Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2008

ALUMNI

Olympics in Sight for Suzie

2006 and winning a silver medal at the Melbourne World Championships in 2007 in front of a roaring home crowd.’ When she finished at Girls Grammar in 2000, Suzie studied physiotherapy at The University of Queensland before she decided to switch to a Bachelor of Science/Law. ‘It was challenging trying to balance full-time water polo and university but at the same time it forced me to be really organised and manage my time effectively. It was good to use my studies as a distraction outside of water polo,’ said Suzie. Graduating from UQ last year, ‘after seven long years’, Suzie was offered a position at Allens Arthur Robinson law firm commencing in 2009. Until then she will be concentrating on water polo in the lead-up to the Olympics.

Suzie Frazer (2000) has her sights set on representing Australia at the Beijing Olympics in August this year. As a member of the KFC Breakers Queensland team she was selected to be part of the Olympic squad which involves an intense training programme over the next few months at camps in Canberra and overseas as well as competitions in Europe, China and America. Suzie has been playing water polo for eleven years and currently trains up to twelve times a week. ‘I started in Year 8 at Grammar and played right through to Year 12. I had so much fun playing games every week on a Saturday!’ Through her water polo she has travelled to Hawaii, Germany, Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and almost every capital city in Australia. ‘My most memorable moments include winning a gold medal at the World Cup in Tianjing, China in

Connections with Heritage Robyn Stacey’s Photographic Art Robyn Stacey is one of Australia’s most acclaimed photographers. Her large and striking images have been exhibited widely in Australia and internationally since the mid-1980s and works are held in the collections of Artbank, National Gallery of Australia, National Portrait Gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of Western Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and Queensland Art Gallery, as well as numerous university, corporate and private collections.

Christine Purvis, Amanda Bell, Robyn Stacey and Elizabeth Jameson

century specimens, artefacts, and scientific models to a contemporary audience, revealing their aesthetic, social and historic value. By investigating each specimen’s material presence she is then able to group and assemble items based on visual strategies drawn from concepts as different as the Dutch still life tradition and the scientific rationalism of taxonomy. The School is extremely grateful to the Old Girls Association for purchasing two major examples of Robyn Stacey’s work for the Cherrell Hirst Creative Learning Centre. They are now on permanent display in the Barbara Fielding Room.

‘I always did well in my History and English subjects at school and it is interesting to me that now history has become so significant in my work. When I was at school I never imagined I would become an artist’, said Robyn. Robyn’s fascination with the possibilities of history being a conduit to inform the present led to her current obsession with the vast archival repositories in museums around the world. In 2000 she began researching and photographing natural history collections in Australia and overseas. Spending a number of years working with each collection, Robyn’s sumptuous photographic images re-present eighteenth and nineteenth

Robyn, who completed her education at Girls Grammar in 1969, initially pursued a career in social work. She completed her degree at The University of Queensland and worked in the field for a year before she realised it might not be the right choice for a career. Taking some time to travel overseas and visiting an extensive number of museums all over the world, Robyn developed her interest in art. She studied fine arts at UQ under Dr Nancy Underhill which ignited her interest in photography. This, coupled with her love of history, inspired Robyn to pursue a new path as a photographic artist.

18 grammar gazette autumn 2008