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Judges stunned by the quality of the entries in the latest Sasol New Signatures contest in Pretoria News, August 27, 2009

Silk secrets and high art Dulux

Stellenbosch student Marijke van Velden’s work, Pierneef Goes Dulux, was awarded the prestigious R60 000 first prize of this year’s Sasol New Signatures art competition at the Pretoria Art Museum last night.

Van Velden used a colour-by -number line drawing of a reproduction of a painting by JH Pierneef (Scene, 1925) and a list of Dulux paint names to create her entry. She then asked people to randomly select what colours should be used.

By doing this, she explored not only the arbitrary relationship between words and colour, but by using an existing work, she destabilized the conventional notion of high-art. Pretoria’s Amita Makan won the runner-up prize of R15 000 for her hand embroidered silk work, Loose Ends: A story about my mother.

This work is dedicated to Makan’s 68 year old mother who is in the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease. By painstakingly recreating her through embroidery, Makan explored the impermanence Of life and the impact of Alzheimer’s.

Franci Cronje, Sasol New Signatures Competition Chairperson, said all 122 finalists were top class.

“We faced a tough choice deciding on the final seven”.

“One of the judges, in fact commented that art is so subjective that we would have made completely different choices if were judging another day or time.

This year’s high standard became obvious as soon as the regional selectors started reviewing the entries”, said Cronje.

The judging panel’s selection for the five merit awards of R5000 went to Poorvi Bhana, for Om asato ma sadgamaya, tamaso ma jyotirgamaya, mrityorma amritamgamaya; Peter Mikhael Campbell, for his cement sculpture, For those who fall asleep during the day and awake to a setting sun, often it is mistaken as rising; Angela Viera de Jesus for the installation, In exchange: mis en counter; Abri Stephanus de Swardt for the video Melt; and Jeanine Visser for the video, We come from the North, We belong to the South.

The Sasol New Signatures Competition Exhibition runs until September 20 at the Pretoria Art Museum.

For more information, contact Nandi Hilliard on (012) 346 3100 or visit www.artassociationpta.co.za or www.sasolsignatures.co.za