As Knox Immerse 2021 art festival comes to a close, Knox City Council has awarded several prizes to honour outstanding contributions to this year’s art festival.
In addition to artists’ fees for new and saleable works, all Immerse artists go in the draw to win further prize money for outstanding work. The official announcement of winners was conducted via Knox Arts and Events Instagram on Friday 17 December.
Prizes were awarded in three categories:
Best Overall Exhibition – $1,000
Best Site-Responsive – $1,000
Acquisition Award – $2,000
The Best Overall prize was awarded to the artwork achieving the highest scores for creativity, uniqueness, use of technology as well as embodying the spirit of Immerse festival. Due to tied scores, the Best Overall award was shared by two winners who will each receive $1,000.
The first winner was Clara Chan, whose work Posthuman Convergence combined hand-stitched fabric with video projection and explored connections between the human and the non-human.
The additional winner was VOID-ATRIUM, a work created by Susannah Langley, Farnaz Dadfar, and Warren Armstrong. Utilising augmented reality technology, the work incorporated Farsi text, neon lines and a soundscape.
The Best Site-Responsive award recognised work that captured the essence of their location. This year’s winner was Gretel Taylor who created a performance piece “Restless” at Stamford Park Homestead. This performative dance work responded to the historical context of the 1880s homestead.
Wendy Yu was awarded the Acquisitive Prize. Yu’s projected work “Acts of Holding Dance” was a large projection installation at Stamford Park featuring video projections of digitally-altered dancers. This work will now enter the Knox Civic Art Collection, and placed on public exhibition at various locations across Knox, including Stamford Park.
The judging panel consisted of Cr Marcia Timmers-Leitch from the Knox Arts and Culture Advisory Committee and Public Art Assessment Panel, David Hagger who is a public art project manager, and Fiona Hillary, a lecturer from RMIT.
In November, Immerse 2021 transformed the local area of Knox into a living art gallery, with a variety of art and experiences popping up across the city. In response to COVID-safe requirements, this year’s festival offered a hybrid program with online events and self-guided audio experiences.
