Sunday, February 5, 2012

Cherry, Rose, and Suzanne see themselves winning

Following the amazing UWA Artists' Choice 3D Self Portraits show, the three standout winners were clear, but the order of the top prizes could easily have swung a different way with even a single additional voter. This is the first time the participating artists themselves determined the prize winners.

Cherry Manga's fractal self portrait draws you in to deeper and deeper levels. Rose Borchovsky's mesh figure is stunning in its emotional impact and fine details and was the decisive People's Choice winner. And Suzanne Graves's portrait fragments and transform, never seeming to be the same but still always the same essence.

The awards ceremony this morning was ably emceed by Taralyn Gravois with FreeWee's assistance. See the full text of the program below.

Among the special announcements were:

FreeWee is publishing an online exhibition catalog for the Self Portraits show. It is nearly finished, but you can see the current draft. Any of the participating artists who wish to add a brief text comment about their work should contact FreeWee as soon as possible.

Also announced is the theme for the March UWA challenge: MUSIC. Interpret that any way you choose. Think outside the music box! Deadline for entries is March 1. Details are similar to previous challenges: 210 prim limit (300 PE for mesh). Otherwise pretty much open to anything you can imagine.

Winners of the January UWA Artists' Choice 3D Self Portraits challenge:

First Place Award (L$7000): AUTOPORTRAIT by Cherry Manga
Second Place Award (L$5000): ANGRY BETH by Rose Borchovsky
Third Place Award (L$3000): S IN PRIMS by Suzanne Graves
Non-Scripted Award (L$3000): AUTOPORTRAIT by Cherry Manga
People's Choice Award (L$2000): ANGRY BETH by Rose Borchovski
Sponsors:

JayJay Zifanwe.and the University of Western Australia
Flora Nordenskiold and NordanArt
fiona Blaylock and artFiona
armany Thursday and Dyce Underwood for DNA Art and Music Fusion
Eliza Wierwight and Patron
Cherry Manga and Anley Piers for Mysterious Wave
Ginger Alsop and Phi Designs
Zachh Cale and projectZ

The full list of entries:
  • Carmsie Melodie - Portrait
  • Cherry Manga - Autoportrait
  • Chic Aeon - Do You See Me?
  • Corcosman Voom - Self portrait in Yellow
  • Dusty Canning - Thinking Outside the Box
  • Eifachfilm Vacirca - Smiley d-oo-b
  • Fiona Blaylock - Self portrait
  • FreeWee Ling - Am I my avatar's pet?
  • Gleman Jun - nuJ namelG
  • Haveit Neox - Portrait Clock
  • kjs Yip - Self portrait
  • Lilia Artis - One of billions
  • Miso Susanowa - Self portrait: i am not my code
  • nexuno Thespian - ancient ruins of temple of nex
  • Nish Mip - Self portrait
  • Praxis - Prax - Nut
  • Rose Borchovski - Self portrait
  • Sea Mizin - Juggling Away the Day
  • Secret Rage - There was a little girl
  • Silene Christen - Inner Light
  • Silene Christen - When you left
  • Sledge Roffo - Self portrait
  • Suzanne Graves - S in Prims
  • ToySoldier Thor - Swimmers - The Arrival
  • Wotthe Dickins - Magic Mirror

Full Text of the awards presentations (written by FreeWee Ling and read by Taralyn Gravois):
--------
Welcome to the first 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 announce the publication of an exhibition catalog for the Self Portraits show. The current draft is online now and will be revised to add the award results. She also asks the participating artists to please let her know any brief descriptions or comments you would like to add to your entries for the book. It is expected to be complete within the next couple of days. See: http://issuu.com/freeweeling/docs/uwa_artists_choice-self_portraits

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. Who knows art better than they? 22 of the 24 artists in this show participated in the voting process. Votes were kept by FreeWee Ling and verified by Taralyn Gravios, JayJay Zifanwe, and Eliza Wierwight. Anyone wishing to know their particular ranking may contact FreeWee.

So you know what the future is to bring, the Artists' Choice Challenges will continue through March. Beginning April 1 the main UWA 3D Open Art Challenge will commence with a single round over three months with 500 thousand Lindens in prize money. Details to be announced. Look for the Artists’ Choice challenges to start again with a theme announced in early July (or perhaps earlier) for an August show.

JayJay also wanted to announce that MachinimUWA V will start very soon with a L$650,000 prize pool. The theme will be “Seek wisdom.” More details about that to come.

In other matters, you have until midnight tonight to submit an entry for the next UWA Artists' Choice Challenge on the theme: Perfume. Make something smelly! Touch the poster next to the entry box for details. The Self Portraits show will be removed tonight and the new Perfume show will be installed Sunday. We will announce the opening as soon as it's ready.

And finally, our next challenge for March will be on the theme: Music! Make something musical. Something that looks like music, sounds like music, feels like music.. even smells like music! Musical instruments, musical impressions, harmonic distortion as a metaphor for... something ... It's up to you. Details will be announced shortly, but you get the idea.

We had a total of eight sponsors for this show. 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.

Among the most enthusiastic of our sponsors was our dear friend Flora Nordenskiold. We are all saddened by her sudden departure from SL. We thank her for everything she has done to enrich our lives and we send her our love and best wishes.

We also express our deepest gratitude to the other sponsors for this event:
fiona Blaylock and artFiona
armany Thursday and Dyce Underwood for DNA Art and Music Fusion
Eliza Wierwight and Patron
Cherry Manga and Anley Piers for Mysterious Wave
Ginger Alsop and Phi Designs
Zachh Cale and projectZ

Anyone wishing to support future challenges, please contact FreeWee Ling.

Now to the awards. L$22,500 was donated by our sponsors this month. Our goal is to provide at least L$20K each month. In order to help ensure our funding for next month, L$2500 of our pool will be held for the Perfume show awards.

The People's Choice voting received 636 votes total. The voting was clear, with 42 points separating the winner from its next competitor.

The People's Choice Award (L$2000) for UWA Artists' Choice Self Portraits goes to:
ANGRY BETH by Rose Borchovski

Rounding out the top five were:
AUTOPORTRAIT by Cherry Manga
S IN PRIMS by Suzanne Graves
PORTRAIT by Carmsie Melodie
and
AM I MY AVATAR'S PET? by Freewee Ling

Next we go to the Non-scripted Award. These were determined by the highest ranking in regular voting for a piece that is non-scripted.

The Non-Scripted Award (L$3000) for UWA Artists' Choice Self Portraits goes to:
AUTOPORTRAIT by Cherry Manga

Now for the top three overall awards. Since the awards are determined by individual votes rather than by a panel deliberation, the result, while extremely close, is unequivocal. We have no ties, but the top three awards could easily have gone a different way with one more voter. .

The Third Place Award (L$3000) for UWA Artists' Choice Self Portraits with 37 points goes to:
S IN PRIMS by Suzanne Graves

The Second Place Award (L$5000) with 38 points goes to:
ANGRY BETH by Rose Borchovsky

and finally
The First Place Award (L$7000) with 40 points goes to:
AUTOPORTRAIT by Cherry Manga

other artists who ranked strongly in the voting, in no particular order, included Lilia Artis, Nish Mip, Carmsie Melodie, Secret Rage, and Silene Christen.

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all who participated in a great show!

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