About the artwork

A huge new artwork featuring art from 184 graduating RMIT students has been installed on a Metro Tunnel worksite. The artwork is more than 80m long and 2m high and is on display on the Metro Tunnel acoustic shed on Franklin Street.

The artwork is a collaboration between the Metro Tunnel Creative Program and the Graduating Cohort of the Bachelor of Design (Communication Design) 2021, RMIT School of Design, Communication Design Program.

There are two different parts to the work. One is called ‘Beyond the Selfie’ and came from a concept by student Madison Daffy.

‘I love faces and always have. I think nearly every assignment I have ever done has featured faces in one way or another. I think they are the perfect way to represent someone’s identity, you wear your face every day. I have always loved seeing the different ways people wear theirs and how they see themselves. I think the perfect way to represent everyone in the cohort is through a self-portrait designed and made by them, representing how they see themselves as a designer and a person. This concept celebrates individuality, talent and togetherness; individuality is relatable, talent is respected, and togetherness is longed for, all qualities that audiences can relate to.’

The second is called ‘Off Grid’ and is inspired by how designers use grids to organise their messages, how Melbourne is planned on a grid, our rail network is visually expressed by a grid. The design is a nod to how, in times of disruption, we go Off Grid.

This grid is a visual narrative, designed by Lucinda Nelson, and populated with imagery from 184 graduating students and several of their colleagues in second year, expresses the life of a student in two years of a pandemic. Distance, interruption, disconnection have played a role in each student’s educational experience. Some students were in Melbourne, some were in regional areas, some were interstate, and some were overseas, all were connected virtually, through the screens of their computers and all have collaborated on and have been joined together through
this project.

All have been connected by a virtual grid, all have been disrupted, all have in some way been Off Grid.