‘the churchie’ is a platform for emerging artists from all over Australia to showcase contemporary art as seen through their eyes and this year 31 exceptional artists competed for the $15,000 prize money. Alexie Glass-Kantorm, 2014 Judge of ‘the churchie’ and Executive Director of ARTSPACE Visual Arts Centre, Sydney took on the difficult task of judging 41 artworks to select what she describes as “an exciting trifecta of young women representing Queensland”:
Caitlin Franzmann – winner $15,000
Clark Beaumont – Highly Commended $1,000
Sarah Poulgrain – Highly Commended $1,000
Caitlin Franzmann’s winning work, Magical Thinking, is a pack of 24 cards which provides a space and moment for gallery visitors to slow down and reflect on their lives. Through random symbology, chance and intuitive interpretations the divination cards and personal readings act as a tool for accessing the subconscious and processing emotion and thought.
Clark Beaumont is the Brisbane-based collaborative art practice of Nicole Beaumont and Sarah Clark. Through both live and mediated performance works they investigate ideas surrounding identity, female subjectivity, intimacy and interpersonal relationships. Their multi-screen video installation, Waiting for Barcelona, sees the artists attempt to simultaneously live out and critique Woody Allen’s feature film Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) during their own shared holiday in the Spanish city.
In Sarah Poulgrain’s Self Portrait, the figure in the landscape is almost completely blocked out – all but hand and face – serving to re-focus on what remains. Even though the identity of the figure is known, by almost covering it, its anonymity is accentuated. The anonymity of the subject brings emphasis to a seemingly insignificant time, person and place. Poulgrain’s work often deals with objects or images that are hidden, obscured or exist only temporarily; the impermanence and precariousness of the work is reflected in the choice and combination of materials.
Alexie Glass-Kantorm describes the process of selecting the winner:
“The whole process of selecting the finalists took probably about three and a half hours and at the end of the day it came down to the fact that these three works, had such an idiosyncratic, creative and natural approaches to the making of contemporary art that they felt like the right winners of the day.”
Griffith University Art Gallery
1 August to 20 September, 2014
Brisbane
Winners from left to right; Clark Beaumont (Sarah Clark + Nicole Beaumont), Caitlin Franzmann, Sarah Poulgrain
Caitlin Franzmann, Magical Thinking, one card from a pack of 24 hand collaged divination card
