It’s a case of déjà vu for Victorian artist Jennifer Riddle, winning the Glover Prize People’s Choice for the second time; receiving the popular vote in 2017 for her artwork No Man’s Land Bathurst Harbour, and now, in 2019 for her entry Monument of Memory.
The People’s Choice is awarded to the artwork that receives the most votes from visitors to the Glover Prize Exhibition, with the winner being awarded $3,000 in prize money.
Monument of Memory was inspired by a four-day camping trip in the remote South-West with her mother. Speaking of the artwork, Riddle says that she has ‘felt an innate pull towards the wilderness landscape in recent years, which has shifted my focus towards the remote and pristine southwest of Tasmania. Drawn by its grandeur and rugged antiquity, I have found myself returning time after time to Bathurst Harbour, to further my understanding of the land both physically and culturally; immersing myself in its history and gathering a sense of the land’s place. The stoic presence and unique vegetation of the Celery Top Islands has long captured and held my attention. Here, the plant life has never experienced fire, showcasing an ancient lineage of flora stemming back to another time. Its endurance and stories are felt through the land¹s own memories, through the scars embedded in the quartzite foundations and the twisted trees that sympathise with the wild westerly winds’
The winner of the Children’s Choice Award has also been announced, with South Australian artist Jason Cordero being selected as the favourite amongst the younger Glover Prize Exhibition visitors. Cordero was recognised as the Children’s Choice and awarded $500 in prize money for his depiction of Cradle Mountain, The Day of the Mountain. Cordero is a long-time Glover Prize entrant and has had great success over the last decade. In addition to being selected as a Glover Prize finalist 11 times since 2007, Cordero has also won the People’s Choice Award (2007), been Highly Commended by the judges (2009), and taken out the Hanger’s Choice Award (2015).
Speaking about his 2019 Glover Prize entry, Cordero said the following:
‘I had, some time ago, devoted a day to Cradle Mountain. I had only intended to stand upon its peak; a privilege I enjoyed in solitude. Breathless at the wilderness receding to the south and with fond memories of past wanderings, my curiosity was not sated. From the summit I could scry a path which curved down into the chilled valleys behind the famous peaks. I resolved, was drawn, to follow it and thus, having had no plan to, circumnavigated the Mountain. Emerging from otherworldly groves of moss and trees which nestle upon its slopes and shadowed places, I ascended from the southern deeps as the Mountain continued to speak in its silent way; a vantage point on the path causing particular pause.
Having been immersed within this place, I was yet no closer to what I sought than when I started. True, I had gorged on all that was offered, but it remained remains other; of distinct and differing voices magnificent in their removal from all that surrounds. It is a vital, visceral place. A place of sanctuary, and yet, of danger; of luring beauty and the immutable. It still speaks, and I yet hunger. I cannot forget.’
Established in 2004, The Glover Prize is Australia’s most prestigious landscape art prize. It is awarded for the work judged the best contemporary landscape painting of Tasmania completed in the previous 12 months. The winner receives $50,000 and a bronze maquette of colonial artist John Glover, whose legacy is celebrated though the prize. Landscape painting is defined in its broadest sense. The aim is to stimulate conversations about the meaning and possibilities expressed in the words landscape, painting, and Tasmania. The Glover Prize is open to artists from anywhere in the world.