Two graduates from Korowa have been selected for the prestigious VCE Season of Excellence and will present their work in the state’s finest gallery, and stage.

Lien Zheng, who graduated from Korowa in 2018, has been selected from among thousands of students to exhibit at the NGV in Victoria. Her painting, Liminal, in oil on masonite stands tall, the looming figure of a nondescript house writ large.

30 years ago, Lien’s father migrated from Guangzhou China, and moved into a double storey house in suburban Melbourne. “My father took me to the house he stayed in on the first evening of his immigration to Australia,” Lien says. “The sight of it left a deep impression on me. It seemed like an alternate universe in a single building. It took me great effort to imagine the sacrifices and drastic changes he had to make.”

Lien was moved by the sight of the building which started her father’s journey and explored the location through several works in her VCE studies. “I imagined the decades flashing past the windows, and my father looking out onto a new country, unaware of the future he had yet to create.”

The painting will be on display at the state gallery’s Top Arts exhibition in March. “I’m absolutely thrilled to be exhibiting at NGV in Fed Square; it’s an honour to have been chosen! The opportunity to tell a personal narrative to a wider audience is truly exciting,” she says.

Lien performed a ‘live’ painting at Korowa’s Speech Night and was the 2018 Art Captain. She will commence a degree in Arts at the University of Melbourne in 2020, following a year-long gap year.

Jessica Pascoe, who also graduated in 2018, will take to the stage in Top Class, the VCE Season of Excellence celebration of the best VCE Drama and Theatre Studies performances. “It’s an honour to even be asked to audition for Top Class,” Jessica said. “I can’t even put into words how grateful I am to be actually be able to perform in the program. I am so thankful for all the support and assistance Mr Starr, my Drama Teacher, gave me throughout my time at Korowa. It is thanks to him that my solo is the standard it is now and that I have been given this opportunity.”

Jessica was an enthusiastic Co-Captain of Drama and continues with her love of drama beyond school.

“This year, I am taking a gap year and will work part-time and audition for shows. I’m pursuing more performance work and training. I hope to travel to Europe in the second half of the year and then commence a Biomedical Science degree at RMIT,” Jessica said.

Three other students from Korowa were recognised in the VCE Season of Excellence for their outstanding work.

Nikola Gucciardo, 2018 House Captain, received a perfect score  on her Drama Solo Exam and was also invited to audition for Top Class. Nikola performed in the lead role in the School’s Legally Blonde Senior Musical and as the ringmaster in the School’s Greatest Showman Medley at Speech Night.

Patricia Agus and Crystal Li were also shortlisted for Top Arts. Patricia will be undertaking further study at University and has been invited to work with Signal, a youth curatorial collective run by the City of Melbourne. Crystal was the inaugural recipient in 2018 of Korowa’s Robyn Price Acquisitive Art Prize, named after our former Head of Art, Robyn Price.

Congratulations to each of these girls on their fantastic achievements.

By Sally Giam, Marketing and Communications Officer