The COFA Blog

Fleur Audet Google competition shortlisted images

Congratulations to COFA third year Bachelor of Fine Arts photomedia major student, Fleur Audet, for being chosen as the only Australian entrant shortlisted in the global Google Photography Prize. Over 3,500 entries were received from 82 countries, including Australia, India, Moldova, Poland, Ghana, France, Germany, Chile, Peru, Mexico, the US, the UK and Saudi Arabia, with 36 entries shorlisted for the public to vote online for their top six. The competition was launched in collaboration with the Saatchi Gallery, with the public voted top six being flown to London for the opening night of an exhibition of their work at the Saatchi Gallery, on display from the 24th to the 28th of June. The overall winner was decided by a panel of art critics and artists, including Idris Khan, Martin Parr, Michael Hoppen, Susanna Brown, Tim Marlow and Mariella Frostrup, and announced on June 23 2009, and will receive £5,000.

Shortlisted candidate Fleur Audet, submitted six winning images that reflect her everyday experiences.

“I approached developing my entry for the iGoogle Photography Competition much like I approach a lot of my work: without too much thought and with gut instinct. Within 10 minutes of reading the guidelines for the competition I’d chosen 5 photos that I liked the most, which I’d decided would be my simple selection criteria. My thought process was something along the line of ‘ If I like them, hopefully other people will too.” Fleur explains.

“The inherent theme in my photographs is of the everyday and the commonplace. It’s hard to describe the incredible allure of the everyday photograph. They are passing moments often disregarded in their mediocrity and familiarity, I find myself drawn to them. It’s looking over your fence into your neighbour’s backyard on an autumn afternoon and seeing leaves in their pool and thinking - I must record it.”

Text ammeded from June 12 Google blog article posted by Katharina Friedrich, Google Product Marketing Manager

When: Fri, 3 Jul, ‘09
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art

Bonita Ely, Near Barmah: Pash, inkjet print, 2007.

COFA Co-ordinator for Sculpture, Performance & Installation Studies, Bonita Ely, will hold an exhibition of photographs taken over three years, from 2007 to 2009, of the Murray River in drought called The Murray’s Edge, at The Art Gallery of New South wales. The artwork traces the river and its environment from the headwaters in the Mount Kosciosko Natonal Park to the Murray’s mouth at Goolwa, South Australia.

WHERE: AGNSW
Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Exhibition in the south room of the contemporary galleries, level 2.

WHEN: Wednesday 24 June to October 2009
OPENING Wednesday, 24 June, 6pm.

Prize: $1,000 award    Deadline: July 10 2009

SITEMAP AND DESIGN TEMPLATES

Eligible students
Any COFA student, or group of students (up to 5 students per group), who are interested in becoming involved with designing the ANNUAL exhibition website, which also be used to create DVD and catalogue. The website will be viewed by creative studios, the public and potential employees. The website will be hosted by the College of Fine Arts.
The development of the website will be managed through the COFA Marketing Department.
The selected design will be adopted for use on the:
• COFA Annual 2009 Website
• COFA Annual 2009 DVD Interface

Brief
To design a sitemap that sets out the navigation of the website, and to create design templates for each corresponding
webpage. The visual identity of the website must be consistent with the winning design of the ‘letter A’ logo from Competition 1; this includes the style and colour palette. The website must be visually engaging and appealing.
The individual/team behind the winning pitch will then have the opportunity to work with technical experts from COFA’s CSU to put the website together.

Considerations
• The website will be used by the general public and hence the website must be user friendly, intuitive and easy to navigate.
• The design should render correctly and accurately across all major computer and all major web browsers on these
platforms.
• The visual outcome should be consistent with the winning 2009 COFA Annual branding from Competition 1.
(refer to file ‘Annual A 09′ below & http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/newsevents/news/news_0228.html)
• It is highly recommended that interested parties review previous COFA ANNUAL DVDs and websites to understand content
and functionality requirements. Contact COFA Marketing Office for copies in G102.

Elements to be submitted
• A sitemap (as a diagram) to demonstrate how each page is structurally related.
• A mock-up of a proposed visual identity.

Format for submissions
• Hardcopy, electronic samples or an online mock-up of the sitemap and webpage design templates.
• Name, student number, class and contact details on all submissions. The details of all contributors should be included.

Viability of submissions
• The proposed website design must be viable and achievable in terms of deliverability.

Submission Process
• Hardcopy or electronic versions of the sitemap and webpage design templates will be submitted to the Marketing
Department in G102 or email j.bosben@unsw.edu.au on or before July 10 2009.

Selection Process
• The Marketing Department will contact the student or group of students who were responsible for the selected pitch which
will be announced on July 17 2009.

Following Selection
• The winning individual/team will meet up with the Marketing Department and CSU to discuss the production process and to
begin production.

Shaun Gladwell, Apology to Roadkill (1 – 6), 2007–2009, production still, cinematography: Gotaro Uematsu, photography: Josh Raymond, courtesy the artist & Anna Schwartz Gallery

In terms of international art-world success, Australia has hit the big time.  This year in June, five Australian artists, a curator, five post graduate students and four undergraduate students will head to Venice to participate in the oldest and one of the most significant visual arts events in the world – the Venice Biennale.

For Australia, this is an important achievement.  But for COFA, to which each of these people can be connected, the achievement is even greater.  Never in the history of Australia’s involvement in major international art biennales has one educational institution been so represented.

The 53rd Venice Biennale is COFA’s time to shine. COFA graduate Shaun Gladwell is Australia’s formal representative at the Venice.  The national and international buzz around Gladwell and his riveting, street-smart art is considered by many to be unprecedented. Shaun Gladwell will return to Venice after receiving worldwide acclaim at the last Biennale exhibition. This year Shaun will present his work MADDESTMAXIMVS in the Australian Pavilion. Influenced by the Australian desert landscape and Mad Max movies, Shaun’s work is a suite of videos accompanied by sound, photographic and sculptural works.

Selected by the Australia Council to curate the associated Venice Biennale show, Once Removed at The Ludoteca, Felicity Fenner, is about to fast-gear the careers of four other Australian artists. They include the nationally celebrated artistic duo of Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, both graduates from COFA, Aboriginal-Chinese artist, Vernon Ah Kee, and Japanese-Australian artist, Ken Yonetani. Once Removed features three installations unified by themes of displacement and Indigenous and environmental issues. Claire and Sean’s installation is a five-metre tower of 195,774 video tapes commandeering a 16th century church.
Fenner, a lecturer and curator at COFA, is herself no stranger to acclaim after the curatorial success of her 2008 Adelaide Biennale.   Anyone who saw it would expect no less of Once Removed.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of Australia’s participation in the 2009 Venice Biennale is the degree to which all parts of artistic endeavour, including the study and teaching of, will be represented.   Travelling to Venice to support the installation of the Australian artworks are two groups of specialist art students.  One group, on full scholarship supported by the Australia Council and COFA, will help install The Ludoteca show and Shaun Gladwell’s installation at the Australian Pavilion in the Giardini.   These COFA Master of Art Administration students include Marissa Bateman, Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, Marcel Cooper, Rebecca Goosen and Danielle Hairs.

The other group heading to Venice, including Jane Cleary, Elizabeth Thorpe, Jess Haley, and Lisa Rumble, is comprised of keen COFA undergraduate art education students. Tasked by the Australia Council to produce an educational toolkit on the Venice Biennale and Australia’s participation for use in all Australian schools, these soon-to-be art teachers are fulfilling an official role and will leave a lasting reminder of Australia’s growing artistic status in the world.

What: La Biennale di Venezia

Where: Venice, Italy:

- Once Removed, Artists: Vernon Ah Kee, Ken Yonetani, Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro

When: 7th June to November 27th 2009

Media Contact: COFA Marketing | 9385 0744 | marketing@cofa.unsw.edu.au
Click here to access the COFA Heads to Venice media release: http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/newsevents/mediareleases/media_0028.html

Watch Mad Max, the desert and towering videotapes YouTube video here, A 3 minute video talking to Felicity Fenner, Claire Healy & Sean Codeiro and COFA Dean Ian Howard about the 2009 Venice Biennale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywC-SPJ5xrU.