The $100,000 Basil Sellers Art Prize has been awarded to Indigenous artist Tony Albert for his work titled Once upon a time … 2013-14.
The work consists of a painted target over which are hung 23 small framed works comprising watercolours on paper, photographs and collage, and small vignettes made of found objects – toys, blocks and figurines. Introduced by a typed letter by Albert to fellow Indigenous artist Gordon Bennett that pays tribute to Bennett’s important contribution and influence on Albert’s work, and acknowledges the elder artist’s sustained championing of Indigenous rights.
Director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne, Ms Kelly Gellatly, commended all finalists for the depth of their engagement with the theme of sport and the quality of their art and praised Albert’s winning work.
“The winning work, Once upon a time deals with the ongoing issue of racism in sport, and by implication, Australian society more broadly, and has at its heart the recent controversy surrounding the crowd abuse directed towards AFL player Adam Goodes (Goodes plays for the Sydney Swans, is a dual Brownlow medallist, and is the 2014 Australian of the Year). Within the suite of intimately scaled works comprising the overall installation is a delicate watercolour of the now iconic moment in 1993 when former Kilda footballer Nicky Winmar lifted his guernsey and pointed proudly at this black skin after enduring racial abuse during a match against Collingwood. The separation of these two incidents by over 20 years, along with the collective imagery of Albert’s playful, yet deceptively powerful work, highlights the fact that as a society, we have a long way to go in both confronting and dealing with these issues.
“Judges commended Once upon a time for its bravery and poetry, and for the fact that it tackles such a difficult and emotive issue in sport and Australian culture without being didactic or heavy-handed. The work is neither a lesson nor a sermon, and provides no answers, but instead creates a contemplative space that encourages the audience to think about these issues in a way that engenders a sense of hope, and of the possibility of change. It also highlights the way in which sport can be a positive forum in which to both air and tackle difficult subjects,” says Gellatly.
Basil Sellers Art Prize 4
The Potter Museum of Art
Until 26 October, 2014
University of Melbourne
Tony Albert, Once upon a time …, 2013-14, mixed media on paper, installation (variable); 200 x 300cm
© Courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
Tony Albert with the winning work.
Photo: Peter Cassamento