The Northern Beaches Council has today announced the 228 finalists works for the inaugural edition of the Environmental Art and Design Prize, which will be presented in an exhibition across three arts venues on the Northern Beaches.
Due to current health restrictions, the exhibition has been deferred and dates will be provided when NSW Health restrictions are eased.
Selected from 826 entries, the finalists will be reviewed by the judging panel comprised of internationally renowned artist Euan Macleod; artist, designer and curator Liane Rossler; and CEO and Artistic Director of the Australian Design Centre, Lisa Cahill.
The Prize celebrates contemporary arts practices that are socially engaged, environmentally aware and seek to enrich and contribute to positive change through creative practice.
The finalist works have been selected across the categories of Wearable Design, Functional Design, Digital, Works on Paper and Photography, Ceramics and Small Sculpture, Painting, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, and a separate youth category for creatives aged 7 – 18 years old.
At Manly Art Gallery & Museum, works with a contemporary art practice will be displayed, while wearable and functional design will be on display at Curl Curl Creative Space and youth finalists will be shown at Mona Vale Pop Up Gallery.
Northern Beaches Mayor Michael Regan said: “We’re thrilled by the fantastic response to the inaugural edition of the Environmental Art and Design with over 800 entries and strong range of works across all nine categories. It’s wonderful to see how engaged Australian artists and designers are with the current environmental issues impacting our natural world and their ability to communicate this through their work.”
Liane Rossler said: “I was so impressed by the quality of the works and ingenuity. We have a selection of works that are thoughtful and reflect on important issues we all must face.”
Highlights across the categories include:
Wearable Design: Finalist works in this category include Ruth Downes’ face masks repurposed as a collar to reflect on the rise of single use products during the past year due to COVID-19; Bethany Cordwell’s Waste Age that takes recycled materials including IKEA bags and jumping castle tubing to highlight the excessive waste and rapid consumerism within the current fashion industry; and Ivy Whiteman’s WHY THE SEA IS BOILING HOT channeling the spirit of joy and optimism present in the Northern Beaches’ 80s surf culture for a line of clothing made from recycled materials and dyed with organic matter including food waste and plants.
Functional Design: Creative approaches and materials are seen in this category of things we use in our everyday life, including Matthew Harkness’s Bioplastic Waste Dustpan & Brush, a dustpan and brush created by a 3D printer; Marta Figueiredo’s STARDUST Lamp made from recycled resin in the designer’s studio; and Jessie French’s Algae bioplastic tableware made from Algal polymer derived from red macroalgae and is completely biodegradable.
Digital: Film and video works feature in this category including Zan Wimberley’s Coal and Ice using schlieren imaging for flow visualisation to manipulate light in order to visualise Co2; and Alyson Bell’s TREE SPIRITS, filmed travelling through a landscape of blackened forest in the aftermath of the NSW South Coast bushfires in 2020.
Works on Paper and Photography: Works in this category look at our relationship to nature, including Kai Wasikowski’s The Subjunctive Mood #4 taken during a trip to China and layered with text from Google Translate to explore the history of national parks and settler conservation movements; Sadhbha Cockburn’s Sovereignty cannot be seeded which features plantable postcards made from handmade paper embedded with wattle seeds considering the effects of colonisation on the natural flora of Sydney; and artist Jo Neville’s Giant bespoke Paper Waterlilies, created for set design with a circular design approach.
Ceramics and Small Sculpture: Works in this category feature ceramics reflecting on environmental themes as well as sculptures using natural materials, including Charlie Lawler’s Take a breath made from the cleansing and detoxifying material of charcoal; Louis Pratt’s coal sculpture Elemental Rising condemning the burning of fossil fuels; and Jan Downes’ porcelain Still the water: Meltdown representing the melting icecaps in Antarctica.
Painting: Finalists works include Sarah Robson’s The Unfolding of Reason which is painted on felt and reflects on overconsumption and excess; and Greg Weight’s Birdwood sunrise that takes a photograph of bushland taken prior to the area being devastated by the 2019/2020 bushfires and layers it with paint to pay homage to the beauty and fragility of the Australian wilderness.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Jennifer Turpin and Michaelie Crawford’s Phyllospora Comosa (Crayweed) I made from seaweed which highlights the restoration work of ‘Operation Crayweed’ in Sydney’s coastal waters; and Donna Davis’s video work Displaced [TRANSplant IV].
Youth: Split into two categories for entrants aged 7 – 12 and 13 – 18, the works in this category include Abelia Chung’s Coronavirus under the lens demonstrating the effects of the environment on human health with the collaboration of art and science; and Jemima Grimmer’s Reef; Before and After, highlighting the anxiety younger generations feel in the face of the climate crisis.
Euan Macleod said: “Protecting our environment is one of the most serious issues of our time and each of these works contribute to this conversation in a vital way.”
Lisa Cahill said: “As climate change looms large creating a collective anxiety and overwhelm, art and design can engage us with what’s possible and remind us of the beauty inherent in our natural world. I was so excited to see the fantastic entries for the prize that point to positive solutions for the future.”
The Prize is an inclusive and diverse exhibition that celebrates the vibrancy of the arts and design community within and beyond the Northern Beaches. The finalist works showcase artists and designers who have a keen interest and focus on the natural world, environmental renewal, regeneration and the circular economy in their work.
The winners of the inaugural Environmental Art and Design Prize will be announced to mark the exhibition opening.