The 2011 Kate Derum Award captured the attention of some of the world’s most accomplished tapestry artists with 63 entries received in total. 43 artists’ works were selected as finalists with 17 from Australia and 26 from overseas.
Judges of the 2011 Kate Derum Award for Small Tapestries, Jason Smith and Kay Lawrence AO announced Australian artist, Joy Smith as the winner of the award for her work, Chainsaw.
In selecting Smith's work as the winner, the judges were impressed by the wit and originality of the tapestry that took as its subject a quintessential masculine tool, the chainsaw, portrayed with great clarity sitting on a shelf that could also be read as a landscape denuded of trees.
"The snapshot format, simplified form and expressive colour of Chainsaw take full advantage of the qualities of woven tapestry to create a seemingly simple but resonant image, a small work with a powerful impact, rather like its subject," says Lawrence.
The judges awarded the $1,000 Emerging Artist award to Australian artist, Saffron Lily Gordon for her work, Jack of Diamonds (Jamie). The Emerging Artist Award is given to an artist who has been practicing for less than five years.
Kate Derum Award Finalists
Margrethe Agger, Dorothy Clews, Chris Cochius, Amy Cornall, Jilly Edwards, Alex Friedman, Renee Friend, Hilary Green, Tim Gresham, Birgitta Hallberg, Beate von Harten, Joyce Hayes, Susanne Henriques, Inyul Heo, Maureen Hodge, Fiona Hutchinson, Anne Jackson, Feliksas Jakubauskas, Valerie Kirk, Elina Lusis-Grinberg, Jo McDonald, Lindsey Marshall, Susan Mowatt, Mardi Nowak, Judit Pázmány, Michael F Rohde, Deann Rubin, Christine Sawyer, Ann Shuttleworth, Joy Smith, Christine Sobrino, Joanna Soroka, Emma Sulzer, Verona Szabo, Jaroslava Têšínská, Cheryl Thornton, Anton Veenstra, Méabh Warburton
Emerging Artist Award
Mog Bremner, Saffron Lily Gordon, Sally Harvey, Julie Paul, Freya Sewell
Judges
Professor Kay Lawrence AM, Former Head School, School of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia, member of the Board of Directors of the Australian Tapestry Workshop and tapestry weaver
Jason Smith, Director of Heide Museum of Art
2011 Kate Derum Award Winner
Joy Smith (Australia), Chainsaw, 14 x 20 cm
This is one in a series of tapestries (with a working title of ‘still life in the shed’), that are a result of helping my parents ‘down size’ their possessions prior to moving to a retirement village. We spent a lot time looking at objects in the family home & Dad’s shed. I took photos of items in the shed with a view to display them for sale on a website. This did not really occur. Instead I started to weave these images. So far I have woven several pieces; a chainsaw, a socket set, a set of drill bits, an angle grinder, assorted tools and a 3D ‘Sidchrome’ tool set. Perhaps making hard, sharp, cold practical metal tools into soft, tactile, warm, impractical objects is strange but it is fun too.
2011 Emerging Artist Award
Saffron Lily Gordon (Australia), Jack of Diamonds (Jamie), 18.5 x 15 cm
This work is one of a series of three portraits of my children which I completed as part of my Tapestry Major in the Diploma of Arts (Studio Textiles) at RMIT. I referenced mediaeval playing cards for the designs and colour palette, and these translated well into tapestry. Constructed from blocks of colour and pattern the figures vary between flat plane and plastic form, and are at times almost abstract in their representation. I used silks and metallic threads to add texture and lustre, and give my first tapestries a richness and opulence that would make them special, whatever my skill at the loom.
As portraits, each card was chosen to reflect the personality and character of the child it represents. Jamie himself requested the bow as his preferred weapon, the bowstring and feather in his cap are crochet. The other works in the series were Queen of Hearts (Marnie) and King of Spades (Kit).
