The Walters Prize 2010

1. What is the background to the Walters Prize?

The Walters prize is a New Zealand based Art award which is awarded every two years. It is supposedly regraded as one of the best achievements In New Zealand's visual arts.

The winning prize includes an all expenses paid trip to New York City, where they exhibit the world famous Saatchi & Saatchi world headquarters and the prize money of NZ $50,000.

2. List the 4 selected artists for 2010 and briefly describe their work.

Alex Monteith (Passing Manoevre)

-Created a double view (front and backside) of a motorbike moving through traffic and spaces. yet the the whole time you were unable to see the other motorbike filming the bike.

Dan Arps (Explaining Things)

-Consisted of found objects place together. it gave the effect of challenging the barriers of what is art and what is not. The objects placed together were both from the art world and real world such as objects found in homes.

Saskia Leek (Yellow is the Putty of the World)

Worked with abstract painting which was very appealing to the eye through the use of old school pastel colors.

Fionna Connor (Something Transparent)

Her work consisted of large building frameworks which gave the effect of confusion.

3. Who are the jury members for 2010?

Rhana Devenport, Leonhard Emmerling, Jon Bywater and Kate Montgomery.

4. Who is the judge for 2010 and what is his position in the art world?

Vicente Todoli is the Judge for 2010 Walters prize award. He is the Tate Modern Director of the Serralves Museuem of Contemporary Art in Porto, Portugal( a highly regarded Museum).

he has had a career in visual arts for over 20 years in which he has had many top positions in the Visual Arts industry where he has had the chance to collaborate along with many other museums and galleries. (http://www.tate.org.uk/about/pressoffice/pressreleases/tatemoderndirector.htm)

5. Who would you nominate for this years Walter's Prize, and why? Substantiate

you answer by outlining the strengths of the artists work. How does this relate

to your interests in art? What aspect of their work is successful in your opinion,

in terms of ideas, materials and/or installation of the work?

To be honest i personally didn't really find the work produced that interesting apart from Alex Monteiths ‘Passing Manouvre’. I would nominate his work as the most successful purely through the way the that it was new, exiting and very interesting both in the way it had been constructed an the thoughts and feelings that it provoked. For me the technical difficulty of how the filmed it was interesting for me to try to think about their processes in doing so. It provoked feelings of distress as it reminded me of sitting through traffic and how annoying it can be. I have always wondered what exactly it would be like to ride a motorbike on roads an how cool it would be to just by pass traffic without having to wait a couple of hours just to get to your destination. this relates to my interest in art in how i love to find out the secret behinds artists processes and works. I feel that the installation was constructed almost forced you to side down and enjoy the ride this i think is y it was successful in my opinion.