Teacher Tag
Interviewed by Ruwan, Mily, Shan
Ms Thurecht
Head of Art and Technology
I: What’s one thing you miss most about Uni High during lockdown?
Ms Thurecht: I just missed teaching! I love teaching… I missed just coming in and having chats with everyone. I love that kind of feedback where students would be talking about something and I could just jump in and have that little teachable moment, you know? I know that teachers love to get off track and I like to get off track and also make it about art - because you can make anything about art. So I just missed that chat and people becoming friends and having these interesting world conversations and chatting with my students everyday.
I: During this iso have you picked up any new hobbies?
Ms Thurecht: Well I actually made 130 masks. I made ones with tassels and jewels and ones with big bows and headbands. I got all my friends and family and custom made some masks for them - they would text me and be like ‘oh I want it to be this colour or this colour’ or whatever.
I: Did you have plans for this year that were cancelled due to corona?
Ms Thurecht: I always go to Dark Mofo - which is an art festival in Tasmania. So it’s one of the most important art festivals and it was the first thing to be cancelled. So right at the start of March there was a big announcement where Dark Mofo was cancelled and then shortly one or two weeks after that everything was cancelled. So that was my big thing.
I: What do you look forward to for the summer holidays?
Ms Thurecht: Seeing more than one friend at the same time. Yeah, a lot of my friends live by themselves so I can’t do the joining families thing because they all live by themselves. So I’m really hoping that I can have more than one friend at one time
I: What was your favourite subject in school?
Ms Thurecht: Biology. Which links back to my favourite artist, I really love dead animals. We did a lot of dissections, and I really found that the beauty in biology was where my heart was, I was always very science-minded, I really liked learning about habitats and animals and I loved having that information. When I do my art and when I teach art, I always use biology in it because I think that art that’s based in science gives it an air of importance of like realism and that makes your art more important.
I: What was your Dream job as a kid?
Ms Thurecht: Well, when I was 5, I wanted to be an opera singer. I lived in Sydney, I went to the Opera House all the time to watch the opera, and they wore the most beautiful dresses. And so I thought that I needed to be an opera singer to wear a nice dress! But I realised you could just buy them! I actually did one primary school per year per state .
I feel like the biggest difference between states is that Melbourne is just so much more relaxed. You would not get a free dress school in any other state, yeah. In Brisbane, in Sydney, in Perth where I did most of my primary school, it was like very stuffy uniforms, very proper and you know ‘stand behind your chair before the teacher let you sit down’ and it was much more regimented than any other place that I’ve been. Hahaha but I have not lived in the Northern Territory or South Australia.
I: What are some differences between UHS and your previous school?
Ms Thurecht: So Uni High is really left-leaning, and so it’s really reflected in the staff as well, because I think that the types of people that want to apply to teach at Uni High are very much those left-leaning types of people. And I think that they’re people that are creative and independent, and like I said, less regiment, more willing to treat their students like individuals and be more relaxed with the rules because we expect them to look after themselves a little bit more. Whereas I think teachers that prefer strict rules, I think they apply to other schools.
I: Growing up, who were your role models?
Ms Thurecht: The head of the department of art I always really looked up to, I wanted to be an art teacher when I was at school, so my career plan has been very straightforward. For you guys, it won’t be. I might’ve been like the latest person to be able to just follow a career path through, but for you guys I think you’ll move around a lot more. But yeah, I think I really really really admired my head of art and art teacher. I just thought and cared about you know all the people in the class that were like a bit scared or didn’t know what was going on or were worried about something, I really think my art teacher looked out for them, and then I wanted to be just like her and the head of department who was a guy, that was my goal.
I: Who’s your favourite artist and your favourite piece of artwork?
Ms Thurecht: I do, absolutely! So there’s an artist called Julia DeVille and she works with taxidermic animals. Initially you’d think that they’d be very distressing and things like that, but Julia DeVille is actually a vegan. She picks up roadkills and animals that might be still birthed and uses the taxidermic animals and she combines them with jewellery techniques - so she actually puts diamonds into them and pearls and things like that. In the end, the overall experience is both shocking and beautiful. She’s a mid-career artist in her 40s I think? It’s also quite difficult to be really well respected at that age and being a woman because you become really famous late in life. So I absolutely love her work because of that balance between that fear and that beauty. I also respect her because she’s done so well early on in her career.
She has a baby giraffe that is curled up and in this glass case - kind of the way like you’d imagine Snow White would be. It’s got all of these jewels kind of set onto it and it’s a still birthed giraffe.
Here are some examples of Julia DeVille’s artwork:
I: On another topic, What's a current song or artist you are obsessed with?
Ms Thurecht: Well I’ve been listening to Folklore (by Taylor Swift) a lot, so that’s been my lockdown jam. But my favourite band of all time is a band called Mansionair, and they’re a Sydney based band. I saw them when they performed at London Grammar so yeah, two different bands that I like.
I: Do you have a favourite book or movie?
Ms Thurecht: See I mostly just read non fiction books, but there’s a book called quiet which is a nonfiction book about the way that introverts relate to the world, and the physiological response. So introversion is not really a personality type, but actually a stress response. So introverts will stress more than extroverts do, and that causes them to want to create their own space. And because I’m an extrovert, I really found that super interesting and important to the way that I connect with some of my introverted students. Yeah so it really gave me a new found respect, of how legitimate and interesting introversion is.
I: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?
Ms Thurecht: Look, to be honest, right now I’d go see my parents cause my whole family’s from Brisbane. I just miss my family a little bit so I’d go home. We have a beach house - that’s kind of what Queensland’s like. Everyone’s got beach houses for their family and extended family. So I’d go and sit on the beach with my parents.
I: Where are some places you have travelled to before (out of Australia)?
Ms Thurecht: I’ve been to a lot of places, I used to live in London. I’ve travelled around Europe a fair bit, I spent 5 weeks in Japan. My favourite place is the Chi Chu Museum in Naoshima, it’s an island off Japan. It has a money garden at the top, and then you go underground to go into the museum. And it’s on an island, so you have to take a boat out there! So yeah, that’s really beautiful. I’ve been to Canada, the US, yeah most of the countries in Europe, well not most, you know some of the countries in Europe. A few countries in Britain, Scotland that sort of thing as well.
Chi Chu Museum
I: Hahah you would have tried a whole lot of different food! Do you have a favourite food from a specific country? Is it true that London’s food is really bland?
Ms Thurecht: Yes it is true absolutely hahaha but I think my answer is that I like Melbourne food the best hahaha I’ve eaten a fair amount of food in all of those places, and look to be honest, Melbourne is a really special place because you’ve got like fusion food. And when we get chefs that have the experience, like French food, Italian food, particular sections of China, You’ve got such interesting food and the chef at Sunda, He does Chinese-Asian fusion food and he’s just done a Vietnamese pâte and croute which is like Vietnamese style food crossed with high-class Parisian. Hahaha So I think that you are getting the most unique food in Melbourne which is really cool!
I: Yeahh that’s truee. With all of your travelling experiences, do you have like a scariest or daunting experience you’d like to share?
Ms Thurecht: Ahh I don’t travel to places where it’s really scary. Bahaha not a very brave person. You get lost sometimes when you’re phone doesn’t work (how is that not scary i would be so scared). But look, everyone loves Berlin, but I had a rough time in Berlin. I was followed a bit, and cat called so you know that sort of street harassment that girls get sometimes, that was pretty bad in Berlin and it meant that I didn’t really like being there that much.
I: What is the best advice you could give a student?
Ms Thurecht: The new world is not going to be as structured as the one in which your parents grew up. We’re gonna have so many different careers and we’re gonna change our minds so often. The best piece of advice I can give is to cultivate lots of different parts of yourself. Take up lots of different hobbies, be open to new experiences and be flexible. Just take on lots of different things and try not be stressed about it because if you see lots of different changes and opportunities, then I think your life will be easier.
I: Final question, who do you tag next?
Ms Thurecht: Ms Walk!
Thank you so much to Ms Thurecht for taking the time for this interview, and it was really fun especially learning about Julia Deville. If you have any questions to ask Ms Walk for our next Teacher Tag, feel free to leave them down below!