2011 Finalists • Broomhill National Sculpture Prize
The ten finalists
IMAGE: Uncertain Futures: Larder by Suzanne Hobbs NSP 2011 Winner
Ten short-listed sculptors were carefully selected by a judging panel comprising internationally acclaimed artists Tim Shaw, Rob Ryan and Carol Peace at the beginning of this year. Each of the ten finalists were given a £1,000 budget to turn their proposed idea into an inspiring finished piece for the Summer Exhibition. The final ten sculptures are now on display at Broomhill until Spring 2012.
IMAGE: ‘Endless Curve’ by Wenqin Chen, Winner of the Public Vote
Congratulations to Suzanne Hobbs and Wenqin Chen!
The judging panel selected ‘Uncertain Futures: Larder’ by Suzanne Hobbs as the overall winner for 2011.
The sculpture that captured visitors attention the most this year and winner of the ‘Public Speaks’ title is Endless Curve by Wenqin Chen, also awarded a ‘Special Commendation’ by the judges.
Wenqin Chen • Endless Curve
Public Vote Winner and Special Commendation
I love to capture historical events or cultural situations from the present and past. I use my emotions and intellect to create the final object. The sculpture Endless Curve represents global open-mindedness, invention and space for innovative thinking.
Biography
Wenqin Chen is a member of the Professional Sculpture Committee of China. He completed his MA in sculpture at the Winchester School of Art in 2004. In the meantime as an artist he obtained a resident permit to work between China and Britain. He has recently exhibited in group and solo shows nationally and internationally.
Louise Gibson • Landfill 2011
Landfill 2011 is a condense map like structure that interacts with its surroundings and reveals its self differently with every second glance and discovery. It is created from disposed materials combined with industrial resin. In my work, I generally engage with several different trades and for ‘Landfill 2011’ I worked with construction workers, plumbers, mechanics, and timber merchants.
Biography
Louise Gibson was born in 1985 and graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2009. She works primarily with industrial resin, combining found objects with sculpted casts to create intricate innovative work. In 2010 she completed an apprenticeship with Cray Valley a leading industrial resin manufacturer and current sponsor of her work. Louise has created public art projects in Edinburgh, Berlin and London. She recently exhibited in the Albemarle Gallery in London and is showing a new collection of work with the gallery again in July this year.
Alan Goulbourne • Ra
My current practice is primarily concerned with addressing the relationship between Science and Nature, and conjuring notions of the sublime within art that aims to signify this relationship. The practice relies upon a process of implementing order and chaos, effectively within random sequences, in order to drive a progression from a single moment and mark to a vast crescendo of massing marks and movements that collectively represent something simple that is visually riddled with complexity.
Biography
Cardiff based artist born in Perth, Scotland graduated from Uwic in 2008, had early success with a Commission at Chapter and a short-listing for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize. Alan graduated with an MFA from Uwic in 2010. He has exhibited twice at Tactile Bosch for the Teunre group show and more recently The Open West exhibition, who commissioned Alan for the Hesters Way Community art project.
Suzanne Hobbs • Uncertain Futures: Larder
2011 Winner
This installation has been brewing in my mind for some years, alongside mounting international concerns over food security. The work utilizes concrete to symbolise dominance and conflict. Applied in a domestic setting, concrete challenges our sense of comfort and wellbeing; it juxtaposes the re-assurance of the food larder with the anxiety of the emergency shelter. Inspired by the words of George Monbiot ‘Man is just 4 missed meals from social unrest’, the piece is stark, uncanny, a memorial to our past, present and future.
Biography
Suzanne Hobbs lives and works on her family’s organic farm in North Devon. She graduated with a first class degree in Fine Art from Plymouth University. Suzanne describes herself as an environmental activist/artist. She uses her creative skills as her voice, to communicate her fears and anxieties over Climate Change. She has exhibited widely including: The International Climate Forum, London; Shoreditch Town Hall; The Genesis Centre, Somerset, and Appledore Arts Festival. She has acted as a workshop leader at many schools and art events, raising awareness with the next generation.
Svetlana K-Lie • Cheburashka
The sculpture represents a gate topped with a large head of Cheburashka, a very famous Russian children‘s character which is the main character of an animated film series from the sixties. The gate is here a reference to the Japanese traditional Torii. Commonly found at the entrance of Shito shrines, it symbolically marks the transition from the profane to the sacred. My proposal is a reflection on our contemporary understanding of and relationship to the sacred – it might even be perceived as an absurd attempt of re-sanctification of our everyday life. In a profane society, our ersatz of the sacred are often unearthed from the lost paradise of innocent childhood.
Biography
Born in Moscow, Svetlana K-Lie graduated in 2007 with a MA from Camberwell College of Arts, London. Her work has been exhibited internationally and four of her etchings are in the collection of the Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg. Most recently, she was commissioned by the Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art and won runner-up best sculpture prize at the 2010 Battle Contemporary Fine Art Fair. She lives and works in Lewes, UK.
Lee Odishow • FISK
Special Commendation
Within my Art I have many inspirations. For this exhibition I have chosen to explore my interest in death rituals. Although macabre, I am intrigued by the different ways, people across the world, treat and have treated their dead. The imagery of sarcophagi and wrappings formed the basis of this concept. This is my first solo large-scale outdoor piece and it depicts a cast iron figurative form with a smeared clay texture, and a bronze, dome-like facemask. FISK gets its name from Almond D.Fisk who in 1848 received the patent for an iron burial casket. Materialising an idea through mould making and differing processes is important to me and I am continually striving to further my skills, knowledge and experience.
Biography
Based in West Wales Lee studied Sculpture at Coleg Sir Gâr, Carmarthen from 2001. Since graduating with B.A Honours in 2004 he has continued to work at the college as part of the Learner support team. Within Lee’s role he assists students with specific learning difficulties on a one to one basis. Outside of work he continues to further his artistic career showing regularly across Wales within art groups.
Seth Orion Schwaiger • Watchers
‘Watchers’ is the most recent development in a branch of my practice focused on the relationship between the sculpture, the viewer, and their mutual environment. The arrangement and surface treatment of the figures was chosen in part to augment the sense that the viewer is walking into the world of the sculptures and that the sculptures are returning the viewers gaze. Depending on the ever changing mood of the environment (and the viewers themselves) this experience can oscillate between an uplifting or oppressive one. Either the viewer feels caught trespassing or feels welcomed and protected.
Biography
Seth received his BFA from The University of Wyoming. He also trained as a studio assistant in Cortona, Italy practicing stone carving, and as a woodcraft pupil in Kerala, India. The artists work has been collected in Italy, Germany, the UK, and the US with large public sculpture in Laramie, Wyoming and Dallas, Texas. Seth currently lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland.
sethorionschwaiger.blogspot.com
Yulia Podolska • Cold Man
Special Commendation
I am currently exploring the expression of emotion through the use of new materials for the creation of figurative sculpture. Here I tried to represent the realisation of mans wasted opportunity. The figure represents the height of mans prowess; cowed by the realisation that his development came at the price of the finite resources he wasted to achieve it. Constructed from some of the most polluting materials of the modern age, cement, steel and vulcanised rubber, the figure is a memorial to modern man, constructed from his most indestructible, polluting waste. The natural setting intentionally contrasts the materials and I hope it will become a hidden relic to the past as the habitat gradually obscures and reclaims the piece.
Biography
Yulia Podolska studied sculpture at the National Academy of Fine Art, Kiev, Ukraine. In 2007 Yulia moved to Turkey to perfect the skills needed to carve marble and also travelled extensively throughout Europe to explore the great collections. In 2009 Yulia relocated to the UK to be closer to the current contemporary art world and now has a studio on the south coast of Sussex. In 2010 Yulia won the Society of Women Artists Young sculptor of the year award and in 2010 was included in the ING Discerning Eye Competition.
Jake Rusby • The Erratic Boulder
Special Commendation
As an artist, I bring about or imagine unusual phenomena within everyday situations. By adding, removing or altering objects, I intend to prompt people to reconsider their surroundings – the content, usage and their own perception of what is around them. My work is the product of simple daydreams and a desire to create the unexpected. It is designed to attract the incidental spectator, as it is not signposted or explained and is not contextualized by a gallery setting. Instead, I want viewers to construct their own stories around the odd scenarios that form my artwork.
Biography
Jake studied History of Art and Sculpture in Edinburgh, graduating in 2009. Since the final year at Art College, his sculptures have predominantly been created for outdoor, public locations. Jake recently moved to London, where he now works for a number of art galleries, alongside his artistic practice.
Nick Turvey • Conscience
What interests me is the embodied nature of consciousness, the fact that our sense of ourselves is the product of a visceral, muscular materiality. Yet, at the same time, this body can seem like a prison, in which we are shackled by brutish desires and appetites. Identity is not monolithic. The brain and body are a parliament. It is a constant struggle, a dialogue, a story. We believe whatever we must, in order to continue living.
Biography
Nick Turvey returned to study at the Royal College of Art in London, after originally training as an architect, working in film and documentary, and involvement with community-led conservation. Since graduating in 2006, he has exhibited internationally, and won a number of large public commissions. In 2008 he received an RBS bursary, in 2009 an award from Arts Council England and in 2010 the Brian Mercer Award for Stonecarving.
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