BALLINA RSL PEOPLE’S CHOICE PRIZE GOES TO TWO SCULPTORS

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For the first time in its 10-year history, Thursday Plantation’s East Coast Sculpture Show has produced a dead heat for the People’s Choice Award sponsored by the Ballina RSL.

Visitors to the 2005/6 show voted in equal numbers for two winners; “Echo”, by Frédéric Berjot of the Gold Coast, and “Bad Hair Day” by Ruth Park of Wollongbar. Coincidentally, both works raise issues of gender and ethnicity.

The artists each received $1000, which was presented to them by Ballina RSL club chairman Bob Grant on Thursday, August 3.

In another first for the show, popular opinion agreed for once with the judges, who awarded Berjot’s evocative representation of traditional Muslim women with the major acquisition prize. Accepting his latest award, Berjot acknowledged the importance of the Thursday Plantation show as one of the pioneering outdoor contemporary-art events in Australia.

“This show has been like a lighthouse to the sculpting world, giving us a sense of purpose and direction thanks to the inspiration of its guardians, Christopher Dean and Priya Woolston.”

Ruth Park’s winning entry is a ceramic sculpture depicting a woman of exaggerated proportions. She describes it as a critique of the dominant Western standard of female beauty and its impact on non-European women’s self esteem and sense of identity. A regular exhibitor at the show and winner of the Local Artist’s Award in 2003, Park will continue exploring her theme with a new work this year.

The 11th annual Thursday Plantation East Coast Sculpture Show, supported by WHK Rutherfords Financial Advisors, will open on Sunday, 24 September, and run until 31 January, 2007.

Thursday Plantation’s sculpture park and botanical gardens are open seven days a week, from 9am – 5pm. Refreshments and natural-health products can be purchased at the Visitors’ Centre. The park is located just 20 minutes south of Byron Bay and 1 km north of the Ballina/Byron airport turn-off.