The MFG 2020 Principal's Art Acquisition Award was awarded to Molly Driscoll – VCE Studio Arts 2020. Molly was also MFG Dux in 2020.

The annual Principal’s Art Acquisition Prize is awarded to a student who has produced an exemplary piece of visual artwork from their year of VCE Studio Arts study. The artwork must demonstrate a very high level of technical skill and be of strong artistic merit.

The winning artwork demonstrates a highly creative design in an expressive and symbolic art style with a variety of compositional elements. Using colour, texture, tone, line and shape, the art work is an example of a high level of technical skill, fully developed aesthetics and meaningful esoteric qualities.

The Principals’ Art Acquisition Prize is unique in that it is a large Textiles piece which uses the techniques of layered embellishment, fabric dyeing and hand-stitched embroidery to depict a distorted portrait of a character who has emerged from the “Cementies” suburb of Herne Hill during the first Australian Covid-19 Lockdown in 2020. (see below)

The artwork has been acquired by MFG and now hangs in the Embling Building on the ground floor near EF2 and no doubt will inspire other emerging student artists.

Molly has been successful in gaining a position at Melbourne University’s Victorian College of the Arts. In 2021, she plans to study drawing, printmaking and Fine Arts and in the future would like to be an Art Gallery Curator. We look forward to seeing Molly’s future artworks.

“Cementies,” by Molly Driscoll, 2020

My artwork, ‘Cementies’ is a reaction to the destruction of the Herne Hill Cement Works. From my earliest memories, the image of the Cement Works at the top of the hill has always been a sign of home to me. I remember on my late-night drives home, the sight of the Cement Works from the highway would always be a sign I’d be home soon. Throughout my teen years, I have visited this sight again, walking around the path along the side, sneaking through the hole in the fence, and exploring the rubble and graffiti that decorated the concrete temple. Along that walk there is a view of Fyansford, of which I remember used to be endless golden fields, now being plagued by sterile housing estates that eat away at the land like a parasite. Whilst in isolation, I would take walks to the Cement Works and watch as they tore the place down, making way for an extension to these estates, nearing Herne Hill closer and closer.

I have explored the depths of the experiences, aesthetics and symbolism of Australian suburbia through portraiture, of which I felt was most effective in communicating the human experience of the suburban life. Much of my study and exploration lead me to wanting to create an artwork that represents my own emotions in regards to the ever-changing landscape of Australian suburbia; one that is being plagued by the growing copy and paste housing developments. Within my work, there is a sense of loss, grief, for the historical value and the character of Herne Hill, my home, that is slowly being gentrified.

I used textiles embellishment as an ‘enhancement to a piece rather than the sole focus’. I found that the ragged texture, the collaged, mismatched array of design that commingles uncouthly, the lines of yarn to develop wrinkles and shapes, and the medley of styles and textures that integrate and build the suburban landscape was most effective for my portraiture. The embellishment highlights the organic element of human life while stuck in suburbia, that much of the colour and the details of the life within these areas comes from the people themselves. The fabric is soft and feminine, the violence of the action of the needles pressing each fabric into the other, the frayed edges it creates, create that nostalgic and homely grit I find symbolises the spirit of suburbia. This element helped to cohesively compile organic and industrial elements together, where the heart meets the concrete.

This artwork is an expression of my reaction to this destruction, and the impending change that awaits Herne Hill. I fear for the rising prices of rent, the tearing down of houses to build heartless units. I have spent majority of my life in this area, much of my family has done the same. The rapid change to one’s environment can result in an influx of emotions and confusion that has saddened me like I am watching a loved one wither away. My artwork has been named ‘Cementies’ as an homage to this place, featuring its affectionate name given by those who reside around it.

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