Ethical art prize 2007 winner - Isabella Mackay
Artists were required to reflect on the Australian Ethical Charter© to design an ethical artwork.
Works were exhibited at the Tap Gallery in Darlinghurst NSW during May 2007.
The competition was proudly supported by Australian Ethical Investment, with a prize of $1000.
Artist’s statement:
The concerns that underpin much of my art practice radiate from the core idea of interplay between connection and dissociation with our environment. The development of our social and economic structures insulates and separates us from the natural elements and cycles. This dissociation hangs on reductionist philosophy and is reiterated in economic models that are inherently limiting, denying a place for the environment and its services. The resulting activity violates the web of life by fracturing it into units incapable of functioning as a whole and creates misguided perceptions and illusions that are inevitably unsustainable. Our responsibility for the current environmental crisis is undeniable and demands our commitment to use our power of change to aid not hinder the resilience and regeneration of the ecosphere.
That’s why it is so heartening to see initiatives such as ethical investments reshaping the value system underlying the use of capital in Australia. Its support for the Tap gallery, an artist-run collective, often at the forefront of inquiry into ethical issues, provides a forum for emerging visual and performing artists at a grassroots level.
The triptych I entered in the ethical investment prize looks at how past and present practices leach the environment and undermine the potential of future generations. This is reiterated in the use of a white on white embossing technique from lino plates, creating a minimal leached effect. It simultaneously draws on the beauty and complexity of patterns and symbiotic relations in natural systems and their destruction. Titled Respect your elders (clear fell logging), Pass the salt (Salination), Lions and Tigers drink it (water way degradation) this series is a quite literal interpretation of our collision course with the global environment.
Thanks to all involved at the Tap gallery and Ethical Investments for creating such opportunities for emerging artists.
