By JESSE GRAHAM
A HEALESVILLE sculptor has topped her competition and has been awarded a major art prize at Yering Station’s annual art exhibition.
Kate James won the major award at the Yarra Valley Arts/Yering Station 2014 Sculpture Exhibition and Awards event on 26 October, with her piece, Held.
The piece, which features a number of vessels hanging in a fabric sling from a large nail, was judged alongside pieces from 27 other artists for the awards, and will feature in Yering Station’s halls until 7 December.
Along with the award, Ms James received $12,000 in prize money.
She told the Mail that she was still in shock from the decision, but that she was honoured to have received the accolade.
“They were very well-respected and prestigious judges,” Ms James said.
“That was a massive compliment and that means so much to me.”
Ms James said the piece was started when she was pregnant with her second child, and explores the ideas of nurture, sustenance, protection and vulnerability.
“The shapes are like cocoons that carry and protect, and there is also the fragility and vulnerability of these forms,” she said.
“The sling is quite precarious – I like the contradictions, the difference between safe and comfort and lack of control and exposure.”
The exhibition judges were Director of Fehily Contemporary, Lisa Fehily; Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Victoria, Max Delany; and Director of TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria Lynn.
Ms James said her next project was a body of work to be exhibited next year in a solo show.
Admission to the exhibition is free, and catalogues are available at the venue.
Commission from sculpture sales will be shared between the Leukaemia Auxiliary of the Royal Children’s Hospital, LARCH and Yarra Valley Arts.
For more information, visit www.yering.com or call 9730 0100.
