Presented by Woollahra Council, the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize is a national prize for sculptures of smaller dimensions and has attracted strong support from artists, collectors, benefactors, critics, as well as the local community.
Jess MacNeil, Threshold, 2018, oil paint on Perspex, 26 x 23 x 29cm
This year attracted 666 entries – each for a freestanding sculpture of up to 80cm in any dimension – submitted by artists from Australia, India and the United Kingdom highlighting the Prize’s growing international reputation. Reduced to 48 finalists by two guest judges, Australian arts administrator Michael Lynch AO CBE and Director of independent art advisory LoveArt, Amanda Love, the winners were announced: New-York based, Sydney-born artist Tim Silver and his work Untitled (When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d 02) has won the 18th annual acquisitive $20,000 Prize; Sydney-artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran was awarded the Special Commendation award valued at $2,000; and the 2018 Mayors Award valued at $1,000 has been awarded to Lucinda Kirby.
But, who has piqued the interest of the public? After tallying the online and gallery votes, the Woollahra Small Scuplture Prize have announced London-based, multi-disciplinary artist Jess MacNeil as the winner of the $1,000 Viewers’ Choice award, for her work Threshold (2018).
Jess MacNeil, Threshold, 2018, oil paint on Perspex, 26 x 23 x 29cm
MacNeil uses art to investigate personal and universal human issues and experiences firther outlined in her statement below:
‘During the lead-up to making Threshold a farcically melodramatic sequence of circumstances steamrollered my life. This onslaught brought intense experiences of pain, death, new life, risk, wonder, grief, love, extreme medical emergencies – including very near death, gruelling recovery, fear, fury, weakness, passion, compassion, vulnerability, betrayal and strength.
Even had I tried, it would be impossible for this turmoil not to imbue my work. Through my practice I have consistently conceptually grappled with how we navigate complexity and contradictions, and my work has become increasingly personal. But Threshold is the most intimate work I have made thus far.
Seventeen ‘slices’ of Perspex construct Threshold, each supporting oil paint applied in fragments, combined to create a contorted woman, her pose a consequence of a diabolical blow, or of her powerful summonsing of inner strength to reassert her push back. The images disappear and re-emerge dependent on vantage point; splintered, volatile, evasive. Acrylic sheet’s unstable light-bearing properties enact improbable refractions and reflections as further appearances and disappearances.
Threshold exploits the ability to be not only ‘both’, but ‘many’ simultaneously, with one perceived image knocked adroitly out of place by another, and another, and another, in intriguingly constructive destruction.
Threshold viscerally, aesthetically and experientially embodies both the intense fragility and humble, immense power and vigour of life force.’ – Jess MacNeil; Courtesy Artereal Gallery, Sydney
