I am pleased to announce that I have been longlisted out of over 3,000 entries from artists working in 67 countries worldwide for the ninth Aesthetica Art Prize. The longlist comprises 90 artists working in a range of media, whose selected pieces are published in the AestheticaArt Prize Annual: Future Now 2016.
The piece selected is a pit fired ceramic American Civil War revolver hovering over a nike shoe box.
Inspired by the Walt
Whitman poem "I hear America Singing" the artwork references Americas
frontier past and optimism of the time, in contrast to the way
the West was won and its current political situation and self appointed
role policing the world. Just Do It "I hear America singing" uses an
ancient pit-firing techniques used by the Native Americans and the industrial
process of mould making to create a ceramic revolver, combined with a reclaimed
object that symbolises the capitalist/consumerist aspirations of America.
Hosted by Aesthetica Magazine, an
international art and culture publication with a global readership of 311,000,
the prize is a major annual event for British and international artists.
The
award presents a platform for creatives to engage with a wider audience through
the publication, and it also hosts an exhibition for 10 shortlisted artists at
York St Mary’s, York, UK, from 14 April to 29 May. Images of the longlisted
works will also be shown on monitors in the gallery.
The book Future Now
enables readers to explore the 100 captivating projects from the shortlist
and longlist through images and artists’ statements. A series of critical
essays also feature, offering
contextualisation in mapping current trends in today’s visual culture. We hear from
John Keane, Artist and Aesthetica Main Prize Winner in 2015; Sarah Coulson,
Curator at Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Vanessa Corby, Senior Lecturer, Fine Art,
at York St John University, and Chris Littlewood, Photography Director at Flowers
Gallery.
Cherie Federico, Director of the
Aesthetica Art Prize says: “We are thrilled with this
year’s selection, which offers a window onto cutting-edge practice from around
the world. The works explore how we inhabit the earth and engage with some of
today’s most pressing topics, from ecological concerns to transitions in
urbanisation and developments in technology.”
