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Tags: Arts, awards and prizes, centenary-edition, UQ Art Museum

A Sydney artist has harnessed the power of surprise and the forces of gravity to win a major art prize established by UQ.

Artist Julie Rrap in front of her winning video work, self portrait 360 degrees

Julie Rrap received the $50,000 University of Queensland National Artists’ Self-Portrait Prize on November 27, edging out 33 other entries from across the country and the Torres Strait.

Judge Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, said that Ms Rrap’s entry, 360° self portrait, was the outstanding work in a strong field.

“Julie Rrap’s entry is an ambitious and ambiguous piece. The viewer is drawn in by the emotional drama, as the morphing face appears to reflect some inner turmoil or react to something beyond the camera. In reality, the changes are the result of centrifugal force as the artist spins through 360°, the title of the work,” Ms Macgregor said.

To create the self-portrait, the artist was installed into a machine which rotated the artist’s body as a camera recorded the action.

The viewer watches the artist’s face as it contorts due to the forces of gravity, but is unaware of the mechanics behind the work.

The biennial prize was established in 2007 and complements the University’s special collection of self-portraits, the only one of its kind in the country.

“Entry to this award is by invitation only, and we were delighted by the high standard of works that artists submitted in 2009,” Art Museum Director Nick Mitzevich said.

Julie Rrap is one of Australia’s most prominent artists, working in the areas of photography, video, sculpture and installation.

Her work has been featured in major Australian and international exhibitions including the Biennale of Sydney in 1986, 1988 and 1992, with a major survey, Julie Rrap: Body Double on show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2007–08, accompanied by a comprehensive monograph featuring her work.

Mr Mitzevich said new media, particularly video and multimedia, has had a significant impact on the changing nature of portraiture.

“Whether artists are using the self-portrait to mask or reveal the self, or employ non-representational modes as a form of self-portrayal, it is clear that the genre of the self-portrait has been revitalised in recent years,” he said.

The self-portrait prize exhibition was the UQ Art Museum’s final show of 2009 and attracted thousands of visitors between November and January.

By Cameron Pegg

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