The Advertiser Contemporary Art Award
For the most outstanding contemporary work in any medium by a 2024 SALA Festival artist in 2024.
- 1-31 August 2024
- Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
- Keith Murdoch House, 31 Waymouth St, Adelaide
The winner of this award will be announced at the SALA Finissage event on Fri 30 August.
Eleanor Alice
strange and beautiful you, Eleanor Alice, 2023, acrylic on canvas, 132 x 152 cm
This painting is an homage to my most recent studio I had to leave, one of many spaces that I’ve spent hours pondering in, dreaming and disappearing into strange and beautiful places found in paint.
Luna Chan
I make coffee every day., Luna Chan, 2023, moving image, audio, used coffee filters, dimensions variable
As a migrant from Hong Kong living in Adelaide, I’ve been making pour-over coffee every morning. One day, I realized I was making coffee in a different place, triggering memory of my old home. The used filter papers became symbolic of my early days in a new land. To highlight their significance, I will present each filter paper individually or as a group on the wall, allowing viewers to appreciate their nuanced details. Referring to Heidegger’s take on phenomenology, I question whether everyday objects can also uncover truth and reveal new horizons through art, enriching our understanding of existence.
Carolyn Corletto
Prey, Carolyn Corletto, 2023, found and etched vintage fur, sticky tape form, paperbark, found female form and wood, 56 x 100 x 26 cm
My work expresses my concern for the plight of all who identify as women but in particular for my fiercely independent daughter in this scary time for women’s safety. For millennia women have lived within societies consciously constructed to corrupt our experience of belonging, to obscure us from our senses and to employ fear based domestication to undermine, for both men and women, the fundamental human drive to explore, excavate and reclaim their own authentic path and identity. My work explores the yearning to rewild the domesticated woman.
Eliana Della Flora
Grey Cube, Eliana Della Flora, 2024, kiln formed post-consumer glass, paint, metal bucket, wooden crates, adhesive, 35 x 35 x 35cm
This work responds to the perceived virtue of simplicity in Western society and the contemporary ‘greiging’ of a complex world, exacerbated by power systems, and a culture of reductionism, immediacy, and prioritisation of low production costs. The cube is formed of slumped and fused post-consumer glassware, compressed and painted to reduce variation. It is installed in a high, corner location referencing Malevich’s Black Square, where it looms over diverse, cultural works to denote its perceived place at the top of hierarchy. Related, subverted glass elements are installed throughout Arthur Artbar, suggestive of a rebellious agency.
Mia Chaau Wa Fan
Dr. Joanne Buckskin with clapping sticks, Mia Chaau Wa Fan, 2024, Mineral Pigments and Ink on Fine Rice Paper, Mounted on Silk Hanging Scroll, 45 x 68 cm
My ink paintings explore both traditional Chinese ink painting techniques and materials through contemporary themes. This painting depicts the compassionate Dr. Joanne Buckskin, showcasing her rich cultural heritage and educational spirit. This work is an exploration of Australia’s cultural diversity through art, inviting diverse voices to share their stories.
Claire Foord
Occipital, Claire Foord, 2024, acrylic, 150 x 90 cm
In a flash our brains calculate depth, color, objects, movement; but what happens when your brain is forced to see things from a new perspective? This became a reality for me when a brain injury damaged my occipital lobe. In this my first fully completed work after 3 years of little to no function. I seek to engage the viewer and offer a small understanding of living with a disability and new found perspective on life. An evocation of emotion through line and colour offering a complex depiction of my visual world.
Yoko Kajio
unknown press, Yoko Kajio, 2024, objects, wire mesh, mixed media, 93 x 68 x 97 cm
‘unknown press’ is always wishing ‘no wars’. Press is an interesting word that has multiple meanings. Some examples; to push something firmly / often without causing It / to move permanently further away from you/ to make clothes smooth by ironing them / to put a weight on fruit in order to remove the juice / to make a Record, DVD, etc./ to make something flat and firm by putting it under something heavy We have to be careful that by doing ‘Press’ what types of outcomes we will get.
Tom Keukenmeester
Idol, Tom Keukenmeester, 2023, bronze and patina, 66 x 46 x 17 cm
‘Idol’ is my first work in bronze and was inspired by a large polished bronze of the Buddha I admired on a visit to the AGNSW. When tasked with creating in this medium I researched various notable bronze sculptures and realised that historically subjects that were immortalised in bronze were usually figures of religion or authority. I wanted to play on this idea and reimagine an idolised figure for a secular society, creating an idol in play, as if dancing, with expressive brows and the hint of a smirk, reminding us not to take ourselves too seriously.
Lisa Khan
My Grandparent’s Country, Lisa Khan, 2024, acrylic on linen, 160 x 160 cm
My name is Lisa Khan, I’m from Coober Pedy. Yankunytjatjara/Antakirinja/Pitjantjatjara is my language. I paint my Grandmother’s home, she was born near Coober Pedy. I also paint my Grandfather’s Country, he was born at Wallitina Station. When I’m painting I’m walking through the land with my grandparents, I feel like they are guiding me and telling me stories about this Country. Painting makes me feel that connection to my people and to my family. It makes me proud of who I am, proud of my identity and confident in my own skin.
Judith Klavins
Windsignalling instrument no. 4, Judith Klavins, 2024, moving image, audio, 3 min 46 sec
Captured at my local beach, ‘Windsignalling instrument no. 4’ was developed in collaboration with silk, nylon, wind, and light. My work is a personal response to my maternal ancestors who lived on King Island in the middle of Bass Strait, lutruwita (Tasmania) in the 1830’s, and their practice of making a smoke and raising the wiff (flag) to trade wallaby skins with passing ships.
The fraying silk, whilst maintaining its inner strength, reacts to the ebb and flow of unseen forces, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the uncertainty of the experience; allowing transient feelings of connection, and of dis-connection.
Monika Morgenstern
Ominous, Monika Morgenstern, 2024, ink on etched aluminium, 80 x 80 cm
Monika Morgenstern creates work around the visual representation of the numinous, with a specific focus on colour, perception, and phenomenology. Intrigued by the notion of the ineffable, she delves deeply into the realm of undefinable complex emotions, striving to forge a psychological and visceral connection with the audience.
Jessica Murtagh
Silhouettes and the city, Jessica Murtagh, 2024, blown glass, sandblasted and engraved. Gilded with 24k gold and Japanese nano coated silver, 50 x 22 x 22 cm
Voyeurs, exhibitionists, eccentrics and ordinary people on display for the world to view. In the warm rosy glow of a summer sunset, passersby become inadvertent witnesses into the inner lives of strangers on show like shadow puppets. The witching hour between arriving home from work and finally seeking their beds, private lives become public in the bright aura of apartment lights. One can’t help but ask the question, do apartment dwellers not own curtains?
OAKEY
Portal, OAKEY, 2024, paperbark, mixed media, steel, 60 x 180 cm
Portal was inspired by a transformative journey that took place last year.
Seeking profound rest, I embarked on a 1,800km motorbike ride to Yaegl Country, NSW, for a solitary four-day bush retreat. There, I slept on the forest floor within a 4m circle, equipped only with water, sleeping gear, a mosquito net, and a tarp.
Portal embodies the thresholds I encountered: the entrance to my circle, the bridge between waking and dreaming, the transition from day to night, and my gradual merging with the forest. This work explores the liminal spaces where self meets nature, consciousness shifts, and transformation occurs.
Taylor Parham
Anechoic Chamber, Taylor Parham, 2023, pigment print, 120 x 80cm
This photograph is part of my series ‘Accidental Aesthetics’. In which I capture the hidden worlds of science and research, industry and engineering, spaces that are unseen and unfamiliar to the majority. My intent in photographing these environments is to reveal the accidental aesthetics and beauty that exists in spaces built where form and function are a priority, exploring an idea of science intersecting with art and vice versa. This image is of an Anechoic Chamber, I highly specialized and precise room purpose built to negate the reflection of sound waves.
Liza Savchuk
786 -Temporary (Humanitarian Concern), Liza Savchuk, 2024, inkjet print on cotton rag paper, 84 x 57 cm
This photograph was taken during Ukrainian Easter Festival in Adelaide. As we celebrated our culture, there was a heavy weight on our hearts. In the last two years many people have come to Australia, building their life from scratch. They were granted three years on stay and 786 -Temporary visa. While finding a new job and house, learning language and grieving for home, Ukrainian people have no certainty that they will be allowed to stay after this visa runs out. My sister is one of those people and I hope this artwork can raise awareness about this issue.
