2009 Judges Comments
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This year’s Blake Prize and the John Coburn Emerging Artist Award have both been awarded to video works.
The 58th Blake Prize of $20,000 has been awarded to artist Angelica Mesiti for a silent video work entitled [Rapture (silent anthem)]. Filmed from a concealed position beneath the stage at a rock concert, Mesiti’s camera looks out at a sea of ecstatic young faces. In a unanimous decision, the judges praised it for its beauty, emotional intensity and technical virtuosity. An enigmatic work that operates on many levels, Rapture depicts the joy of being alive while also hinting at the darker aspects of religious emotion.
The John Coburn Emerging Artist Award has been awarded to Grant Stevens for another technically accomplished digital video work entitled In the Beyond.
Having viewed more than a thousand works, the judges were impressed by the strength and diversity of this year’s field of entries and have decided to single out a number of entries as ‘highly commended’ works. These include Aboriginal artist Nelly Gordon for Church Stories – The Altar and the Cross, Lindy Lee for The Palace of Kuan Yin, Peter Graham for Uprising, Stephen Crane for My Little Pony, and Alexander McKenzie for The Burning Tree, Exodus 3.
Rev Dr Rod Pattenden, Blake Chairperson and Paddy Crumlin, National Secretary, MUA, awarded the inaugural Blake Prize for Human Justice to Dianne Coulter's, engaging work, Cousin of Elizabeth. NT.
– Del Kathryn Barton, Stephen Crittenden, Andrew Frost
