{"id":6693,"date":"2018-05-14T07:59:53","date_gmt":"2018-05-13T23:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/curtin-hatches-artistic-talent\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T11:06:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:06:46","slug":"curtin-hatches-artistic-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/curtin-hatches-artistic-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"Curtin hatches artistic talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Curtin fine art<\/a> students Benjamin Bannan and Claire Gillam are set to showcase their artworks in this year\u2019s Hatched:<\/em> National Graduate Show<\/em> at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts from 19 May \u2013 15 July.<\/p>\n

Bannan and Gillam were chosen along with 28 of their peers nationwide to partake in the high-calibre exhibition. Hatched<\/em><\/a> is a free exhibition that examines the latest art practices emerging in Australia and promotes the nation’s new artistic talent.<\/p>\n

Many of Australia\u2019s leading artists including Shaun Gladwell, Curtin alumna Julie Dowling and Khaled Sabsabi have exhibited their work in previous Hatched<\/em> shows.<\/p>\n

Gillam\u2019s submission, Plant Band<\/em>, explores the connections between art, science and plant life. Bannan\u2019s work, Sorry for the Inconvenience<\/em>, explores the politics of public spaces, specifically attempts to silence public knowledge of a commonly known ‘beat’ within the LGBTIQ community in the Town of Cambridge, Perth.<\/p>\n

We recently spoke with Bannan about his Hatched<\/em> piece, his artistic approach and promising career.<\/p>\n

Q. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your Hatched piece and what themes\/ideas it explores? <\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Sorry for the Inconvenience<\/em> began as an attempt to document and memorialise the Dodd Street toilet block as a queer artefact before it is demolished due to its \u2018beat\u2019 culture. The artwork comprises a video and book in conversation with the Cambridge Council, and a personal narrative about the site\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

I hope the work engages with the dichotomy of \u2018public and private\u2019, and in doing so examine the relationship between \u2018shame and liberation\u2019.<\/p>\n

Q. What materials\/styles do you like to work with and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. Throughout my undergraduate degree at Curtin I\u2019ve used different mediums to express my ideas. Casting, relief and other forms of print-making are processes I enjoy because of their poetic relationship to materials.<\/p>\n

Recently I\u2019ve started making documentation work with photography and video. I\u2019m starting to find the materials I use are driven by the aims and the goals of each project.<\/p>\n

Q. Who are the biggest influences of your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. Influences change every time I start thinking about new ideas. Lately, I\u2019ve been looking at a lot of queer photography from the 1990s. I love the work of Australian artist Matthew Huppatz and I\u2019ve been reading a lot of Tim Dean, which is influencing the context of the work I\u2019m making at the moment.<\/p>\n

\"Underexposed
Bannan’s photographic work: Dodd Street Cottage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q. What role do you think artists have in society?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. I think artists form part of a group of creatives who contribute to visual culture in a way that facilitates shifts in how society approaches social, political and cultural issues over time.<\/p>\n

Q. Why did you choose Curtin to study Fine Art?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. Curtin was the only choice I considered seriously for the degree. I had friends who had come through the fine art degree, and I\u2019d also seen a lot of Curtin graduates\u2019 work outside of the school, so it felt like the best option for me.<\/p>\n

Q. What advice would you give to aspiring artists?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. I would definitely say that it\u2019s important to make work that you\u2019re passionate about. That sounds like a really obvious thing to say, but I think the viewer can always tell when an artist lives and breathes their work.<\/p>\n

Whether a viewer relates to the medium and its themes or not, I think people engage with art that has a sense of integrity.<\/p>\n

Q. What\u2019s next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. I\u2019m currently on exchange at ENSA Dijon [an art school] in France. I\u2019m hoping the body of work I\u2019ve started while studying here will develop into something for a group or solo show back in Perth. In 2019, I\u2019m really looking forward to returning to Curtin to do a year of honours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Curtin fine art students Benjamin Bannan and Claire Gillam are set to showcase their artworks in this year\u2019s Hatched: National Graduate Show at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4182,"featured_media":6694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":28,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-6693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-and-design"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"Fine Art","qualification":"Bachelor of Creative Arts","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/study\/offering\/course-ug-fine-art-major-bca--mjru-finar\/","description":"","faculty":"Humanities"},{"title":"Fine Art","qualification":"Master of Arts","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/study\/offering\/course-pg-fine-art-major-marts--mjrp-finar\/","description":"","faculty":"Humanities"}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}},"post_components":false},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Bannan_Feature.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Zoe","last_name":"Taylor","display_name":"Zoe Taylor"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 15:44:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6693"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=6693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}