This story has many layers. It's not just a story of the University and its history. It's a story of the Art Collection too. It's a story of the many local artists who have been such an important part of building the culture of the Illawarra, as well as the University.
As part of the University's 50th anniversary, we're celebrating this milestone with an exhibition, 50 Artists: 50 Years, to showcase the University of Wollongong's Art Collection.
The exhibition showcases works by 50 artists from our UOW Art Collection, which actually has over 5,200 works in the collection.
Starting with a premise really helps the process of selection — knowing that we were trying to tell stories, not a story, but a number of stories from a number of perspectives.
Today is day two of our installs. It was very hard to select down from over 5,000 works in the collection to just over 70 items. The works we selected, a lot of them tell stories about UOW. Does this artwork help tell the story of UOW's journey? And sometimes the stories around the works are just as important as the works themselves.
There's interesting decisions that were made along the way because we had this rationale: 50 years, 50 artists. We did want to choose work that resonated with us, but also works that have not really had a chance to be shown before.
We tried to encompass different eras of the collection, and we also wanted to include a diversity of mediums. That means looking through the database, looking in our storeroom, seeing what works might help to tell the UOW story — in this instance, from the very beginning to more recent acquisitions that have come into the collection.
So, my name's Paul Ryan and I've lived in the Illawarra for most of my life. I absolutely love this place. The landscape and the ocean inspire me as an artist. It's just a very magical place and it's become a huge part of my art practice.
This painting, Sandon Point, it reminds me not just of the waves and not just of the geography, but of the people who populated this place and these different subcultures — especially the subculture of surfing. The ocean, a prominent feature in that, it's a pretty special place.
And tonight, we get to launch and celebrate 50 artists and their work.
We're in the exhibition for 50 artists of UOW and the 50th anniversary of the University. You see everything from posters to oil paintings, steel sculpture to ceramics. So, you've got a huge variety of artists represented from across multiple time periods, but they've all got a really nice connection to the University, which shows through.
So, being able to exhibit these amazing works by absolutely phenomenal, brilliant artists and good people who have come out of UOW or are connected in some way, it's incredibly significant.
I'm Tess Allas. I studied here in 1996–98 and my connection to this place hasn't stopped since I enrolled. I love coming back here — it's a great place to live and work, and I love being in this environment and on this campus. It brings back many, many memories.
The collection that we have here is also a cultural collection, and it's really important that we preserve it so that we have the works that help to tell stories about our area, about the University, for future generations.
This exhibition does actually demonstrate to anyone who comes and sees it that the University actually has an art collection. When you tell people the extent of the collection, they're very surprised at how deep and broad the collection is.
This exhibition is for anyone to see — anyone who's interested in art, in the Illawarra, in UOW's story.
