Student Series 2025

SQUELCH!

Virginia Ferguson and CJ Maglaqui

CQ CQ CQ ZL3GNE and ZL3BBG would like to invite you to:

SQUELCH: A radio term that describes the noise gate suppression of weak signals. Muting the quiet signals between voices, what goes unheard?

SQUELCH! draws on both artists’ backgrounds as Filipino and Amateur Radio License Operators. This body of work explores the challenges that arise from connecting with our national language Tagalog, mixed with the regional dialects of our families. Opportunities to learn our native languages were diminished by being raised outside of the Philippines. Relying on snippets and phrases from our parents, our connection to a Filipino identity was lost in translation. 

SSTV and Hellschriber radio signals are used to explore the difficulties of communicating in multiple languages, and the struggle to articulate our transnational identities. Audiences are invited to activate these signals, and begin decoding snippets of our languages and culture. Patience and attention are required: The corruption of these signals create visual distortions in our imagery, and understanding may be lost in the decoding.


The Ilam Campus Gallery Student Series is an annual showcase of some of the current practices at the Ilam School of Fine Arts. 

2025 Student Series Exhibitions:

  • 16 Jul - 23 Jul - 'SQUELCH', Virginia Ferguson and CJ Maglaqui

  • 30 Jul - 6 Aug - 'Re-earth' , Bella Macdonald and Rory Mainwaring

  • 13 Aug - 20 Aug- 'Breathe. Draw. Hold. Release', Claudia Du

  • 10 Sep - 17 Sep - 'Heaven and the Hard Shoulder', Marie Lawrence, Fionn Walker, and Lucinda Tennent


The Ilam Campus Gallery is generously supported by Three Boys Brewery, Murray and Co, and the University of Canterbury.