Place - Serpentine Community Gallery Art Prize 2015

Serpentine Community Gallery Art Prize 2015

This is the second year that

the Serpentine Community Gallery

is hosting this very special members' exhibition.

The theme this year is

 'Place'.

A $300 art prize is being offered for the best entry.

Painters, photographers, sculptors, performing artists, installation artists etc. are all WELCOME to enter!

Opening night celebration:

Friday 14th August, 2015, 6-8PM.

The open night celebration and entry into see

'Place' at the Serpentine Arts Gallery is FREE.

As the invite to exhibit said:

"Place" is open to your interpretation.

However, a few suggestions are described below.

1. A place in the sun. The dictionary calls this a favourable position, or a share in something to which one has a

natural right. Life in the wonderful Northern Rivers area provides many examples of this. Barb Sutties recent exhibition at the Tweed River Gallery

“Mt Warning, Caldera: The Impacts” is a case in point. Beautifully painted mountain views come

with a warning of the challenges we all face

to maintain our natural heritage.

2. Another portrayal of “place” (as “entitlement”) can be seen in “Laudanum”, a series of photographs by

Tracey Moffatt. This loose series portrays

an Asian maid with her white mistress.

3. Many white Australian artists, especially from the

60’s to 90’s were concerned with their relationship

with the Australian landscape. In 1997,

 Chris O’Dougherty (aka Reg Mombassa)

 said about his work “Telegraph poles

 and a gum tree, Moranbah”

– “The image depicts the loneliness and alienation

that results from placing Northern Europeans

in a vast, empty, incongruent landscape.

It has taken time, cultural conditioning,

 air-conditioning, refrigeration and insecticides

 to help us learn to appreciate and

love the Australian landscape as we do.”

For those whose special place is their car,

their garden, within their family,

or inside their head,

we look forward to seeing the results.