The University of Newcastle student works across an array of mediums in order to deliver a message, which is often political. However, Buchanan’s winning work, titled Dust on Dust, is of a personal nature. 

“I have been collecting video and sounds for a long time and I have a strong writing practise,” he said. “I guess it’s a rap, slam-poetry video collage of stuff I have collected. 

“It’s a very angsty work. It’s a personal work about stuff I have been going through this year around burnout, relationship breakdowns, through to maybe being too much involved in activism. It’s much more personal than my other work has been.”

Sound is an important part of the work.

“It’s a composition, it’s beat based at times. It has this poetic rhythm,” he said.  

Buchanan is a Bachelor of Music student, but also has a degree in fine arts. His work often blends digital technology with traditional mediums. 

“I’m interested in the interplay between material and digital spheres,” Buchanan said.

“It’s conceptual, and I wouldn’t say I’m a sculptor but I do a lot of sculptural work, a lot of screen work. I paint at times and performance also comes into it.” 

Buchanan uses art to explore the political and post-humanism –  “de-centreing humans from spheres of importance”. 

“Instead of the triangle mode of a hierarchical world of use and abuse [by humans] we look at how we are interconnected through the various systems that we inhabit,” Buchanan said. 

“It might sound strange, but when we are talking about things like climate change, it’s now in our self interest to be less greedy, because we are destroying the systems we inhabit.”

Buchanan’s work Dust on Dust can be viewed at Watt Space gallery, Auckland Street, until September 2. Also on exhibition are works from The Penny Finnigan, The University Aquisitive, and The Signarama Newcastle Prizes.