Local Artist Series // Amanda Bennetts
Who are you and what do you create?
My name is Amanda Bennetts, an interdisciplinary artist. I am a Pomona local who grew up in the Blue Mountains in NSW. I am currently studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Queensland College of Art in Brisbane. When I am not studying and creating art, I delve into various arts projects like organising and co-curating the recent 40 Under 40 exhibition. I live in the cutest little 100 year old Queenslander with my partner Anton, my two puppers and 9 rescue chickens.
What materials and techniques do you use?
As an interdisciplinary artist, I work across many mediums such as photography, installation, 3D, artist books, printmaking, painting and drawing. More recently, I have been exploring projection mapping and light installations, which I am really excited to explore further! Watch this space!
What kind of inspirations go into your work?
I am heavily influenced by the human condition and explore themes such as self, identity and disease through various mediums. I examine phenomena such as degradation, the discarded and the fragile which are inextricably linked to my art-making practice. But it's not all heavy. I often turn to large scale abstract painting to escape the inwardness of self-examination, a creative process of personal freedom and exploration of self-expression.
In what space do you like to create most?
I love creating in studios with others, whether that being in my shed studio with artist friends or with peers in the QCA uni studios. Collaborating, bouncing ideas and receiving feedback from my fellow artists and peers is so important to me for growth as an artist.
What has been your favourite or most important work to date?
I don't have a favourite per se, but I was really excited to be selected as a finalist and touring artist for 2019 Queensland Regional Art Awards for my artwork "Self Portrait." The 3D self-portrait, with its sci-fi clinical aesthetics, repurposes my MRI brain scan slices, enabling the viewer to access my inner psyche and ecosystem, allowing them to see the unseen, in a very vulnerable and personal manner. Now that I live with Multiple Sclerosis, I struggle, in fact I cannot disconnect identity from disease.
Head to Amanda's Instagram or website to see more of her work.
