I am very pleased to announce that St John’s College placed 1st and 2nd in the Annual Palladian Art Competition last week! With only two art entries per College, St John’s has come through with a clean sweep. Entries were judged by a panel of independent adjudicators which included art lecturers and academics from Sydney College of the Arts as well as established professional artists. The Palladian Art win (and a 1-2 at that!) is indeed a very significant achievement for the students of St John’s.

1st place was awarded to Sarah Carstens for her work “Where the Wild Thing’s Aren’t”:

My piece, responding to the statement ‘Where the Wild Things Aren’t’ was a graphic collage printed onto wooden blocks. I did this using Adobe Illustrator to cut out and layer the images on top of each other to create a surrealist landscape. My take on the theme was to highlight the control which the media has over us in this modern age and highlight how they hide the real wild things from us, putting forward their own agenda as a means to profit off of the general public. 
Sarah Carstens

2nd place was awarded to Senior Residential Assistant, Imogen Morris, for her piece “Petrification”:

"Petrification" is a reclamation of vivid images, a diptych of what is and what once was. One piece, the lucid images of childhood represented on paper. And the other, a display of statues that have been cemented in the artistic canon.  What once was wild and free, now fleeting and past, replaced by the imagination of others. 

When I was 6, my mother bought me a book titled "My First Greek Myths". As I would be falling asleep, untamed tales of Hades and Persephone, Prometheus, Echo and Narcissus played in my head like a vivid film. Now that I have grown older and my understanding of art has deepened, simultaneously my perception of mythology has narrowed with the most celebrated works occupying the space in my mind. The vivid pictures of my youth, on a long tape-like reel, have now been replaced by stone statues, bronze helmets and Kraters. Through the study of works such as these, however beautiful and everlasting they may be, they have altered my imagination from one of creativity to replication. Part of me mourns the wild images of my childhood ossified in a distant memory; once vibrant, now stoney and cold. 
Imogen Morris

The Intercollegiate Palladian Cup competition for arts and culture runs alongside the Rosebowl and Rawson sporting competitions throughout the academic year, and is an opportunity for our students to showcase their talents and passions in the cultural sphere. St John’s has traditionally maintained a strong showing in the Palladian Cup, where our College singers, dramatists, debaters, artists and musicians have always been cheered on by a large enthusiastic crowd of supporters from our College. 

The Palladian Art win has been excitedly celebrated amongst the College population. A Victory Dinner is planned in the coming weeks.

My congratulations again to both Sarah and Imogen for their stunning artworks and for their excellent representation of St John’s College in the Palladian Cup. 

Dr Mark Schembri
Rector