Alumni Life - Desiree Tahiri

Desiree is a resourceful person, being employed in many related fields to her core practice. She is a casual employee at the Wollongong art Gallery, where her role is to assist in the installation and deinstallation of exhibitions. I have also undertaken various related volunteer positions – from gallery sitting local artist run galleries, to installing and invigilating at the Sydney Biennale.

Desiree describes her art making as a blend of a lot of mediums. “Broadly speaking, my work crosses sculpture, photography, and film. I weld, I work with clay, I scavenge and reinvent found objects, I collect and felt hair and fur, I draw, I collage, I photograph in 35mm film – and then I scratch and burn into these photographs, I create layers of images I film, I make monstrous costumes, I perform, and I let these elements explode and infest spaces to become surreal installations. My art practice is inspired by the grotesque, the gothic, the disturbing, and the rebellious. I am inspired by punk movements, by weird horror films that challenge conventions, by imagined and real ‘monsters’ that tear apart our understanding of the world and wreak havoc with capitalist logic. Subcultures, art movements, and other cultural expressions that resist dominant capitalist ideologies and create new, alternative worlds is where I find my inspiration. This is why I have become involved with the zine scene, as a queered, punk DIY creative subculture.

In regard to career aspirations, I would like to maintain the balance between working as an academic within the university and developing my own practice within the artworld and other creative spaces and communities alongside it.”

Desiree has every right to be excited about her career trajectory, principally her PhD studies,  “exploring a topic I have chosen for myself and am passionate about and having 2 excellent supervisors who guide me in my PhD research – one from Visual Arts, and one from Sociology. I also now have a garage studio space to work in as well as a small studio space at the university, which is an awesome upgrade from working on the loungeroom floor of my old unit.”

What if anything, would you say Smith’s Hill HS did for you than perhaps any other school could not?

“I think that the school’s attention on academic pursuit fostered an environment that encouraged me to explore my interests beyond what was available at school.”

What advice would you have for your 17/18 year old self?

“I would make myself realise and remember that there are many ways of getting into university, and that my self-worth is not dependent on my achievement or productivity. I placed a huge amount of pressure and expectation upon myself to do well and would remind myself to instead focus more deeply on what my passions were. The ATAR is, ultimately, a flawed construct that becomes obsolete within the 6 months following high school graduation.”

Is there anything else or some advice you would like to share with the current high school generation?

“I’m inspired by the young people who go to the climate change rallies and take action to express their thoughts and resist neoliberal authority – you guys are really cool. My advice is to stop caring about what everyone wants you to be and how everyone wants you to think, question everything, and stay punk.”

Dez has committed to a life as an artist, perhaps not an easy life but with her intellect and academic connections she is emerging as something of an iconoclast, someone who is going to reshape thinking about post-industrial/capitalist society through art.  She is surely going to be a mover and shaker in the art scene of Australia as she matures. Smith’s Hill High School was her stomping ground and remains an environment that is able to project brilliant minds into the future for everyone’s benefit. Dez epitomises how passion, creativity and intelligence are a potent mix, enabling mind changing thinking that can influence many.

To view more of Desiree’s artworks go to her Instagram posts @rat_spew_tin or her web site

https://dt1531.wixsite.com/desireetahiri

Sharon Mearing – Visual Arts teacher – retired