2005 Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert
Photography Award


Random Act 2 Unforseen Circumstances

Farrell and Parkin, artist collaborators from Melbourne have been selected as the winners of the $10,000 Acquisitive Award with the work
Random Act 2 Unforseen Circumstances.

Internationally respected curator, Alasdair Foster, Director of the Australian Centre for Photography, made the decision after carefully viewing the works on Friday 6 March.

Foster commented, “the quality of the works submitted for this exhibition was exceptionally high and the process of short listing to the works for display was a difficult task in itself.

The strength of the final exhibition lies in the quality and the diversity of the works, which demonstrate the rich variety of sensibilities and technologies at large in Australian photographic art today”

“To select one work from amidst such a vibrant mix was a challenge, but in the end Rose Farrell and George Parkin’s work stood ahead of the rest. It is a strong, complex and dynamic work made by two artists with a highly individual approach to art making. Their synthesis of photography, sculpture and performance draws on the histories and art and of medicine to reflect upon the frailty of human existence. Rose Farrell and George Parkin have worked collaboratively for over 20 years and have produced in that time some of the most consistent and challenging bodies of work in Australian photomedia.

Both artists were born in 1949, Rose Farrell in Brisbane where she studied Applied Science at QUT, and George Parkin in Corowa. Both artists studied in Melbourne and Farell has been employed in laboratory work. They make large complex tableaux juxtaposing papier-mache figures and sets with real human beings. An interest in medical machinery, history and mythology runs through their work

Foster also selected a Highly Commended work which receives $1 000 prize. He commented “Paul Knight’s Cinema curtain #05 is a shimmering sensual cascade of light. Filling the field of view the cinema curtain, while minimal in form, has all the suggestive allure of an erotic veil, teasing and flirting with the imagination.”

Foster was also impressed with the work of local artists Judy Anderson and also recent graduate Tarkin Hall, who presented a chilling image of cell in Boggo Road gaol.

For Further information and images please contact Virginia Rigney: Curator Public Programs Gold Coast City Art Gallery rigney@gcac.com.au 07 5581 6567

Exhibition continues until June 19.