Greek Australian visual artist and vocalist Tina Stefanou has been awarded the 68th Blake Prize in the emerging artist category.
Stefanou, who lives at Wattle Glen in Victoria, was awarded for her single-channel video work with sound, titled Backbreeding.
The work intertwines vocal workshops, community rituals, and farm practices to delve into the significance of grain and wool within a Wheatbelt community in rural Western Australia.
It features a massive piece of farming machinery dressed in a woollen suit. Locals spent nine days sewing the costume – made from raw wool donated from farms in the area – for the 1986 John Deere tractor.
“We dressed up the tractor and we created a performance work in the middle of a canola field,” Stefanou told ABC News. “And we pull this giant sculptural work through the field — it’s quite a surreal piece.”
The Blake Emerging Artist Prize comes with a $6,000 cash prize. Stefanou hopes to continue her creative research by following the journey of Australian grain on ships to communities where it’s processed overseas.
Source: ABC News.
