REDLANDS WESTPAC ART PRIZE 3 May – 2 August 2012 National Art School Gallery PREFACE

2012 REDLANDS WESTPAC ART PRIZE 3 May – 2 August 2012 National Art School Gallery PREFACE The National Art School is delighted to partner with Redlands School to deliver the prestigious 2012 Redlands Westpac Art Prize. This is the inaugural year of our collaboration and the first presentation of the annual exhibition in the National Art School Gallery after fifteen highly successful years of the exhibition being held at Redlands School and, more recently, the Mosman Art Gallery. The Redlands Westpac Art Prize provides a unique opportunity to view an artist-selected exhibition of established and emerging contemporary artists from Australia and New Zealand. The exhibition represents the work of those already well recognised in their fields and brings to the attention of a wider audience lesser known contemporary artists, providing a significant opportunity to support and reward excellence in the visual arts. This approach sits well with the ethos of the National Art School, an artist-led institution that provides exemplary studio-based training for the artists of the future. Importantly, the structure for the selection of artists for the exhibition, of the chosen established artists individually selecting an emerging artist, also reflects our central belief in professional artists contributing to the development, training and mentoring of the next generation. With the longest continuing history of an art school in Australia, the National Art School has an extraordinary group of alumni, many of whom are key figures in the history of Australian art and contemporary art practice. It is, of course, especially rewarding to see that the National Art School alumni and staff are well represented in the 2012 Redlands Westpac Art Prize selected by Lindy Lee. I would like to thank all of those who have made the exhibition possible—the representatives of Redlands School; the sponsors, Westpac and Konica Minolta; the judges; Lindy Lee for her enthusiasm, commitment and expert selection; and, most importantly, each of the participating artists. Congratulations are due to each of the participating artists—and especially to the winners of the Redlands Westpac Art Prize 2012. PROFESSOR ANITA TAYLOR DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ART SCHOOL IIi 2012 REDLANDS WESTPAC ART PRIZE INTRODUCTION The 2012 Redlands Westpac Art Prize is a watershed for the Prize on several fronts. Firstly, we are delighted to be partnering with the National Art School in presenting this exhibition. From the outset the philosophy behind the Prize has been to enhance the exploration of art for students and budding artists. Initially this was primarily for Redlands students and today after 16 exhibitions Redlands is blessed with a unique collection of contemporary Australian and New Zealand art for our visual arts students to study in house. In 2004 the model for the Prize was broadened with the selected artists nominating an “emerging” artist to participate—adding a second tier to the Prize. And today we celebrate a third tier to the model with students and teachers from this prestigious Art School having this exhibition included in their learning platform. Secondly, Westpac, since the inception of the exhibition, has been a loyal and strong supporter of the Prize and I would like to recognise their support over the past 15 years. I also wish to personally thank Graydon Conde, who only recently retired from Westpac, for his leadership and passion for supporting this Prize since 1996. Finally, a big thank you to Lindy Lee, our curator for the past two years. Lindy has worked tirelessly to bring two exceptionally exciting presentations of a wide cross section of contemporary art to audiences in Sydney. Her encouragement of the mentoring and teaching process that this exhibition brings to the Sydney art fraternity is second to none. No exhibition of this size and prestige comes together without considerable planning, energy and expertise. Thank you to our new friends and partners at the National Art School, who have made a significant contribution to further enhancing the presentation of this Prize. It has been a pleasure working with Prof Anita Taylor and her professional team. To the wonderful artists, whose imagination, passion and creativity make this Prize what it is, thank you for your superb contributions. To our generous sponsors, notably Westpac for the main Prize and Konica Minolta, which sponsors the popular Emerging Artist Prize and also prints all the promotional materials—thank you. And thank you to all of our other sponsors for their generous support. Finally, thank you to this year’s judges: Rachel Kent, Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art; Katie Dyer, Curator at the National Art School and Redlands art teachers Mark Harpley and Fabian Byrne. On behalf of Redlands, I am delighted to present the catalogue for the 2012 Redlands Westpac Art Prize in conjunction with the National Art School. DR PETER LENNOX PRINCIPAL 2012 REDLANDS WESTPAC ART PRIZE 1 2012 REDLANDS WESTPAC ART PRIZE Redlands Westpac Art Prize holds a unique place in the abundance of art awards in Australia. The prize not only demonstrates Redlands School’s and Westpac’s commitment to acquiring a substantial collection of original artworks which form the basis of the school’s visual art teaching collection but it also encourages very established artists to mentor a younger generation. As an artist and university academic I have a passionate interest in encouraging young artists. With this in mind I have selected artists of very high calibre who have made significant contributions to contemporary Australian culture, many of whom are studied as part of high school curricula throughout Australia. To bring examples of these works together is a way to inspire a younger generation of potential artists and encourage new audiences. It is meaningful to me that a component of this exhibition actively gives emerging practitioners an opportunity to show alongside more established artists. This year there is an exciting and eclectic mix of artists both established and emerging. The mentoring relationships range from formal teaching; artists who share technical, material or conceptual concerns; through to cultural and family connections. The growth and the interest that Redlands Westpac Art Prize generates, has enabled it to expand to the venue of the National Art School Gallery. This positioning is a fitting and eloquent statement that ties in high school, tertiary and professional artist development on the one site. Thank you to all the artists for being part of this exhibition and making visible the largely unseen support, which artists throughout time have always provided for each other. I would especially like to thank Kath Fries, who is invaluable in helping with administrative tasks, Tina Fleming and David Day for their almost seamless planning of the whole event and Katie Dyer for her administrative and curatorial support. LINDY LEE GUEST CURATOR 2 2012 REDLANDS WESTPAC ART PRIZE Fragment (s) (wing): Project Another Country mixed media 73 x 390 cm Courtesy of the artists ISABEL & ALFREDO AQUILIZAN Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan negotiate home, towing belongings from one site to another with the sensibility of the dislocated. This is an identity appropriated since their migration from the Philippines to Australia in 2006. From their decades long Project Belonging, a series of installations of possessions ranging from their own to the dwellers of the sites they work in—to Project: Another Country, another series of installations primarily banking on the metaphor of the recycled cardboard/cargo box and other recycled materials—the Aquilizans have slowly built for themselves a gentler sense of space. This identifies less with the politics of fixed community and more towards its processual and relational approach, one that is continually made and remade. Reliquiae/Collateral Damage colour pencil, pen and watercolour on cardboard box 73 x 71.5 cm Courtesy of the artist EMMA LINDSAY Reliquiae/Collateral damage forms part of Lindsay’s ongoing interdisciplinary Night parrot project, considering the rare and endangered bird species held as specimens in Queensland Museum zoology collection. This work is a hand-drawn representation of the last verified (2006) critically endangered night parrot specimen, perhaps the last of its kind. Here it is drawn, one of the oldest human art traditions, upon the consumer medium of used cardboard box packaging. Through the formal device of using basic drawing pencils, watercolour and cardboard, these ‘low-value’ materials raise necessary questions relating to conflicting issues: sustainable human production; disposable consumer culture; the unlimited human- related ‘collateral damage’ effecting many Australian environments and native species; and entrenched Western anthropomorphic value systems, such as in science, capitalist economic markets, human society and technology. 2012 REDLANDS WESTPAC ART PRIZE 3 Pair of Pugilists clay, pigment and glaze dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Rex Irwin Art Dealer STEPHEN BIRD Bird’s amalgamated figures pose like classical heroes of today’s age of mass consumerism. Referred to as “Bastard Sons of Royal Doulton,” Pair of Pugilists, seems to parody those cornucopias, brimming over with ripe fruit, sumptuous decoration and the traditions of industrial ceramics. But unlike those ostentatious vases, presented by the English manufacturer during the Great Exhibition of 1851, Bird’s figures are roguish and slightly disturbing. They look as if they are composed of bric-a-brac; cups, Toby jugs, china dolls, disposable packaging and processed food, but are in fact painstakingly recreated in clay and assembled bit by bit in their raw clay state. These works are what the artist calls ‘painters sculptures’. Imprints clay, ceramic pencil and oxide dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist ANNE KWASNER I’m a multi disciplinary artist incorporating drawing, ceramics and installation. Some current themes in my practice are focused on dislocation, memory and the melancholy of displacement: who has been before us and how has that affected the places we inhabit.

Load more