Artists regularly make decisions about what they present or reveal, as well as what they remove or leave out. How artists depict life is most often associated with the act of actively creating images and objects rather than with leaving intentionally blank spaces that appear void of human activity. However, the depiction of nothingness or emptiness can offer an equally truthful reflection of the spaces and places we inhabit.

• Absence Resource

The cultural learning education resource provides a way of engaging with artworks that centres First Nations perspectives of identity, knowledge and responsibility. It asks us not only to look at art but to listen deeply, reflect carefully and share respectfully.

• Cultural Learning Resource

Immersive art shifts attention away from art objects and towards environments that invite a viewer’s active participation. Instead of observing an artist’s finished artwork from an external perspective, the viewer becomes part of the work, completing it through their involvement.

• Immersion Resource

Artists use different materials and techniques to create meaning in their work. These materials can be natural, recycled, digital or handmade, and can carry cultural, symbolic or personal meaning. Looking closely at materials can help us to understand how and why an artwork was made.

• Materiality Resource

Scale is a principle of visual art that refers to the relative size of one whole object compared to another. Artists often consider scale in terms of how the dimensions of a work compare to the human body, using this relationship to affect how the viewer experiences the work. It is important to note the distinction between scale and proportion, which refers to the spatial relationship between elements of the whole.

• Scale Resource

An archive is often understood as a collection of documents, images or objects that offer insight into the past. In contemporary art, the archive is a site of critical and creative engagement — one that moves across past, present and future.

• The Archive Resource