Whoever said art is a source of consolation probably didn't have fans of old-school rockers Kiss in mind.
"In some ways to be a really avid Kiss fan is to be a bit of an outsider, my video is about creating a community for Kiss fans" artist Bridget Stehli told AAP.
Her installation, An Allegorical Cave for Lonely Kiss Fans, is part of the postgraduate show at Sydney's National Art School, which opened Thursday.
Stehli, 37, started with a retro bedhead she found on the street, adding old lamps, a landline phone and a bed with silk sheets, complete with a cathode-ray television on top.
On the screen are clips of actors (friends of the artist and genuine fans of the band) in Kiss makeup, reciting the lyrics from some of their hits.
She told them to make it sexy, but comes off as deeply, deeply awkward.
That's the point, said Stehli, who wanted to recreate the low-budget staginess of late-night television ads for adult chat lines, a commentary on both defunct forms of media and the male gaze.
Stehli is one of 21 students with work in the exhibition, which has so far attracted about 2000 people across two opening events.
"It's a really pivotal, super important opportunity for them to showcase their final work," said postgraduate coordinator Chelsea Lehmann.
For collectors, graduate shows are a chance to buy affordable works at the start of what could be stellar careers, while galleries also keep a close eye, with some students scoring commercial representation.
With the likes of Charles Blackman, Margaret Olley, Brett Whiteley and Cressida Campbell among National Art School alumni, who knows how far the class of 2023 might go?
The National Art School is the only sizeable independent art school in Australia, taught by practising artists with each student working from their own studio.
If themes can be found in the huge variety of work in this year's offering, it could be a broad interest in obsolescence and repurposing cast off objects.
Samantha Jade, for example, has left rolls of photographic film in compost and made iridescent prints from the result, while canvases by Brodie Cullen feature a found bumbag and squashed chewing gum.
Joyce Lubotzky takes things a step further with her installation titled To the Gallery or to Landfill?
She has painstakingly photographed items of recognisable litter, such as little plastic fish-shaped containers for soy sauce, with the rubbish itself arranged in a wave at the base of a whole wall of these photographs.
A triptych by Scott Elk was the first artwork to sell at a preview on Thursday, with several buyers interested in the work.
Christian Bonett has made politicised street signs from glazed earthenware, with ceramic cars perched on oil drums, and a car in pink neon too.
These are immediately eye-catching, but less attention-grabbing works are also worth a look.
Elle Wickens' Who came first is a small resin sculpture resembling two cracked eggs, but the shapes and colours are slightly off - look closer and it turns out they are also made from breastmilk and placenta.
Tina Wheatley's Hey, Hey Benglis sculpture was made by knitting, creating moulds from the yarn shapes and casting them in porcelain.
It's impossible to be wholly original these days according to Dr Lehmann, but what the students have made is true to their experiences and the world around them.
Ultimately, this makes their artworks culturally significant and enduring, she said.
At the end of November the work of 142 graduates from the school's bachelor program will go on display, while the postgrad show is on until November 12.
Australian Associated Press
