Following the end of the Estuary Art and Ecology Prize, votes were counted for the People’s Choice Award and, incredibly, two artworks are selected by visitors as winners of the prize.
Rozana Lee’s Early Days and Jim Wheeler’s APEX- Pacific Kauri received the same number of votes over the exhibition’s 7 weeks on display and both artists were presented with a cash prize from Rice Family Partnership for their efforts.
Wally Rice, from the Family Partnership, met the artists last week and congratulated them on their engaging artworks. Both communicated environmental concern for the Estuary, while celebrating the beauty of the flora surrounding the waterway.
Rozana Lee’s work incorporated a fabric dyed with mud and water from the Estuary, alongside a video documenting the artist taking the fabric through the Panmure Basin and using leaves and reeds to print a design on the material. Jim Wheeler displayed a sculpture of threatened Kauri in cast bronze, reminding audiences of the fragility of native species.
This year’s Estuary Art and Ecology Prize was extremely popular with more than 600 votes cast to determine the People’s Choice Award. The exhibition will return in July 2019.
- Zoe Hoeberigs is Manager, Curator at Uxbridge Arts & culture
