The 1980s saw Hall establishing a significant artistic profile for herself through involvement in several solo and group exhibitions across Australia. As part of her study, Hall returned to Australia in 1981 to live as the artist-in-residence at the Tasmanian School of Art with the support of a grant from the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council. There, she created The Antipodean Suite with objects such as banana peel and power cords, an early demonstration of a consistent theme in her work, "the transformation of the everyday... into creations of imaginative beauty." Also in 1981, five photographs by Fiona Hall were acquired by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the first of her works to enter a public collection. Hall graduated with a MFA in 1982, and in the same year participated in the Biennale of Sydney.
