'Dead planet' work nabs art prize

First published 15 August 2012

A work titled Ylem, created by UK video artist Jo Lawrence, has won the 2012 Screengrab New Media Arts Prize at James Cook University.

The $5000 prize, which is sponsored by the School of Creative Arts, represents the School’s premier exhibition for the calendar year and attracts artists from around the world working in screen-based media and electronic arts.

Announced at JCU’s eMerge Media Space last Friday, Ylem captured the judge’s attention with its intriguing execution, using this year’s theme “control”.

JCU’s Media Arts coordinator Mitch Goodwin said Ylem was a story created in response to the theme of apocalypse.

“It is a narrative of ultimate control as a scientist is seen to collect samples from the dead planet – Earth - in order to recreate a facsimile of the world within the confines of her laboratory,” he said.

“Ylem animates this controlled experiment which is ultimately flawed.”

Judges Bernadette Ashley, Mitch Goodwin and Dr Steven Campbell awarded the prize after a lengthy deliberation, which saw several other works in contention.

These included Invasion Forest (honorary mention), by Chico Santos from Brazil, Piece of Paper by Daniel Schwarz from Germany and Closed Circuit (In the middle of Sweden) by Mattias Hrenstam.

Australian artists also featured prominently, including Donna Maree Robinson and Fiona Bishop-Vuibeqa, whose work investigates the meeting point between the realism of human sensuality and stark digital technology.

Benjamin Ducroz for his work Points in Space which represents cycles of repetition by responding to the flow of traffic in Melbourne’s CBD as well as Stephen Lance’s 3D science fiction-inspired video Armor.

Mr Goodwin said there was an unprecedented growth in interest from international and local artists this year, with 171 entries from 21 countries.

“The cultural diversity of the works on show is indicative of the Screengrab exhibition’s primary goal, which is to critique screen culture via the very medium which makes the exhibition possible,” he said.

“Publicity for the award, the selection of the media works and the acquisition of the shortlisted entries is all conducted exclusively from screen to screen via digital media networks around the world.”

The Screengrab exhibition will be on show at the School of Creative Art’s eMerge Media Space until September 4.

Entry is free.

For more information, email gallery@jcu.edu.au or phone (07) 4781 3142.

For the eMerge Media Space opening hours and events calendar, visit www.jcu.edu.au/soca/gallery/

Note for media: photos and screenshots of the works are available.

JCU Media contact: Caroline Kaurila (07) 4781 4586 or 0437 028 175