Lennox Head artist to feature in exhibition of the country’s best graduate works

Local artist Jodi Woodward has been selected to take part in a national exhibition featuring the best graduate artworks from around the country.

The Lennox Head resident’s artwork entitled 1,2,3,4,5……. will feature in ‘Hatched’, the annual showcase of graduate art opening at the Perth Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) tomorrow (May 18).

The work comprises four elements: an imposing two-metre tall black and white self-portrait, an artist book; hand drawn cross-hatching on a wall; and a quote by 20th century playwright and poet Samuel Beckett.

It also won the National Association for the Visual Arts award in 2017.

‘I find the photo very confronting,’ Woodward said.

‘The work is primarily about how we choose to spend our time and live our lives.’

‘Do we just tick over the days or do we actively reflect on what we do and why we do it? Do we just repeat the same behaviours over and over or do we choose to change what we do, or behave differently?’

‘I’m very interested in behaviour, psychology and memory and trauma and how that impacts our behaviour.’

Woodward will represent Southern Cross University’s art and design program at the Hatched exhibition.

She moved to the North Coast from Sydney to be part of the university program.

‘I’ve worked in creative industries before and …I wanted to expand what I’d been making in my lounge room and explore the question, was art worth a career?’ she said.

‘The degree gave me the opportunity to explore that question. It really helped me focus on taking my art practice from a hobby to more of a career,’.

2018 is proving to be a busy year for Jodi: she recently made the final of the Landscape Prize at the Head On Photography Festival in Sydney; and later in the year she will be exhibiting in the US in a group show featuring Australian and New Zealand artists at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts in North Carolina.