Hatched 2025: Emerging Voices at Forrest Chase
Image credit: Installation view, Hatched: National Graduate Show 2025, Forrest Chase, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), 2025. Photo: Rebecca Mansell. Courtesy of the artists and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA).
Perth’s central shopping centre, Forrest Chase, becomes the intersection of art and convenience in the latest iteration of Hatched: National Graduate Show.
PICA’s annual national grad show this year features 23 artists, nominated by their lecturers and selected by a panel. In its 34th year, Hatched presents this year’s cohort in a new, larger space at Forrest Chase, offering the artists access to broader audiences and fresh perspectives on exhibition. Alongside the artists, the Hatched Curatorial Associate for 2025-2026, Mia Palmer-Verevis, saw opportunity in the diverse works; “Preparing for the exhibition required me to completely reimagine the scale of the installation and to negotiate new spatial relationships between the works. The vast space allows for each work to hold its own.” At Hatched, the opportunity for each work to have its own space is significant, as Forrest Chase is twice the size of their usual gallery. It also moves the works out of white walls and into the public sphere, allowing central Perth shoppers to engage with pieces that have been in development for a year.
From paintings to performance works, each artwork is a product of the intensive Honours year for the artists and makes for a diverse collection in medium and conceptual matter. “Most prominently, they reveal an interest in transforming symbols and motifs as tools for resistance, poetic responses to environmental fragility and climate grief, and the tensions between identity in private and public spheres.” The variety of subject matter of the works does not intimidate the curator, as she explains, “Yet it is precisely this quality that makes Hatched compelling, as points of connection emerge amidst the differences, revealing both commonalities and the breadth of practice.” Palmer-Verevis continues, “Curatorially, the task lies in striking a balance—foregrounding moments of convergence while also allowing the works to sit in tension and juxtaposition with one another.” While the collection sits in the shopping centre, the complexities of their subject matters, usually viewed withing the configuration of the “white cube” of a gallery, are now accessible for all to consider, meditate on and appreciate. Forrest Chase provides a meaningful experience for those who may not have gone to PICA and simultaneously provides the artists with new audiences.
Image credit: Ebony Maurice-Wilmott, Index, 2024, Hatched: National Graduate Show 2025, Forrest Chase, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), 2025. Photo: Rebecca Mansell. Courtesy of the artist and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA).
For artist Ebony Maurice-Wilmott, the space is a gift for her work: “Had the exhibition been in the original PICA building, I would have had to abbreviate my work, so it’s a blessing in disguise that they decided to install air-conditioning this year.” Her work, Index (2024), emerges as an installation of digital prints that sit between various materials evoking the archive, such as shelves and steel frames. She explains, “Index experiments with the visual language of translation through a series of archives concerned with the index as a substitute that signals the existence of something in its absence. In SiO2, an archive within the installation, I transfer images of light-leaked celluloid film onto sheets of glass.”
PICA’s Hatched series, in whichever form it takes, remains essential for emerging artists, not only as a celebration for the artists, but to bring them together to share ideas and experiences from across Australia. Maurice-Wilmott reflects, “Through meeting a cross-section of artists across Australia, I’ve deepened my awareness about what exists beyond my immediate context in the arts community.” The Grad Show at Forrest Chase offers a perfect introduction to Australian contemporary art, placing the concerns of the next generation within arm’s reach, or just an elevator ride away.
Hatched 2025 is showing at Forrest Chase, Boorloo/Perth until 5 October 2025.
PICA is proud to be congratulate the Hatched 2025 artists:
Chloe Catto, University of Tasmania (TAS)
Germaine Chan, The University of Western Australia (WA)
Samuel Chan, National Art School (NSW)
Clara Chanisheff, Victorian College of the Arts (VIC)
Isabella Rose Cort, Queensland University of Technology (QLD)
Tom Duffy, University of Wollongong (NSW)
Mandana Eizadi, North Metropolitan TAFE (WA)
Nicole Goode, Victorian College of the Arts (VIC)
Gosha Heldtz, University of New South Wales (NSW)
Charlotte Rose Jeffrey-Bannister, Adelaide Central School of Art (SA)
Madi Jones, Southern Cross University (NSW)
Mim Kowner, Curtin University (WA)
Maelyse Xinh Leculier, University of Sydney (NSW)
Ebony Maurice-Wilmott, Monash University (VIC)
Elsa Mona, Edith Cowan University (WA)
Pippini Niamh, Flinders University (SA)
Marcus C. Payne, Monash University (VIC)
Jade Power, RMIT University (VIC)
Litia Roko, Australian National University (ACT)
Rosemary Tamas-Cao, Queensland College of Art and Design (QLD)
Silki Wong, University of South Australia (SA)
Grace Yong, Curtin University (WA)
Karen Zipkas, Federation University Australia (VIC)
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