After graduating from VCA in 2021, Iona Mackenzie has had the pleasure of exhibiting in Austria, Venice, Sydney, and Melbourne, with spaces such as CAVES, Seventh Gallery, KINGS, Temperance Hall, Creative Spaces, Bus Projects, Bundanon, Keiv, and Plague Space. Iona is interested in the theory that fictional stories contain and preserve non-fictional histories. More broadly, she considers the way that symbols act as surrogates for things that are often too difficult or complex to communicate explicitly. Consulting anthropocentric material, Iona examines this tendency to document our experiences by disguising them. As she excavates meaning from objects, words, and images, she encounters lessons in love and strife.