News & Events
College of Fine Arts | The University of New South Wales - Sydney - Australia
COFA student wins the 2009 Blake Prize for Religious Art | The College of Fine Arts
COFA student wins the 2009 Blake Prize for Religious Art | The College of Fine Arts
News
COFA student wins the 2009 Blake Prize for Religious Art
Article released: Friday, 04 September, 2009
Detail from Angelica Mesiti’s Rapture (silent anthem) Photo courtesy of the Artist.
The 58th Blake Priz e of $20,000 has been awarded to artist and COFA student Angelica Mesiti for a silent video work entitled [Rapture (silent anthem)] . Filmed from a concealed position beneath the stage at the Big Day Out music festival, Mesiti’s camera looks out at a sea of ecstatic young faces. In a unanimous decision, the judges praised it for its beauty, emotional intensity and technical virtuosity. An enigmatic work that operates on many levels, Rapture depicts the joy of being alive while also hinting at the darker aspects of religious emotion.
Mesiti is better known for her involvement in the Kingpins, an all female artistic foursome who play with the gaps in and between with an infinite series of transgressive drag acts, utilising elements taken from mainstream media, pop culture and art history, to comment on issues of gender, sex, public space, consumerism and corporate branding.
The Blake Prize for Religious Art was established in 1951 and is the oldest prize in Australia dedicated to spirituality, religion and cultural diversity. It is a $20,000 annual non-acquisitive prize.
To view and excerpt of Angelica Mesiti's 2009 Blake Prize winning work, Rapture (silent anthem), please visit: http://tv.unsw.edu.au/video/angelica-mesiti-rapture-silent-anthem-excerpt