Backing Cloth Artwork / Basil Sellers Art Prize

Still a great feeling to get a new set of backing cloth paintings into store on a Friday evening.

It's been a big week, Jon Campbell at the Art Fair on Wednesday then Basil Sellers Art Prize kicked off at Melbourne University on Thursday. Kate Daw and I are off to Yuendumu very soon as part of our residency at the MCG which is also funded by Basil Sellers.Picture above of Cecily and Elsie Granites at the MCG last month.

( see earlier post )

You sense some people from the art community don't like the "winner" format but I love the competitive nature of this prize. It creates a very different dynamic for the evening, something genuinely akin to a sporting event. Kate and I caught up with Basil, Stephen Gough from the MCC and Chris McCauliffe from Melbourne Uni. who've been the key people involved from the start of this ambitious idea.

Basil's aim is to attract ideas and new work discussing contemporary Australian society using sport as a starting point. Speaking to people on the night you begin to realise it's going to be amazingly significant legacy.

I'll post a blog from Yuendumu and discuss the development of project in more detail.

MCG residency.

Many of you will know that the Peter Norman project led on to Kate Daw and I becoming the inaugural recipients of the Basil Sellers Fellowship late last year.

That gave us an opportunity to work at the MCG based at the National Sports Museum. Later this week we hit an important milestone when two artists Elsie and Cecily Granites and two young mentorees come down from Yuendumu as our guests to discuss an ambitious project for two large scale temporary artworks. They’re representing Warlukurlangu Arts Centre and the Mt Theo project.

National Sports Museum will host the artists and a group of key project supporters at the Demons v Carlton match this Saturday. Can’t wait !