From 39 finalists, judges Emma Crimmings, Emily Sexton and Linda Williams have selected contemporary artist Ash Keating as the winner of this year’s $10,000 Incinerator Art Award for his video work Activate 2750 (2009).
Incinerator Gallery Director Richard Ennis remarked that “Activate 2750 greatly captured the exhibition concept and demonstrated an excellence in practice and form.”
Taking place over four weeks between 10 February and 7 March 2009, Activate 2750 was filmed in public spaces of Penrith (NSW) as well as private access waste facilities nearby. The work comprised a sculptural mountain constructed from 10 tonne, or three truckloads, of clean and potentially reusable materials derived from commercial and industrial waste. It was deposited outside the Penrith Council Chambers.
The installation was the focus of live performances, processions and actions throughout Penrith by a group of young artists and performers from Western Sydney, lead by artist Ash Keating. These waste creatures, dressed ominously in extraordinary costumes fashioned from discarded industrial fabric off-cuts, roamed the city centre in processions pushing abandoned supermarket trolleys, a symbol of suburban consumerism, laden with materials destined for landfill. The performers infiltrated Penrith delivering a disquieting, end-of-the-world form of spontaneous theatre.
Activate 2750 is a C3West project in Penrith, Western Sydney, presented in association with SITA Environmental Solutions and Penrith City Council. The project is supported by the NSW Government through ArtsNSW and by the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body, through its Community Partnership Section.
Incinerator Gallery
Until 29 November, 2015
Victoria
Ash Keating, Activate 2750, 2009, HD Video, 21 minutes 38 Seconds
Edition of 5 + 2 AP
Courtesy of the artist and Blackartprojects
