Melbourne artist Bridie Lunney has won the $10,000 2014 John Fries Award for her sculptural-performance work, This Endless Becoming.
John Fries Award curator and judge, Sebastian Goldspink, said the judges were unanimous in their decision, which also saw two artists highly commended: Tim Bruniges for his installation and sound work, Mirrors, and Kate Scardifield for Garland (objects and new artifacts).
Goldspink said, “The prize this year attracted 
an incredible diversity of entries and artists. Bridie’s work is immediately strong in the way it uses, adapts and interacts with the space. It can be viewed in two ways, either in its performance state, featuring a sleeping man and an active woman (James Lunney and Lily Paskas), or without the human element.
“The strength of the entire piece and how it extends a sculptural work with the performance element displays a unique and engaging creativity which the judges agreed put it ahead of a very competitive field.”
In her award submission, Bridie Lunney said she responds to the site she is working in, developing her works intuitively to engage the given context, physical conditions and materials. She “…acknowledges the body as a conduit between our emotional and psychological selves and the physical world. Performative and sculptural gestures in the works suggest psychological shifts and a reconfiguration of hierarchical relationships between architectural space, objects and the body.
John Fries Award Finalists Exhibition
UNSW Galleries
Until 6 September, 2014
Sydney
2014 John Fries Award winner Bridie Lunney, left, and the prize’s benefactor, Vivienne Fries
Bridie Lunney, This Endless Becoming (James Lunney and Lily Paskas), 2013
