It’s past exam season and the second semester has officially concluded. What better way to spend the rest of the summer visiting some art exhibitions and appreciating your cohorts’ work from the School of Fine Art, as well as the School of Design and Built Environment? As a fellow lover of art with perhaps a little too much time on my hands, I decided to visit the exhibitions whenever I could.

From November 18th to December 6th, there was a back-to-back array of various exhibitions and showcases held all over campus. The Art Degree Show 2022 was held in the Art and Design precinct from November 18th to November 22nd, with art installments and paintings displayed throughout the buildings within the area. Students from the School of Fine Art were able to showcase their work to the public and also have a chance to sell their work.

Described as the ‘largest fine art graduate show in Western Australia’, the works showcased ranged from a variety of cohesive paintings to large-scale, interactive exhibitions. It truly was an art showcase worth visiting, proving that art is more than just creating an aesthetic, but also as a means of expression and to create a message.

A couple days after the Art Degree Show 2022, the Design and Built Environment (DBE) Grad Fest 2022 took place, primarily in Building 418 from November 24th to December 6th. The Grad Fest covered exhibitions from various degrees under the DBE umbrella – Architecture, Design, Graphic Design, Game Design, Digital Experience and Interaction Design, Urban and Regional Planning Geography, Construction Management Environment and Climate Emergency, Fashion Design and Photography.

The Architecture Student Grad Show ran the longest, allowing ample time for the vast variety of works and projects to be displayed and appreciated by the general public. As I walked past the stairwell that featured the portfolios and mock-ups from the first-years, I couldn’t help but appreciate the detail and effort that went into the building mock-ups and the different portfolio layouts. No student’s design was the same.

Further up, you had the third-years and fourth-years, alongside the Masters degree projects. Walls and walls of detailed building plans stood in the corridors – from suggestions to improve flooding concerns for houses on low-lying land to ways to improve the CBD layout to be more intuitive and navigable.

By observing the works displayed, your horizons are broadened as you see the different issues around our built environment that most people probably haven’t recognised in their daily lives. Taking in the sights of the Architecture exhibition, you truly get a feel for the vastness of what an Architecture degree encompasses beyond just designing fancy houses.

While the Architecture Student Grad show was going on, you could also visit the other exhibitions that were happening in the same building. For example, the Masters of Design showcase that happened from November 24th to November 28th, featuring designs to make prosthetic limbs more comfortable, and even an application to make healthcare more accessible.

On the subject of applications, the DBE Grad Fest showcase room also displayed works of the Graphic Design Animation and Game Design, and the Digital Experience and Interaction Design students on a slideshow, featuring various application and game ideas. It also included a sneak peek of FORMATION, the Interior Architecture exhibition, that provided a taste of what interior architecture is all about. If you happened to miss an exhibition, the showcase room was there as a reference point for you to still appreciate the works and learn more about the degrees under the School of Design and Built Environment.

The next two exhibitions that happened towards the end of the Grad Fest in Building 418 were the Urban & Regional Planning Geography, Construction Management Environment and Climate Emergency and REVERIE – the fashion design grad show. While most of the initial exhibition happened during opening night for the Urban & Regional Planning Geography and the Construction Management Environment and Climate Emergency exhibitions, there was a helpful video that gave a rundown on what the projects displayed were about – sustainability and improving our infrastructure. That, alongside the posters and graphic charts located around Level 2 of the building provided a wealth of knowledge in learning more about the respective degrees.

On the ground floor, was the fashion design grad show, in which the looks presented embraced its title, Reverie, ‘noun. an abstracted state of absorption’ as stated on the poster. The aim of the exhibition was to showcase how its students had to consider how ‘the changes to the production, presentation and consumption of fashion may signal a coming paradigm shift’. With garments made from recycled fabrics for a more sustainable future in fashion, to a future where clothes are truly genderless.

As I walked through the exhibition, reading each designer’s description of the looks they created, I think I can get behind the future they envision – a future where we’re more conscious of the source of the clothes we wear.

Finally, over the weekend of the first week of December, was the Photography exhibition located in the Perth Centre for Photography. The title of the showcase was ‘A View From The Window’. Although the exhibition was small, it was worth visiting – examining the artistically edited photos displayed on the walls. As I stare back at the photographs, it certainly feels like the subjects are peering back at me, and vice versa. It was like looking through a window.

Over the past few weeks, I got a sense of what the art scene is looking like at Curtin. From the extravagant, thought-provoking art installments challenging societal views from the School of Fine Art to the practical, yet artistic mock-ups and design plans from the School of Design and Built Environment students. They all have a similar aim – to engage with the community and society that we’re in. As Professor Michele Willson, Interim Head of School states in the DBE Grad Fest brochure, the “School for DBE is recognised for its creativity, its focus on sustainability and its community engagement.”

During the time of this article’s publication, all mentioned exhibitions and showcases have ended. However, there is always next year, so do keep a lookout for any future events and exhibitions!