Winners

The Red Shoes is a large totemic sculpture fusing symbols from the mythic world and elements of fashion with fantasies of a recalibrated western art canon. It depicts fetishes stereotypically associated with female desirability: posing, fashion and breasts. These symbols of vanity are positioned as amusements that act as a veil of obscurity, but which also humour and celebrate the fecundity of life and the futility of pleasure. In building up these stacked and loaded parts, I am building up a new belief system from remnants of old ones, discarding the broken and bad parts and elevating those which were previously underestimated or hidden. This piece inverts the hierarchy of the cerebral over the corporeal by reprioritising the essential, the nourishing and the pleasurable.

Cybele Cox lives on Garigal Country, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. She explores ancient feminine symbols and mysticism, using hand built ceramic totems and figures, painting, drawing and costume. Cybele completed her MFA at Sydney College of the Arts with an exchange to The Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where she exhibited in Rundgang and Aa Collections. Cybele has also exhibited at Lismore Regional Gallery, First Draft, Coma Gallery, Strange Neighbour Melbourne, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, The Ideas Platform, The MCA Art Bar and Kudos Gallery. Cybele won the 2017 Stonevilla Wearable Art Prize and was awarded a one year studio residency at Artspace in 2018. @cybele.cox www.cybelecox.com.au

Last sentences brings together snippets and outtakes of years’ worth of projects and lost last sentences from numerous texts collaged with a small moment of footage of a snow storm, captured from the window of the apartment where my late collaborator Jürgen and I were living in during our student exchange to France in 2008. “His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.” (James Joyce, The Dead, last sentence)

Elise Harmsen was born on Whadjuk Nyoongar Country, in Perth WA and now lives on Gadigal Wangal Country in Sydney’s inner west. She explores the nuances of digital images by examining their relationships to memory, time, and space. By focusing on the illusion of the frozen frame of the celluloid strip, Elise engages with the heavy presence of passing time and mortality associated with the still image, moving back and forth within a few clicks. From 2006-12 Elise worked collaboratively with Jürgen Kerkovius, from 2014-18 Elise was a resident artist at Sydney based ARI 55 Sydenham Rd, and recently she has been working collaboratively with MP Hopkins.

The Rhythm Of Lamentation This artwork explores the cycle of grief. Tears are shed, and memories are shared. They sway in the breeze and can be heard from afar. These tears fall into a fountain that collects the grief and sorrow, then the water gives life to new growth. This artwork is a testimony to our collective loves and losses.

Cabramatta High School is on Dharug Country. Teachers: Belinda Kyprianou, Sandra van Dyk, Bethaney Waters and Tan Nguyen Students: Andy Sofyan Majeed Al Banaa, Will Baverstock, Ngoc Diem Quynh Bui, Ellie Carmady, Tiare Castro, Kim Trang Dang, Lyn Duong, Prayer Mataio, Tamia Ngo, Charlynne Nguyen, Ha Thi Nguyen, Ngoc Tu Tran (Trista) Nguyen, Christian Nissan, Amy Pham, Fadi Sakoo, Jaylan Sammut, Hawa Sengu, Basel Shamou, Ofa Tamale, Dang Thao Ngoc Tran, Thu Vu, Karen Vuong, Isabelle Wakley, Dalen Alkes Hanna, Chhay Kim Ang, Stephanie Guan, My Huynh, Sulaeman Fadi Jallad, Worship Kailea, Elie Kashi, Carter Krich, Monica Le, Thida Oum, Kitana Pham, Natalie Pham, Champathorng Phar, Sodaneth San, Vundara Sivilay, Lesina Soolefai, Leata Annie Tagoai, Onel Tamoo, Vivian Tieu, Phong Tran, Eliza Ung, Media Maher Butrus Zoori.

Each ceramic sphere represents an artist and the connections they hold with family and friends. As each strand develops, new links are created and connections deepen. Joined together, the spheres unite cultural traditions, values and family identities creating lines of heritage which pass through the generations.

This work has been made by students from all year groups, kindergarten to Year 12, across the three Barker campuses: on Darkinjung Country (Yarramalong), Ngarralingayil Country (Wollombi) and Guringai Country (Hornsby). Teacher: Ellen Macdonald

Mother Scar Tree is an acknowledgment to the Dharug people who have held the knowledge on how to care this place for thousands of years. The female spirits are our ancestors they are hiding in plain sight. It is only when you stop to listen and watch that the spirits reveal themselves. They represent Aboriginal culture, effortlessly camouflaging and complementing the existing landscape, creating symbiotic relationships that has lasted for 100,000 years plus. The answers on how to care for the country have been ignored for 251 years and we are now at a deficit. It’s time to listen to culture and act before it’s too late.

Maddison Gibbs is a proud Barkindji woman, currently living on Gadigal Country in Sydney. Maddison’s artworks are based on her culture and surroundings, engaging with vital activism and culturally feminine intuitive visual poetics. She has studied at UTS and Eroa College. Maddie is a member of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative and has exhibited in ‘No Show’ at Carriageworks; the Vivid Light Show; Sydney Fringe Festival; Hobiennale at Moonah Arts Centre Tasmania; and RANZCO Live Painting at the MCA. Maddison has been awarded the 2019 Australian Museum Young Indigenous Artist Fellowship; the Rotary Club of Sydney Soukup Animation Grant; the Bob Morgan International Scholarship and Winner of the Yapang Emerging art Prize, Lake Macquarie.

This bell tower stems from three earthly pillars, the triad being a sacred dynamic of symbology throughout major belief systems, linking the physical world with the divine realm. The toll of a bell holds deep significance for people of so many religions, mythologies and esoteric disciplines historically and throughout the world. The resonating sound invokes a vibrating passage between worlds. It is a calling of a community to a place of worship, the warding off of evil spirits, the voice of the divine, a meditative ritual of farewell at funerals; or as a prompt for the soul to disengage from the body in an incantation of sound.

Szymon Dorabialski lives on Gadigal Country in Sydney’s inner west. His practice exists as a personal enquiry into transcendental states of consciousness and as an observation of how the ‘divine’ experience comes to manifest within the restricted scopes of human epistemology. Stemming from interests in religion, pseudo science, eastern European paganism, metaphysics and psychedelics, Szymon’s sculptural installations and performances seek to take everyday objects, tools and refuse and ostensibly reconfigure them into symbols of worship. Szymon completed his MFA at Sydney College of the Arts in 2018. He has exhibited at Firstdraft, Our Neon Foe, MCA Art bar, Interlude Gallery and Cementa festival.

I never had to bury anyone in the soil or the seas of this land. I come from a small migrant family. I never said goodbye to Sitti, my grandmother, and her passing always seems like a dream. This work honours her legacy amongst the trees on the beauty of Dharug land. I carry with me her red prayer rug, her white chiffon scarf, and her voice. I use prayer rugs offered with blessings from family and friends. The soundscape is layered with my voice singing from Sitti’s repertoire, old tape recordings of her voice with family, as well as the call to prayer I recorded while visiting my hometown in 2019. I invite visitors to sit, listen, meditate, and remember those who we never said goodbye to.

Maissa Alameddine grew up in Lebanon and now lives on Gamaragal Country in Sydney. She is a multidisciplinary artist and vocalist, who explores the idea of migration as a chronic injury and uses her voice as a provocation and a response. Maissa has been part of the contemporary Arab Australian arts community for over twenty years, performing with Arabic music ensembles, Western orchestras, and art organisations. She is a founding member of Western Sydney-based Arab Theatre Studio, has been an artist in residence at Urban Theatre Projects, and performed with LIVE DREAMS at Carriageworks and at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Burnt, truncated telegraph poles are barely standing at the edge of the road; the black summer fires have made their own memorial. I rescued them from Lake Conjola area on Dharawal Yuin country. The 20 ravaged poles now located at Rookwood Cemetery on Dharug land – it becomes another memorial – asking us to be present with it on an intimate level, with the stillness of death and silence of Country after the unprecedented catastrophe.

Stevie Fieldsend is of Samoan and European heritage, she was born in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and currently lives on Wangal Country in Sydney’s Inner West. She studied glass at The Jam Factory Craft and Design Centre in Adelaide and has a Master of Fine Art from Sydney College of the Arts. Stevie’s work has been presented at Sydney Contemporary, Melbourne Art Fair, Art Central Hong Kong, Moreton Bay Regional Gallery, Caboolture Regional Art Gallery, Cessnock Regional Art Gallery, and Blacktown Arts Centre; and collected by Artbank, Macquarie Group Collection and Bridging Hope Charity Foundation Collection. Stevie is represented by Artereal Gallery Sydney.

Drawing its title from a poem by Susan Howe, this silent work reflects an ongoing interest in the potential for fragmented moments to reveal aspects of the psychological and architectural frameworks that surround us. The small space Of a pause A haze Blink into the aching lost Only words remain If the print is available The green of a city A tumble of omens … - Susan Howe

Tom Blake lives on Gadigal Wangal Country in Sydney’s inner west. He has exhibited in Australia, Japan and Italy and has been a finalist in Fremantle Print Award, The Churchie, the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, the CLIP Award, The Blake Prize and the Dobell Drawing Prize. Tom has undertaken residencies with the Museo de Arte Moderno, Chiloé, FAC, PICA, North Metro TAFE, Tenjinyama Art Studio, Parramatta Artists’ Studios and has previously been awarded a Clitheroe Foundation Mentorship. Tom is represented in Sydney by N. Smith Gallery.

In Your embrace is my fondest memory, nostalgic furniture items have been covered by a ‘skin’ of cyanotype prints. I have used domestic objects and intergenerational sewing techniques to present a poetic narrative of the memory of loved ones. Inspired by the method of repurposing Rookwood’s Mortuary Station (1957–58), I draw upon the memory of my Nan relocating her Greenhouse to her new home after my Grandfather passed away. The prints were exposed to foliage as a metaphorical embodiment of my Nan’s affection for greenhouses. Embroidered into the fabric is a message to my late Nan. This work may fade during the exhibition, exemplifying the nature of our memories fading.

Leisa Sage was born on Whadjuk Country in Perth and now lives on Gadigal Wangal Country in Sydney’s Inner West. Her art practise responds to memory and time, environmental and socio-political landscapes, lived experiences and women’s health. Leisa has exhibited at Airspace Projects Marrickville, Brunswick Street Gallery Melbourne, Galerie Abstract Project Paris, Braemar Gallery Blue Mountains, Gaffa Gallery Sydney, Factory 49 Marrickville, Gallery Lane Cove and .M Contemporary Woollahra. She has been an artist in residence at Culture at Work Pyrmont and Hill End NSW. In 2016, Leisa was awarded the Janice Reid Emerging Artist Award at the Western Sydney University Sculpture Award.

The ghosts of murdered family are part of our childhoods. We confront this past to name those who died, to acknowledge that they lived, loved, mattered. As no graves exist, naming family allows us to honour and commemorate them. Placing pebbles is an act of remembrance and signals visitation. This memorial artwork was conceived with my cousin Dorit Braun and is based on her research of family who perished in the Holocaust and the extensive research of Alisa Sharon into our family tree. Other friends with shared histories have been invited to contribute their family names to this artwork. As the second generation of survivors who established new lives in Australia, we carry our parents’ trauma and grief. May their memory also be a blessing.

Anne Zahalka lives on Gadigal Country in Sydney’s inner west. She is a photo-media artist whose work explores issues of identity, belonging, memory and place. With a migrant background, Zahalka constructs new narratives that reflect on diversity, gender, and difference within Australian society. The artist would like to thank: Vivien and Dennis Altman, Jane Becker, Ella Dreyfus, Juno Gemes, Su Goldfish, Jeanie Kable (née Zahalka), Julie Robb, Monica Robinson, Alisa and Thommy Sharon, Sue and Sandy Saxon, Leslie Solar, Naomi and Anita Ullmann; who contributed to this work in commemoration of their families.