In his large silkscreen “Childe Harold/Futurefall”, Justin Trendall – who lectures in SCA’s Printmedia Studio - takes a step further his idea of the ‘phantasmagorical grid’ that we saw in last year’s exhibition in the University Art Gallery.

Intricately patterned in gold on deep red silk, the work mimics the classical frieze, running the full four outer walls of a building-like contruction, while appearing to map a continuous coastline and hinterland, complete with placenames.

Closer inspection, though, reveals the coastal names to jump between those near Sydney, those around Perth and those in the Byronshire for instance, while apparent hinterland area names are the names of specific writers, musicians, visual artists and philosophers or their works, spanning several centuries.

The impression is of a mapping of memories or cultural influence, and - given the circular nature of the work - of a precocious autobiography perhaps.

Kate Mackay both calls on and explodes the domestic connotations of crochet in her brightly coloured, confrontational 3D abstract works which explore the relationship between painting and craft and the ‘uselessness’ of each.

Christopher Dean, an SCA graduate concerned with the ‘ecstatic possibilities of communication’, has incorporated abstracted text into his drawings. His “Conversations with Robert Lake” is a series of short sentences based on his talks with the Sydney gallerist and drawn in a patchwork of soft, vibrant multi-coloured lines.

John Aslanidis considers himself to be a sound artist more than a painter and sound waves are certainly connoted in his “Sonic Network”, a large painting of psychedelic, superimposed patterned circles. His intention in this compelling work was to capture “a fragment of infinity” in an ambiguous zone between sound and vision.

There’s a strong sense of originality and of cohesiveness in this varied exhibition. Titled Fabrication, it connotes the patterning of modernist fabrics that have intrigued Duquemin since her childhood, and reflects each artist’s intention to fabricate autonomous worlds through a making and breaking of the conventions of pattern making.