The Churchie Art Prize Exhibition Review By Dominika Monicka

The Churchie Art Prize Exhibition consisted of artists such as: Heath Franco, Sam Cranstoun, Agenevieve Kemarr Loy, Ray Harris, Svenja Kratz, and Marion Glass. The Churchie Art Prize Exhibit is a prestigious art competition that aims to expose emerging artists and provide a stimulating art exhibit for students as well as the public. This Exhibit consists of all forms of artwork such as painting, drawing, sculpture, video, photography, etc.

One outstanding work in this exhibition would be the work my Ray Harrison called ‘let me go’. Harrison captures the slow decline of a relationship through a time-lapse video where a girl is placed on the floor in a sleeping position with a form of a human made of dough. The video begins showing her in a soft and comfortable place, but as time goes on she starts to struggle with her position and eventually is trying to tear herself out of the situation. ­­­This particular piece speaks as a metaphor to its audience and targets people of all ages and sexual orientation. It provides a visual chapter of a relationship whether it is sexual or plutonic. Harrison aims to ‘explore psychological space of unsatisfied symbiosis, the need for oneness lingering in hearts and psyches unremittingly’ (Ray Harris, 2012).

On the other hand, one work that I found to be particularly desperate for attention was surprisingly the main attraction in the exhibition, Heath Franco’s winning art work ‘Fun House’. The work was curated at the very front of the gallery and was annoyingly being projected across the entire space. The projected sound coming from the video made the experience nearly unbearable and thus did not resemble your ‘traditional’ and peaceful gallery space experience. Along side Franco’s video interfered with the viewing experience of other more discrete and traditional pieces in the gallery. It was as though none of the pieces really stood a chance in what had started to become a psychiatric episode.  

Overall, the Churchie Art Prize Exhibit provided a wide variety of media as well as conceptually diverse ideas. It showed over 40 Australian Artists and was effectively displayed by the curator in seemingly small space. Although the experience as a whole was stressful due to the winning work’s interfering nature, the exhibition provided the viewer with many other viewing opportunities.