For Reference Only 2025

For Reference Only reflects on the consumption of attention in an age of endless entertainment. Two disembodied eyes are presented on a plate and passed between two hands, turning the act of looking into something that can itself be served and consumed.

In a culture increasingly shaped by visibility, spectacle and constant stimulation, attracting attention has become a form of currency. What catches the eye is produced, circulated and consumed, often before there is time to question why we are looking at it at all.

The work plays with this reversal: while we believe we are consuming images, our attention is also being consumed. The eyes on the plate become both viewer and meal, leaving uncertain who is watching, who is being watched, and who is feeding whom.

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I’m Ashley Zhu, a Melbourne-based artist with a background in animation and design. I have been drawing and making art since I was young, and over time, creating has become a natural way for me to respond to the things that catch my attention.

My work is largely led by instinct. Inspiration can come from anywhere: a dream, an experience, a person, a photograph, a scene, or sometimes simply a colour. I am particularly drawn to the body, memory, relationships and the subtle psychological moments that sit within everyday experience. I don’t necessarily begin with a fixed meaning. Often, there is simply a moment when I see or imagine something and know that it deserves to become a painting.

My paintings move between abstraction and representation. I like having the freedom to keep what feels important from an original image or idea, while allowing the rest to shift through colour, form and the process of painting itself.

I hope that same sense of instinct exists between my work and the people who encounter it. Rather than prescribing what someone should see or feel, I like the possibility that a person can be drawn to a work before needing to explain why.

As my practice develops, I want to keep exploring rather than settle into a single subject, style or medium. For me, making art is an ongoing process of noticing, responding and discovering what deserves to become an artwork next.