how meaning is generated within the contexts of local & global histories, exhibition spaces and artist initiatives. You will position and test new ways of making your work, navigating the path from studio to installation .

Image Credit: Franz West exhibition, Installation View, Tate Modern 2019, Photo credit: Simon Perry 

In this course you will develop your sculptural practice by producing a series of guided experimental works which connect with contemporary sculpture. In tandem with these processes of production, you will research and document a series of artists, works and themes and begin to build an archive of research material to draw on in the future. You will use these early works and your research archive to develop and present an independent work. This course aims to provide you with the conceptual and technical skills and tools to consolidate your work to date and to assist you in developing directions that you can expand on as your practice develops.

Caelan Renfree Dyer 2017    

In this course, you will undertake a series of guided creative projects where you will explore how the ceramic object can convey narrative. Students will be introduced to new ceramic techniques and strengthen fundamental ceramic skills while developing concepts into a personal methodology of making.

Alison Alder

L to R 'Get Out Quick', 2015, 'Goodbye from Sirius', 2015, 'Real Estate', 2015. 

In this course, you will engage with contemporary art practices that employ reproductive technologies such as printmaking and photography that challenge the status of the unique art object developing a praxis formed deploying the intersectionality of race, gender and class. In this context, you will be challenged to research other practitioners' methodologies and experiment with processes beyond your current practice. You will be directed to appropriate resources and instructed in divergent methods sensitive to the needs of your practice. You will participate in group critique sessions as well as individual tutorials to assist you in contextualising your work in relation to historic and contemporary art practices that engage with positions of power and protest.

The audience at a screening of Tony Conrad’s The Flicker,  

Fourth New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center, New York, 1966. 

After a year in solitude - this course will encourage you to experiment with outcomes – how to present your work to an audience of one or many, as a screening, installation or live event. Working with an external partner (such as ACMI or Testing Grounds) to interface with a public audience as well as sites within and around RMIT. During the semester you will continue to make independent artworks that explore the durational methodologies of Time-based practice (video, animation sound, performance) and to consider what it means to experience/listen/watch an artwork unfold over time and also to engage in the historical and cultural legacy of this genre. Supportive individual and group tutorials, lectures, collaborative workshops, technical demonstrations and individual studio work complement this course.

Caspar David Friedrich, Chalk Cliffs on Rügen, 1818, Oil on Canvas

In this course you will explore and research ideas of contemporary art practice that may be medium specific, or cross various media. Your thinking may form through almost any strategy of making: from picture making, narrative, figuration or installation to time-based practices or event-based work. You will investigate thematic and self-directed projects that address meaning within the production and exhibition capacity of your emerging art practice. Wonderlust is the desire to be in a heightened state of wonder, so in responding to this idea of wonder, and wandering, you will be given opportunities to work through experimental ideas, practices and processes. You will investigate thematic and self-directed projects to consider ideas of what an art practice and the dynamics of an art practice could be in terms of how ideas may be evolving within our current times, leading to the development of resolved projects.