I am sitting in The Project Gallery at Queensland College of Art listening to “The Pilgrim’s Song” by wonderful Irish music makers “The Gloaming.” A pilgrim is what I am and what we are, a juggling mob of wanderers. We have put up our tent of 26 drawings here, our drawings by others who are the finalists in this 9th year of the Marie Ellis OAM Prize for Drawing. Drawing, the making of marks onto something with any medium.
The poetry of movement in the marking elevates this prize to the capture of thousands of moments. The evolution of drawing from single line linearity to a silent spacial performance captured only in an instant in the viewing means Marie’s legacy is full of possibilities. Awarding someone a prize for a drawing captured in a memory bank? Reminiscent of graffiti’s ephemeral marking making, drawing “juggles” styles, media, interpretations, thresholds, geography, makers.
Sha Sarwari & Affifa
Here are marks on a lonely northern NSW beach at dawn when Sha, his wife, Affifa and a couple of friends dragged his boat sculpture to its death by burning. When I take time with this image the process and history of the marks strike me: Sha and Affifa collecting the ashes of the boat, the strong lines of dragging drawn on the sand behind them and the millions of marks left by feet, tides and animal life. I am moved by the striking beauty of the ash heap marks cocooned in the intensity of Sha’s and Affifa’s collecting.
Burning the boat on the shores of a place and sea.
The winner of this year’s MEPD – Dennis McCart – speaks to this narrative. His work, “Someplace Else Unknown” could have been the title for a documentary on asylum seekers like Sha Sarwari, a former interned “boat person” from Kabul and now graduate of Griffith University Queensland College of Art and bona fide Australian Citizen. Jugglers passion for graffiti as mark making meant that the winning work had particular resonance especially after the sale of 103 Brunswick Street. Mark making by graffiti writers will always be birthed in spaces and places abandoned or not.
WINNER: Dennis McCart “Someplace Else Unknown”
Where does drawing go now? As a little organisation passionate about drawing, and as we are able, we will continue to offer this award to encourage drawing by artists in its most considered, intentional and skilful way. We know the process is unrecorded – maybe that is a new frontier for us to consider – but at this point we choose finalists and winners from the end point of each artist’s process limited to no more than 2 metres square of a 2 dimensional work.
Peter Breen, Co-Founder/Director : Jugglers Art Space Inc http://www.jugglers.org.au
Director’s Encouragement Award [High School Student] Hannah Downs “Matthew”
Honourable Mention – Natalie Wood “Housedress [Chux Blue 1] “
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