Newcastle artist Tiyan Baker won the $30,000 acquisitive prize for her works from her mother’s ancestral lands in Bidayuh, Sarawak, combining landscape photography with floating text in autostereogram format (Magic Eye).
Judge of the biennial prize, Hany Armanious, artist and head of sculpture, National Art School, Sydney, said the pieces were driven by the medium’s potential as much as their content.
“They are beautifully presented works, considered and perfectly scaled, and most importantly they invite viewers in, offering an open-ended experience,” he said.
“I find myself returning to these works and seeing something new in them each time.”
IN OTHER NEWS:
WINNING SERIES: Maann, 2021, by Tiyan Baker, is one of the works inspired by her mother’s ancestral lands in Bidayuh, Sarawak.
Photographer Sara Oscar won the $5000 John and Margaret Baker Memorial Fellowship for My Body over the Pieces / Pieces over my Body, 2021, featuring photographs of her bodybuilding father and uncle.
Armanious said he was delighted by Oscar’s body of work.
“The images and their combinations are beguiling and slyly funny,” he said.
“The National Photography Prize has always sought to celebrate work that extends, stretches and challenges the medium, and Tiyan’s work is exemplary of this,” she said.
All works from the 12 finalists will be exhibited at MAMA until June 5.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: