Dave Carswell has been awarded the $20,000 acquisitive tidal.24: City of Devonport Tasmanian Art Award, sponsored by the Devonport City Council and the Devonport Regional Gallery Friends Committee, for his artwork Flocculation #15, presented to the Launceston-based artist at the official opening of the finalists’ exhibition at the Devonport Regional Gallery on Friday, 6 December.
This year’s selection panel members were Marnie Karmelita (Artistic Director, Ten Days on the Island), Dr Julie Gough (Curator, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) and Dr Malcom Bywaters (Director, Academy Gallery, University of Tasmania) with Dr Karen Hall (Lecturer in Art, School of Creative Arts and Media, UTAS) participating in the final decision process.

Winner tidal. 24 City of Devonport Tasmanian Art Award: Dave Carswell, Flocculation #15, 2023, archival photographic print, 90 × 70cm
Bywaters said the winning piece “conveyed a sense of fragility and randomness of what survives the past. The process of immersing the negatives in the tidal flow leaves traces on the surface, complicating the image and inviting slow contemplation of our relationship to these contested zones.”
“It is a profound dialogue between place and medium, where decisions around what was presented and how, are convincing and compelling. While it is politically charged given the environmental status of Kanamaluka, it also conveys a sense of history.”
The exhibition featuring fifty-seven finalists’ works is on view at Devonport Regional Gallery from 7 December 2024 to 8 February 2025, with the $1,500 People’s Choice Award announced at its closing.