Drew Bickford

Born 1974, Penrith
Bachelor of Fine Arts
Graduation show: 2002
Graduation ceremony: 2003

Artwork in Space YZ

Bradykiller, 2000
Single channel video with sound (VHS)
3:06 mins

Aberdeen Animals, 2005
From the series The Speckled Hen
Print, 2/5
35 x 25 cm
Collection of Daniel Mudie Cunningham

My works in this exhibition are emblematic of my interests in two diverse areas of interest; innocent pop culture and the darker world of true crime.

Bradykiller was (I believe) my very first resolved undergrad work at UWS and aimed for a low-fi meshing of the familiar and the frightening. Having grown up on a TV diet of constructed familial perfection such as The Brady Bunch, this work gave rise to the possibility of an antithetical tale of family bliss. 

The crimes of matricidal killer Edmund Kemper provided a neat framework to hang the child-like visuals and storytelling devices upon for Bradykiller.

Extending this theme was a post-grad body of work based directly upon a violent murder in rural NSW. Aberdeen Animals is one of ten etchings (originally printed on animal skin) that provide elemental clues in the slaughter of John Price by his abattoir-worker partner, Katherine Knight. (Editor: not to be confused with Katherine Knight, the late western Sydney arts advocate, discussed in Jenny Bisset’s Reader essay).

Memories of my UWS Fine Arts are punctuated by peculiarly peripheral occasions of distraction, rather than the course itself. I was 26 years old entering the degree and, frankly, that felt old.

I have a historically terrible memory, so much of that time is very hazy (the beer certainly didn't help). I do remember the campus itself having a kind of schizoid environmental composition; long open savannahs, weirdly lunar dunes of red earth and marshy lagoons, patrolled by a sinister lone goose. The campus had the feel of a man-made safari park that dropped the ball on the mega-fauna. 

However, what the campus did have in 2000, was lots of interesting young artists, many of whom would go on to establish themselves as pretty cool change-agents in a fledgling Western Sydney arts scene.

As an older, quieter observer of  the younger members of my cohort, I saw incredible talent and bravery in the work the younger students produced. Each corner of the vast studio space bore witness to a creativity, fun and love that somehow survived the impact of 9/11 (which I recall being screened continually on all TVs on campus). *Perhaps even more devastating was the early 2000’s fashion that dominated, but never thwarted the momentum of the cohort. 

Ultimately, my biggest rewards at UWS came from the profound learning experiences from the incredible teachers Rhett Brewer, Peggy Wallach, Helen Grace and the amazing Phillip Kent. Now, 20 years after Phillip's Judy Garland-inspired lecture on Modernity 'clang-clang-clanged' through the auditorium, I am a teacher myself. As a mature-aged student when I began the degree, starting with all the 'kids' was like jumping onto a moving train. It's nice to be waiting at the station again for another ride.