About

Rebecca Selleck is a Canberra-based emerging artist with a focus on interactive sculpture and installation, blending animatronics, assemblage, casting and sound.  She completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts at the ANU School of Art with First Class Honours, majoring in Sculpture and Art Theory, and also holds a Bachelor of Communications, majoring in Creative Writing and Literary Studies. She uses her practice to reciprocally investigate and challenge her own perceptions within a culture of conflicting truths. Her work overlays time and place to express the need for human accountability and the painful complexity of animal and environmental ethics in Australia.

She is the recipient of multiple awards, including the prestigious Peter and Lena Karmel Anniversary Prize for best graduating student at the ANU School of Art, and has exhibited in across Australia and in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Venice, Italy. She was a finalist in the inaugural 2017 Ramsay Art Prize at the Art Gallery of South Australia and in 2018 the  Arte Laguna Prize in Venice, Italy; the Macquarie Art Prize; the Ravenswood Art Prize (Highly Commended); and the Churchie Art Prize.  She is currently undertaking the ‘Art of the Threatened Species’ residency with Orana Arts and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage using embedded research to create work around the Eastern Bristlebird.

'I use my ongoing practice to investigate and challenge my own perceptions within a culture of conflicting truths. While my focus is on non-human animals and animal ethics, they have become an emotive conduit for exploring wider societal hypocrisies within Australia around consumerism and our relationship with the environment.

Since I was a small child, I’ve been entranced by the inconsistent relationships humans have with other animals. We can easily empathise with them on the one hand, but disengage on the other: denying them agency and treating them as objects. I’ve formed a sculptural language that gives communicable presence to the moment my conflicting perceptions and their accompanying sensations clash: The push and pull of empathy and disengagement that results in perceptual dissonance.

I realise this through the use of three primary devices: the commercial skins of animals returned basic form, domestic objects that create a psychological and bodily connection with the viewer, and finally through the use of basic electrics that produce a semblance of life. These simulate breath, offer warmth, or create disembodied movement.

Through these physical expressions of internal hypocrisies I create interactive spaces that, while uncomfortable, become their own questioning entities. I hope that through my semi-autobiographical works viewers will be driven to question the validity of their own respective perceptions relating to non-human animals, consumerism and the environment. By giving physical presence to such perceptions, the resulting works demonstrate the constructed nature of human understanding and the wider hypocrisies intrinsic to Australian society. I believe through this kind of emotional engagement art can provoke new ways of thinking.'

CV

Education
2015 Bachelor of Visual Arts with First Class Honours (Sculpture and Art Theory), ANU, ACT
2011 Diploma of Business Administration, Wisdom Learning, Canberra, ACT
2007 Bachelor of Communications (Creative Writing and Literary Studies) UC, ACT

Solo Exhibitions
2019 Invasive (second iteration), M16 Artspace, Narrabundah, ACT
2019 Invasive (first iteration), Firstdraft, Woolloomooloo, NSW
2019 The control of nature promised a future of unlimited abundance, Chutespace M16, Narrabundah, ACT
2016 Lapin, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Manuka, ACT
2016 Object Animals, Cox Architecture Gallery, Kingston, ACT
2016 Perceptual Dissonance, Scratch Art Space, Marrickville NSW

2 & 3 Person Exhibitions
2017 Transmutation, Red Gallery, Fitzroy North, Victoria
2017 Home for Unloved Animals, as part of Art Not Apart, Nishi, New Acton, ACT
2016 Menagerie, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Greenway, ACT
2016 Habitual Creatures, Belconnen Arts Centre, Belconnen, ACT
2016 Harvest, Scratch Art Space, Marrickville NSW
2015 Tracing Steps, The Front Café and Gallery, Lyneham, ACT
2014 Resonance, Faculty of Fine Art Gallery, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Group Exhibitions
2019 The Fig Tree, AD Space Gallery, UNSW, Paddington, NSW
2018 The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane, QLD
2018 Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize, Sydney
2018 Pin 8, ANCA Gallery, Dickson, ACT
2018 Ravenswood Women's Art Prize, Centenary Centre at Ravenswood School for Girls, Gordon, NSW
2018 Straight Outta Canberra - Curated by Alexander Boynes, May Space, Waterloo, NSW
2018 Arte Laguna Prize, Venice, Italy
2018 Tom Bass Prize for Figurative Sculpture, Juniper Hall, Paddington, NSW
2017 Small Works Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy, Victoria
2017 Ruby Honours 1, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Manuka, ACT
2017 Animastructions, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Greenway, ACT
2017 HyperActive, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Braddon, ACT
2017 Ramsay Art Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA
2017 Animal Heart, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Greenway, ACT
2017 Sculpture Bermagui, Bermagui, NSW
2016 Symposium: Untaming the Urban, ANU School of Art Sculpture Workshop, ACT
2016 Empire Global Art Award, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Greenway, ACT
2016 Canberra Contemporary Art Space Members' Exhibition, Braddon, ACT
2016 Women's Art Prize, See Street Gallery, Meadowbank, NSW
2016 Sculpture on the Edge – Bermagui, NSW (Exhibitor and Guest Curator)
2016 CGS Faculty Exhibition, Canberra Grammar School Gallery, Red Hill, ACT
2015 School of Art Graduate Show, Australian National University, Acton, ACT
2015 Random, ANU School of Art Foyer Gallery, Acton, ACT
2015 Lake light Sculpture, Jindabyne, NSW
2015 You Are Here: and so are we, Civic, ACT
2014 School of Art Graduate Show, Australian National University, Acton, ACT
2014 #Sculpture, ANU School of Art Foyer Gallery, Canberra, ACT

Awards
2018 Finalist, The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane, QLD
2018 Finalist, Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize, Sydney
2018 Highly Commended, Ravenswood Women's Art Prize, Emerging Artist Category, Centenary Centre at Ravenswood School for Girls, Gordon, NSW
2018 Finalist, Arte Laguna Prize, Venice, Italy
2018 Finalist, Tom Bass Prize for Figurative Sculpture, Juniper Hall, Paddington, NSW
2017 Finalist, Ramsay Art Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA
2017 Finalist, Contemporary­­ Art Awards, Brisbane, Queensland
2016 Finalist, Empire Global Art Award, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Greenway, ACT
2016 Recipient, Capital Arts Patrons' Organisation Capital Insurance Brokers Award, ACT
2016 Finalist, Women's Art Prize, See Street Gallery, Meadowbank, NSW
2016 Recipient, South Coast Parks Encouragement Award, Sculpture on the Edge, NSW
2015 Recipient, The Peter and Lena Karmel Anniversary EASS Prize, ANU
2015 Recipient, Canberra Grammar School Residency EASS Award, ANU
2015 Recipient, Cox Architecture EASS Award, ANU
2015 Recipient, Alan & Marilyn Stretton Encouragement Award, Sculpture on the Edge, NSW
2014 Recipient, The Front Gallery and Café Exhibition EASS Award, ANU

Residencies
2019 Mary Mackillop College, ACT
2018 Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA
2018-19 Art of the Threatened Species, Orana Arts and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, various locations, NSW
2017 Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA
2016 Canberra Grammar School, Red Hill, ACT

Public collections
2017 Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, Parkes, ACT

Community Art Projects
2018 Facilitator, 'Regeneration', public art project for SouthFest, commissioned by Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Greenway, ACT
2018 Facilitator, Breathing Animals Workshop, Messengers Program, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Greenway ACT
2018 Facilitator, Jewellery Workshop, Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, NT
2017 Facilitator, Horse Float of Ideas, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Greenway ACT
2017 Facilitator, Home for Unloved Animals, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Greenway ACT

Volunteer work
2018 Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, NT
2017 Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Greenway, ACT
2016 Belconnen Arts Centre, Belconnen, ACT

Publications
2019 Features in Art Collector - Undiscovered edition