BurniePrintPrize:AnneStarling

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Anne STARLING

Nuclear Family

 

My art practice explores human interaction with the urban environment. The menacing impact of industry and impending development is a constant themein my images. Nuclear Family is a social narrative of vanishing suburbia. The image relies on a ‘play on words’ – the dual meaning of  ‘nuclear’ allows a disquieting image to masquerade as family intimacy. The urban landscape has been compromised to accommodate progress and as a result society co exists with the ever increasing by products of progress. The family unit stands proudly in the front of their home. The image of the ‘Great Australian Dream’ exudes safety and familiarity but all is not perfect. Nuclear Family is an image of contrasts, a ‘snap shot’ of modern society living under the threat of industrial overload.

Burnie Print Prize: Helen Mueller

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vanishing, 2019

9 layered woodblock prints in three panels

83 x195 cm framed

Mangrove ecosystems are critical to our shorelines. They form a buffer between land and water, providing protection from erosion and filtering runoff. They are primary sea life nurseries and host a myriad of creatures essential to the health of shorelines. They are highly efficient carbon sinks. Chronic pressures on these environments from land clearing, the use of herbicides and pesticides, global warming and associated drought and severe storms are endangering them with potentially catastrophic consequences for the health of land and sea and ultimately humans.

I spent time working with a citizens’ science project that monitors the mangrove forests of the Daintree in far North Queensland. I had the privilege of venturing into a terrain where humans do not routinely go and to viscerally experience an environment of gritty beauty and intricate interrelationships. This work is one of a series of works I made in response to the mystery, majesty and fragility of these forests. The damage caused to this environment is ongoing and palpable. I wanted to capture both the sense of threat and the beautiful fragility that I witnessed.

 

Burnie Print Prize: Rafael Butron

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Impact.     Rafael Butron
Wood Print over Copperplate engraving on Hahnemuhle paper
72.5 cm x 206.5 cm

“Impact” explores personal emotive interpretations of the landscape affected by climate change. Within this work the impact of climate creates an awareness in which humanity must start noticing changes like fire storms resulting in a land ravaged by extremes. The cross in the center draws attention to the damage that occurs on the land. Many of my recent works examine these extreme weather events. The depiction of the landscape affected by changes to our climate draw on an expressive approach as the images rely on memory, experiences and recent events.

 

Burnie Print Prize: Laura Stark

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Laura Stark, Pathways VI 6th State, collagraph, blind embossing, collage.

 

Pathways VI 6th State is the last image of this series of prints originally inspired by the markings left by larvae on scribbly gums. It refers to the ancient pathways or dreamtime tracks of the  aborigines across the continent, the breadth of our landscape as seen from the air, and also the internal and external pathways or meanderings which we follow in the path of life.

In this series my procedure was to change, manipulate or reduce the plate from which they were printed in a number of different ways. This last version, a collage of print remnants,  encompasses the original theme but the pathways have become more tenuous, even fractured, perhaps an indication of uncertain times.

Burnie Print Prize: Neilton Clarke

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Here’s the next Sydney Printmaker who is a finalist in the Burnie Print Prize.

Ring Reader: Hossawa to the Sea

(Unique-state woodblock & copperplate relief print, collage & embossing, 2020).

Hossawa is a Hinohara-area waterfall on the mountainous Tokyo-Yamanashi border, its waters feeding Akigawa River, in turn Tama River, Tokyo Bay, and finally the sea. The experience of the locale feeds into and informs my studio activity, having spent two-plus decades living there.
Countless hours spent exploring its cedar & pine-clad inclines on scooter and on foot make for indelible impressions, its maple, camelia, azalea & hydrangea groves amplifying the marked seasonal changes with bursts of colour.
The work’s bell-like ovoid forms have been hand-printed directly from prepared cedar log-end offcuts sourced from mountainside outposts. Their pronounced granular striations, carrying a record of the summer-winter growth alternations over many years, make for a kind of logbook in more senses than one.
Seismic-prone, being awoken by tremors & shakes in the early hours is part of the fabric of the everyday there. The collage-aesthetic employed here, with its capacity for fissure, juxtaposition, and also containment, lends itself well to addressing such kinds of dislocation.

Burnie Print Prize: Gary Shinfield

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In 2020 fires raged through the Blue Mountains of NSW. The triptych Fire, smoke and ash was made in response to these events. In this relief print, iconic landforms – plateau, escarpment and valley – are subsumed and transformed by the effects of fire.

 

Landforms were created using the woodcut medium. The atmospheric effects of fire, smoke and ash were overprinted using pieces of etched and cut lino. A series of three prints was made.

 

Title: Fire, smoke and ash triptych

Medium: Relief print on three sheets of Rives BFK paper, 1/3series

Size: 99 x 186 cm

Year: 2020

 

 

Meroogal Women’s Art Prize

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Janet Parker Smith is a finalist in this award. Congratulations, Janet!

 

MEROOGAL WOMEN’S ART PRIZE 2020

 

NOW SHOWING

MEROOGAL
 
Sydney Living Museums is proud to present the biennial Meroogal Women’s Art Prize, now in its 18th year. Inspired by our 2020 themes of community, connection and impact, we’re delighted to be celebrating the achievements and creativity of female artists across NSW. The prize pays tribute to the four generations of women from the Thorburn and Macgregor families who lived at Meroogal in Nowra for almost 100 years.

Artists were invited to create works that respond to Meroogal and its sense of place. In their selection of finalists from hundreds of entries, our judges looked for artworks that cast new light on the stories of the people who lived here, and the house’s rich and diverse collection of treasures.

The work of the 40 finalists will be exhibited in the historic house of Meroogal from 19 September 2020 to 17 April 2021.

Winners will be announced on 23 September 2020.