Poimena Art Award Past Winner
2009 Winner
Captions: (Left to right)
1. A close up of the winning piece "Sally Rees Exegesis" (Necklace)
2. Judges Neil Haddon and Kristin Headlam with the winning work.
3. Winning artist Cath Robinson and partner Peter after the presentation
The winner of the Poimena Art Award 2009 is Hobart artist, Cath Robinson, for her work entitled Sally Rees Exegesis (Necklace). The winner was announced at the opening of Brink at Poimena Gallery, Launceston,on Friday evening 26th June.
Judges Comments: The judges, Melbourne artist Kristin Headlam and Hobart artist Neil Haddon described their choice. "We were drawn to the idea of the pauses for thought while waiting for the right words. Visually a very subtle piece but very honest.. There is nothing extraneous”.
In considering the show in general the judges said: "There is a very strong field of artists represented in the show with high quality work that takes on the theme in interesting and diverse ways."
Artist's Background: Cath Robinson lives and works in Hobart. She has been exhibiting her work primarily in Tasmania's contemporary galleries since 2005 and was selected for inclusion in the Hobart Art Prize which is to be opened next week,.
Artist's Statement: For some time now my practice has explored vulnerable moment of reflection: ums, ahs, pauses and punctuation, the "in between space", the impossible hiatus between the private process of thought and the abstraction of language/art. Sally's Rees Exegesis (Necklace) was constructed from single punctuation marks taken (in order) from a photocopy of a Hobart artist's post•graduate paper. The collection of full stops, "brink" of thought itself, not always understood, full of potential."
About the Poimena Art Award: Every two years artists are invited to consider a particular theme and enter this Award. This year's theme is 'brink' – which can be interpreted in a wide variety of ways including standing on the edge of the end of something or indeed a beginning. As part of Poimena’s broad vision, any artist working in Australia or overseas can enter. The winner receives $5000 as well as $2000 towards travel. This prize can take the artist to somewhere beyond our shores or bring someone from somewhere else here. Either way the purpose of the award is to enrich the arts in Tasmania.
For further information contact Katy Woodroffe 6336 6039 kwoodroffe@lcgs.tas.edu.au.
2007 Winner
The Poimena Art Award is a biennial acquisitive prize for mixed media work. It has been running since 2003. Any artist working in Australia or overseas can enter. Artists are required to respond to a particular theme. In 2007 this is the notion of ‘Shine’. This theme conjures uplifting thoughts of light and joy as well as the notion that ‘all that glistens is not gold’. The theme therefore, is open to an endless range of creative possibilities which is what this award is all about. The judges Kristin Headlam and Raymond Arnold described the work as:
“A clever response to the theme of the award - ‘Shine’. It is ostensibly about glistening bathroom surfaces but as you look further the shine has been burnished off by life embedded in the detritus and dust.
The work is contradictory. After the initial double take, the viewer is overwhelmed by the sheer formal beauty of it. There is a refined sense of arrangement, colour, form and pattern which is the framework for human experience.
Truth, reality and representation are held in tension - a highly constructed artifact which expresses the artists’ ideas about the dignity of the every day. They have created beauty out of the every day, achieving a dignity and an austere purity.”
The artists are currently living in Sydney. They have also spent time in Tasmania where they undertook a project entitled disappearing TASMANIA: an image of the WEST; as well as documenting the performances for Stompin Youth Dance Co. Their work is held in the collections of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, The Albury Regional Art Gallery and Charles Sturt University Library. They will be having an exhibition of Microcosm at Thirtyseven Degrees Contemporary Art Space in Waterloo NSW in August this year.
