Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Parkin Prize: Is it art? Who cares

I'd forgotten all about the Parkin Prize until reading this morning on the DomPost front page that the $20,000 prize winner had entered a rubbing of her apartment floor.

Good for her. Is it art? Who cares. She spent hours and hours on her hands and knees, which is more than I did.

It had been literally decades since I'd drawn with a pencil but I had a first-time shot anyway. Left it till the very last minute - in fact I thought the deadline was midnight, not 4 pm. And I didn't get home till after five. But the on-line submission was auto-accepted at 6 pm. Wasn't surprised when it didn't make the cut. 443 submissions. Put up some decent prize money and everyone has a crack. This is the sketch; the finished painting is here.


Actually, as I have pondered over this whilst hanging out the washing, making breakfast etc it occurs that there is a lovely irony inherent in her work. Most artists making any money from their work are earning the minimum wage or less. But in this case repetitive grafting on  hands and knees, day after day reaped a much better hourly rate . Even if she took 300 hours to rub every floor in her apartment it's paid her $66.66 per. Getting up there with plumbers....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember tourists in Europe paying to do charcoal copies of floors in the beautiful buildings. That is all this lady has done - its nice but does not require the skill set that you have. On that basis I don't think it warrants the prize because almost anyone could do it. We admire great artists, musicians etc... because they do what we cannot.

3:16

Anonymous said...

No wonder that entry won, Dick Frizzell was a judge. Is it too late to be considered as a flag alongside Frizzell's other artistic favourite, the red triangle?