Monday, November 12, 2012

Extinguishing the Fire

Saturday morning brought the latest in the UWA Artists' Choice Challenge awards presentation and the official closing of the "FIRE" show. Taralyn Gravois emceed the event.

By an overwhelming consensus, Nexuno Thespian won the First Place award for the October challenge, which featured the theme "FIRE".Nexuno's entry titled "Fireflower" seemed to have everything one could want -- exquisite use of form, color, figures, animation, and music to express a surreal vision of passion and heat and beauty.
In Second Place was Krystali Rabenow's "Tragedy", a poignant diorama showing a puppet theater on fire, the collapsed marionette resigning to his fate of impending doom as the result of an unrequited love .
In third place was Secret Rage's cryptic, surrealistic vision titled "When Lightning Strikes."
While we had no unscripted entries in last month's "Water" themed show, this month we had five to choose from. There was a separate balloting for this award, and the participating artists chose Corcosman Voom's "Fire Birds."
The FIRE show was featured on the SL login screen for the last few days of the show, resulting in a flurry of voting for the People's Choice award. With over 700 votes cast overall, the decisive favorite was Barry Richez's "Douce Colombe" ("Sweet Dove") inspired by poem of Mlle. NGEUFEU KENNE Alvine of Cameroon.


The full transcript of the awards presentation follows:
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Welcome to the sixth edition of the UWA Artists' Choice Awards!

As is tradition at the University of Western Australia, we would like to acknowledge that the University is situated on Nyoongar land and that the Nyoongar people remain the spiritual and cultural custodians of their land and continue to uphold their values, languages, beliefs and knowledge.

Before we announce the winners, FreeWee would like me to remind you that this amazing FIRE show is officially closing today, though it may remain up for another few days while the EARTH show gets installed. Do please take a last tour ASAP.

The exhibition catalogues for each of the Artsts' Choice challenges are being published in the online journal "UWA Studies in Virtual Arts." The current "FIRE" show will be added to the previous five editions that covered the "3D Self Portraits," "Perfume," "Music", "Air," and “Water” shows earlier this year. The catalogues for WATER and FIRE should be published very soon. They and the earlier editions can be found at this link: http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/p/uwa-siva.html

FreeWee has published the complete photo archive (166 images) of "FIRE" at this URL: http://goo.gl/Sqs7S

FreeWee also urges you to submit your work for the next show on the theme: "EARTH". Deadline for submissions is TOMORROW, SUNDAY at NOON SLT. The gallery for EARTH is under construction and the show should be open within a couple of days.

Looking ahead, start working on your submissions for the show to follow EARTH as we finish out the series of Artists Choice theme shows in December with a theme called "TRIPTYCH." Deadline for TRIPTYCH will be announced very soon. Full details on the Artist’s Choice Challenges are on the website at this URL: http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/p/artists-choice-challenge.html

The UWA Artists' Choice challenges are designed to inspire and support the work of artists. The key difference from earlier challenges is that the main awards are determined entirely by the votes of the participating artists and sponsors themselves. It's a special honor to be acknowledged by our colleagues.
We received 26 amazing entries for the FIRE theme by 20 artists.

L$15,000 was donated by our sponsors this month. Clearly, none of this would have been possible without the tremendous support of UWA in SL, and most especially the imagination and vision of JayJay Zifanwe.

We also express our deepest gratitude to the other sponsors for this event, including:
  • Armany Thursday and Dyce Underwood for DNA Art and Music Fusion
  • Flora Nordenskiold and NordanArt
  • Ginger Alsop and Phi Clothing Designs
  • and special donations by anonymous donors
Anyone wishing to support future challenges, please contact FreeWee Ling.

Now to the awards. Choosing "FIRE" for the October theme was inspired by the idea of having four related shows based on the alchemical "elements” of air, water, fire, and earth. The interpretations of "FIRE" have been diverse as usual. From fiery passion to nuclear fission to hot peppers and fried eggs. This has been one of the most engaging shows in the series.

The FIRE show was a featured site on the SL Login screen for a day or two this week. We have hosted over 300 unique visitors who cast a total of 725 votes for the People’s Choice award.

The voting was clear, with just over 20  points separating the winner from its closest competitor.
The People's Choice Award (L$2000) for UWA Artists' Choice FIRE goes to:

DOUCE COLOMBE by Barry Richez

Rounding out the top five were: both entries by Nexuno Thespian, Krystali Rabeni’s “Tragedy”, and Talia Sunsong’s “Ignite Passion”.

Next we go to the Non-scripted Award. This was determined by a separate vote by the artists. Last month there were no non-scripted entries. This time there are five to choose from.

The Non-Scripted Award for FIRE (L$3000) goes to:

FIREBIRDS by Corcosman Voom

Corcosman’s entry was followed closely by Chic Aeon’s “Global Warming”, with Dividni Shostakovich’s "Fire Is a Verb”, Dragon Lord’s “Man on fire an eternal flame”, and Hypatia Pickens’s “Fire Elemental: Salamander” rounding out the top five (with only one point separating the last three).
We go now to the overall awards.

The voting was diverse as always, with only one point separating each of the 4th-through 2nd places. But the First Place winner got more than double the score of the next highest competitor.

The Third Place Award (L$3000) goes to:

WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES by Secret Rage

Secret’s piece has so much going on, it takes close examination to take it all in. Her work always reflects a unique, often surrealistic, vision.

The Second Place Award (L$5000) goes to:

TRAGEDY by Krystali Rabeni

The aptly titled story of a marionette with a love that could never be touched many viewers. A work finely executed with a strong emotional impact.

Which brings us to the First Place award.

There seemed to be no question at all as to the winner of this round. By an overwhelming vote, the First Place Award (L$7000) for FIRE goes to:

FIREFLOWER by Nexuno Thespian

Our congratulations to Nexuno! Other artists who ranked strongly in the overall voting, in no particular order, included Nexuno’s other entry LEAVES DON'T FALL, RUST MAN by Herbie Haven, DOUCE COLOMBE by Barry Richez, PHOENIX RISING by Silene Christen, and FIERY FLAMES OF PASSION by Aquaglo and MellyDee Macfanatic.

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all who participated in a great show! Please take a final look around before you leave today.  The FIRE show will all be gone soon to make room for the EARTH, opening soon. Thank you all for coming! Have a great day!

1 comment:

  1. When the participants swap awards every month they soon will all be glorius winners!

    ReplyDelete