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.