Like many emerging artists, Kasia Kolikow uses her creativity to try to find her place in the world.
The Polish Australian was born with one hand and now uses a bionic arm.
“It kind of puts me a lot more in the public eye because it’s something that people are immediately drawn to,” she said.
“It’s mostly positive, but it definitely makes me feel a bit out of place.”
She is one of 22 artists being elevated to the national stage through Perth’s Hatched art show this year, exploring themes of home and belonging, which she explores with a soft furnishing recreation of a familiar piece of bedroom furniture.
“It’s about renting in an inner-city neighbourhood, but not really being able to buy a house there,” she said.
“But also, as a Polish Australian and my place in society as someone with a disability.”
National show for art graduates
Since 1992, the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) has hosted Hatched, the only national graduate survey show in Australia.
The show presents selected works from art schools right across Australia.
PICA’s chief executive, Hannah Mathews, said it could be “intimidating and overwhelming” for people to leave art school and go into “this industry of the unknown”.
The Hatched exhibition reserves a spot for the brightest artists in their graduating year and provides them with some solid guidance on how to forge their careers.
Alongside a place to exhibit her work, Ms Kolikow was also chosen for one of PICA’s two Hatched artist residencies.
Her artwork, Will There Be Space For Me?, is a recreation of a real vintage 1950s dresser.
Complete with drawers and a mirror, it is made entirely of foam and textiles that Ms Kolikow crafted by hand.
“There were lots of things that kind of led to it,” she said.
“The very loosest kind of idea was trying to transport this heavy piece of furniture to different locations.
“So, I thought the simpler thing to do would be to turn it into a soft textile version, which would be much lighter and easier to carry.”
When she got the call to say she had been chosen for Hatched, the Perth North Metro TAFE graduate said she was “blown away”.
“I think I cried a lot,” Ms Kolikow said.
“It was really exciting, but a lot of disbelief.”
Ms Kolikow said she now plans to use her residency, which comes with studio space at PICA, to explore her interest in making textiles.
“I’d really like to take the time to do more machine knitting,” she said.
“At home it was set up on the kitchen table, which isn’t exactly ideal, so to have the space to kind of sit [at PICA], explore things and work on them is just going to be really nice.”
Exhibition helps artists network, learn
Ms Mathews said the exhibition allowed all participating students to travel to Perth for the week.
“They’ll come for the installation of their work,” she said.
“[Then] they will do several days of professional development activities that PICA has devised for them [and] they’ll meet curators.”
She said the students would also learn about writing grants and media releases.
“[As well as] how to become a teaching artist and all these other things that they can think about for the years ahead,” she said.
“But I think the really enduring beautiful thing is that they actually form a cohort.”
Financial support for artists
As well as the residencies, Hatched also awards $15,000 to three Hatched artists through the Dr Harold Schenberg Arts Awards.
“It’s a good chunk of money to do something with to develop their practice and support their career,” Ms Mathews said.
“$15,000 … is a really good international trip for them to go and actually see artworks and visit collections and meet artists, or it’s studio rent for a year.”
This year’s award prize winners were Lily Trnovsky of the Adelaide Central School of Art, Vedika Rampal of the University of New South Wales and Kate McGuinness of the Sydney College of the Arts.
Hatched is now in its 33rd year and has supported more than 1,400 artists, including luminaries like Bigambul and Kamilaroi man Archie Moore.
His work was featured in 1998.
In April, Mr Moore was Australia’s representative for the 60th Venice Biennale and became the first Australian to win the coveted Golden Lion award for best national participation, for his monumental installation work Kith and Kin.
Ms Mathews hopes to celebrate the achievements of Hatched, and the community it has created, in two years for its 35th anniversary.
“I think the really enduring legacy of Hatched is creating a kind of cohort and network for those participating artists,” she said.
“So they’ve got other people they can call when they’re coming to town or ring with a problem or email about this or share their good news with.
“But most artists that I’ve met through Hatched, whether they’re in their 50s or 70s now, there’s nothing else they’re going to be.”
Hatched: National Graduate Show 2024 is on display at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts until October 13, 2024.
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