ARTIST’S STATEMENT – Vicki West

Vicki West is a proud pakana artist of the trawlwoolway people from the Northeast coast region. She completed her Bachelor Fine Arts in 1999, First Class Honours in 2001 and Masters in 2008 (all University of Tasmania, School of Visual and Performing Arts).

West has worked extensively at the community level, presenting workshops and undertaking projects through schools, museums and at festivals and conferences, both within Tasmania and nationally. She is currently the Children’s Arts and Culture facilitator for meenah neenah, an Aboriginal Arts Youth program in Launceston and the Aboriginal Learning facilitator for the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.

West arts practice includes large scale installations, public artworks, incorporating multiple elements, smaller scale sculptural works, jewelry, textiles, painting and new media. She draws on traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal cultural practices and materials to create contemporary artworks that explore and celebrate cultural survival in the face of continuing colonial myths of the extinction of her people. – in her own words “we are still here”.