Lucy Parkinson
‘Reading in Public’ 2025. Oil paint and oil pastel on canvas, 91 x 121cm.
Artist statement
My practice uses humour to demonstrate the awkwardness and tension of social expectation and its effect on my behaviour in everyday life.
Reading in Public is about the act of performatively engaging in an activity to gain external validation. I examine how a culture that facilitates constant comparison with others, and prioritises endless self-improvement intensifies the effect of being looked at and perceived socially on one's sense of identity.
Photograph: Anna Kucera
Acknowledgement of Country
аIJʹÙÍø School of Art & Design stands on an important place of learning and exchange first occupied by the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples.
We acknowledge the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land that our students and staff share, create and operate on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this respect to all First Nations peoples across Australia. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
