Image above: Greg Weight Everything Past is Almost Forgotten permanent pigment print on cotton rag paper 60 x 90 cm
“This year’s record number of entries set a new standard in the diversity of mediums, subject matter and still life expressions. Over 1000 entries were received for our biennial award, a massive 40% increase over the previous Still in 2019. This didn’t make our selection panel’s job easy! There was so much great work from every state and territory, with artists at varying stages of their careers. The ever increasing number of entries to this award demonstrates the still life genre resonates with contemporary artists and provides a field of ideas that speak to contemporary issues of our mortality, the way we consume, concern for the environment as well as exploring our everyday material world. This make it the perfect platform for all artists regardless of what medium they work in.” – Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery
This years selection panel included Cath Fogarty, Chloe Waters, Sydney based art collector Lisa Paulsen and Katina Davidson, Curator Indigenous Australian Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. The guest judge for the ultimate $30,000 major prize is Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. The winner will be announced at the official opening on August 14. The $5,000 People’s Choice Award gives visitors the chance to vote for their favourite finalist during the exhibition with the winner to be announced towards the end of the exhibition.
Greg Weight describes his work Everything Past is Almost Forgotten:
“Recently in southern France I photographed the old studio of expatriate Australian artist Fred Jessup, where he lived and worked for fifty years. The studio has remained unchanged since his death in 2008. Among hundreds of curiosities and artifacts, a faded Mona Lisa print was pinned on the kitchen wall. A reproduction of Munch’s Scream lay on a bookshelf, and several framed portrait photographs were carefully positioned on the sideboard. Everything Past is Almost Forgotten is a digital collage of these fragments of history, like clues to a forgotten past, positioned on the lounge room wall around his collection of ornate, timeless, broken clocks.”