Erna Lilje

Born 1973, Papua New Guinea
Bachelor of Arts, Visual Arts (Hons)
Graduation show: 1997
Graduation ceremony: 1998


Artwork in Space YZ

Tup Tup, 1994
Single channel video
5:11 mins

Tup Tup (stills), 1994

The main feeling I have re-watching this work, made in second-year and exhibited in the portable campus window gallery Avago-West, is the great pleasure I had in playing with video and sound. I believe I had in mind the making of the familiar and mundane, unfamiliar and strange. But then, as now, I think each viewer, and I include myself at this distance of years, can make of it what they will.

I have a deep feeling of gratitude for my time at UWS. It is the place where I found all the other black sheep, that became my friends and community. We were guided and encouraged and I felt that I was taken seriously even when, in hindsight, some of my ideas were trite and well-worn decades before I’d thought them. Our teachers/art-elders had the kindness and generosity to not point out the clichés and, instead, prompted us to develop things further by asking questions or suggesting artists or writers whose work might inform or inspire us. The generative and critical thinking skills that I learned during this time have become a part of me.