Award Winners

Major Winner 2020 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award 3D
Sorawit Songsataya (Wellington) Morning Dew

The main prize goes to a work exploring themes of nature reconstituted but also hinting this is an internal problem for each of us to consider. The artwork is charmingly titled Morning Dew but the dominant medium is resin, nasty and toxic. The little plant remnants held inside are now pickled, preserved for examination, never to move or grow again, frozen and magnified in their stasis. Any droplets evoked by the title and the artist's statement are long lost, revealing a wistful metaphor for what was once alive; the resin holding nature in suspension like a tiny oubliette. For better and worse we can see David Bowie's Goblin King twisting them in his tapering fingers, mulling over their contents and making his complex plans. While the orbs seem like suspended moments of time, there's a feisty game of marbles waiting in the associative wings. Apparently the little spheres were designed for distribution around the space, not particularly feasible in a bustling public art gallery - although their being kicked, rolled about or overlooked doesn't seem possible to imagine. These small worlds' delicacy remains both fragile and deceptively robust; They would make it through the labyrinth. 
Ruth Watson Judge

Akel Family Runner Up Award Winner, 2020 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award 3D
Madeleine Child (Dunedin)  Like Topsy

A bozzetti means a rough clay sketch for a larger work.  The title, ‘Like Topsy’, expands the work’s starting point, some sprouting potatoes. But that humble and earthy inspiration is merely a launching pad for the experimental and the downright quirky, as can also be seen in Child’s other work, the Bezoar. There’s a strong push-me-pull-you between text and work, together comprising a springboard for thought as well as a conscious delight in strangeness that gleefully inhabits the making and viewing of these works. Returning to the title, there’s some delight in making us imagine this, larger, sprouting forth again as a gigantic Mr Potato Head – gone frighteningly, ebulliently, almost out of control. Ruth Watson - Judge

Craigs Investment Partners Youth 3D Art Award, 2020 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award 3D
Oliver Cain (Auckland) Fruit Bowl II

White porcelain, so redolent of cleaning and cleanliness, are key to this work’s sly humour. Unlike Duchamp’s famous, bedpan-like object, today’s urinal is more like a wall-mounted vase, here bearing some very strange fruit. So often a stand-in for a body part, the bananas here rigidly overflow their containment, threatening to spill out onto the floor. The artist writes about questioning shame; this work joyously challenges and transcends disapprobation.
Ruth Watson - Judge

Arts Whakatane Highly Commended Award
Telly Tuita (Wellington)
Three Graces - U'ufoasini, Akale'a, Ta'alea

Three Graces from the fictional world of Tongpop are present in implied forms – posed and poised against a backdrop as if ready to spring forth and dance. Each has their own character, differently mixing seemingly traditional adornments alongside the cheap and cheerful. There’s a theatricality that gives more than a nod to Pacific sisters either real, artistic or mythical that also pushes each of these out into the world, anew.
Ruth Watson - Judge

Robinson Law Highly Commended Award
Hannah Valentine (Tauranga)
Anytime (I.G.)

A dangerous-looking set of heavy cast metal objects lie, crossed over each other, on a striking blue table. This table has rollers on its lower legs and itself sits on another trolley, also on casters. So the whole construct is ready to flip out, with a kind of trigger finger tension at work and play. The artist says the work is an invitation but one wonders to what worrisome nunchuk club all this might hail from – and one wonders if we should join up or not.
Ruth Watson - Judge

Merit Award - Gordon Harris Ltd
Stuart Forsyth (Wellington)
Useful object-remnants of a break up

This may be a controversial choice but this work irritated itself into position over a period of time. We all have bad experiences, make poor decisions in life, or find ourselves on the tail end of others’ decisions. The “complex tale” the artist provided in his statement speak of wider, exhausting scenarios of which this impoverished item is a left over, a remnant. Sad and kooky, these abject aspects of life are worth contemplating. Ruth Watson - Judge
 

Merit Award - Whakatane Society of Arts and Crafts & Hon. Anne Tolley MP
Lisa Passmore (Waihi)
Cross-Culturalism

The artist’s statement speaks of two seemingly incompatible weaving methods, combined in the one object. Each method derives from the material used, harakeke, and both are deployed to collect, store and transport. Cross-Culturalism also asks: what else shares the features of being brought together, put into play, and distributed? The artist proposes concepts and ideas fit such patterns, too. This seemingly simple, everyday item stands in for something more abstract, even as it simultaneously embodies the bringing together of difference in its very fibre.
Ruth Watson - Judge

Merit Award - Crew Community Resources
Chauncey Flay (New Plymouth)
Pink Coralscape IV

Disturbing and beautiful in equal parts, Pink Coralscape IV represents the strange new building blocks of the anthropocene. Carved out and presented like a specimen for a museum, the object’s material legacy sits uneasily: a puzzle and problem hiding in plain sight. What would archaeologists of the future make of this?
Ruth Watson - Judge

Merit Award -Local Artist 4 Art Sake Gallery
Linda Clews (Ohope)
Bridge Between Two Walls

This delicate work speaks directly to connecting entities at right angles...  tiny sets of woven net and ties thread their way over a void, precariously spanning the gap. It’s a bridge that can’t be trusted, although it could easily grow in strength, breadth and extent. Perhaps it’s a subtle siren song to an even more connected future.
Ruth Watson - Judge

Peoples Choice Award
Bernie Harfleet and Donna Turtle Sarten (Auckland)

Voted by the people.

2020 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award 3D Exhibition
 
Selected finalists are:
 
Karin Barr,-37.947279,176.991312 (Whakatane River)
Morrinsville
 
Kathryn Bartlett, Me, Myself, I
Auckland
 
Bond Tony, Spacific Object 12
Christchurch
 
Bond Tony, Spacific Object 11
Christchurch
 
Susanne Boonen, ‘Tears – Ode to Oma’
Whakatane
 
Louie Bretana, Sisikat Muli Ang Arao
Auckland
 
Samuel Brierley, Heatsunk
Whakatane
 
Oliver Cain, Fruit Bowl II
Auckland
 
Anna-Rose Carpenter, What’s at hand – Concept Bag
Pukekohe
 
Cathy Carter, Devonian Reefs
Auckland
 
Madeleine Child, Like Topsy
Dunedin
 
Madeleine Child, Bezoar
Dunedin
 
Linda Clews, Bridge Between Two Walls
Ohope
 
Marion Courtille, Growth 006
Napier
 
Mary Curtis, Lament
Auckland
 
Terry Dwyer, Gehenna and Meraki
Nelson
 
Chauncey Flay, Pink Coralscape IV
New Plymouth
 
Stuart Forsyth, Useful object-remnants from a break up
Wellington
 
Aaron Frater, Clairmont Furnishings Factory
Wellington

Wanda Gillespie, Higher Consciousness Integrating Calculator (with Gumnut) 4
Auckland
 
Natalie Guy, The Weight of the Door
Auckland
 
Elizabeth Haider, Tohora Iti
Tauranga
 
Bernie Harfleet and Donna Turtle Sarten, Blow
Auckland
 
Sarah Harvey, Tui & Harakeke
Runanga
 
Volker Hawighorst, Self-Portrait #5
New Plymouth
 
Volker Hawighorst, Prime Numbers V
New Plymouth
 
Natchez Hudson, Gone Dwanaland
Wellington
 
Conor Jeory, Taiaha Triptych “1770 Tūranganui-a-kiwa, Poverty Bay.”
Gisborne
 
Conor Jeory, Toy
Gisborne
 
John Johnston, The Last Straw
Auckland
 
Paul Johnston, Table of Contents 2019 - $9,900
Auckland
 
Maggy Johnston, Great Gran
Richmond
 
Chuck Joseph, Savage Street No Exit
Auckland
 
Roger Kelly, Note to Self
Napier
 
Oliver King, In any given room I will stand and give a speech
Auckland
 
Monique Lacey, It’s like Pushing Shit Uphill
Auckland
 
Kim Logue, The terrestrial web
Auckland
 
Kelly McDonald, DIY IUDs
Wellington
 
Victoria Mcintosh, Empty Vessel
Dunedin
 
Lucy Meyle, Evergreen Scrunchie (accessory for a willow tree)
Auckland
 
Kiya Nancarrow, Surface Tension
Waiheke
 
Ainsley O’Connell, Mother’s Little Helpers
Auckland
 
Heather Olesen, Transition
Morrinsville
 
Neal Palmer, Rolling the Dice ‘Cunts are still running the world’
Auckland
 
Lisa Passmore, Cross-Culturalism
Waihi
 
Andrew Rankin, Double beam
Auckland
 
Frances Rood, Here to there and back again
Auckland
 
Liz Sharek, The Imperfect is Our Paradise
Auckland
 
Moniek Schrijer, Consult the oracle – necklace/ring/object
Wellington
 
Shelley Simpson, Amalgam
Auckland
 
Marie Strauss, For the Love of Gold
Mosgiel

Sorawit Songsataya, Morning Dew
Wellington

Di Tocker, Ship of Fools
Cambridge
 
Telly Tuita, Three Graces - U'ufoasini, Akale'a, Ta'alea
Wellington
 
Hannah Valentine, Anytime (I.G)
Tauranga
 

                                                                                  
The Molly Morpeth Canaday Award 3D nurtures and promotes three-dimensional arts nationally by providing a professional platform for artists working in the areas of sculpture, installation and contemporary craft.
 
Presented by Arts Whakatāne and Whakatāne District Council, this national award aims to support artists by presenting 3D work across a range of disciplines; and to engage a national discussion about contemporary 3D arts practice and its presentation in New Zealand.

These awards have been made possible through the generous support of the Molly Morpeth Canaday Fund, established by Frank Canaday in memory of his wife, Molly Morpeth Canaday. The Trust has been a major supporter of the arts in Whakatāne for over twenty five years.

Dates:

Exhibition dates: Sunday 16 February – Sunday 12 April 2020

Location: Te Kōputu a te whanga a Toi - Whakatāne Library and Exhibition Centre


Judged by:

Guest judge - Ruth Watson
Ruth Watson is a multi-disciplinary artist who has worked in sculpture, video installation, photography and painting for several decades, in New Zealand and abroad. Her outdoor sculpture of four globes, titled Other Worlds, has been on display outside Te Papa for the Wellington Sculpture Trust 4 Plinths project and was the 2015 Fulbright-Wallace Arts Trust Award recipient. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland.


Pre-selection judges

Deborah Rundle
In 2018 Deborah was the inaugural holder of the British School at Rome / Wallace Arts Trust Residency. Also in 2018, she won the Molly Morpeth Canaday 3D award with Employee of the Month. Deborah is based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Principally utilising text, she investigates the ways in which power plays out in the social and political domain in order to muse on possibilities for change.


Virginia Leonard
Virginia Leonard’s work has been exhibited extensively. In 2017 she was the recipient of an international ceramic residency at Guldagergaard, Denmark. Featured in 100 Sculptures of Tomorrow published by Thames and Hudson, London and is represented in NZ, Sydney, Miami and Geneva.

Jamie Boynton
Jamie is a Contemporary Maori Artist known for his attention to detail and fine application of tools and technology. Jamie actively engages in sustainable practices such as carbon offsetting (tree planting), and recycling. His artistic style reflects his desire to use art as a vehicle to influence positive social change. Jamie has received many awards for his work from an art and design career that spans over twenty years.

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Awards

Major Award $10,000
Molly Morpeth Canaday Trust
Runner up Award $4000
Akel Family Award
Craigs Investment Partners Youth 3D Award $2,500
Craigs Investment Partners
Arts Whakatāne Award $1,000
Arts Whakatāne
Robinson Law Award $1,000
Robinson Law
Plus 5 Merit Awards

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Organiser

Arts Whakatāne

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Exhibition Partner

Whakatāne District Council

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Major Sponsor

Molly Morpeth Canaday Trust

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