Now I’ll be honest, I’ve never been able to get my head round modern art.
Nevertheless clearly there are people who seem to get a kick out of almost anything.
So a New Zealand woman, POPPY LEKNER has just scooped the £12000 prize for an A4 piece of paper filled with nothing but thousands of forward-slash characters.
Her “FORWARD SLASH” creation came top of 482 entries submitted to what the local press described as a “prestigious competition.”
What’s more she only created it the day before entries closed.
Whilst admitting that her work might not be everyone’s cup of tea, she told reporters that although she’s worked on lots of different explorations using the typewriter, she had never previously committed as much time and effort as on this work, which she said had required dedication “because using a typewriter to mark make is seriously laborious and needed intense concentration.”
“It’s very easy to make a mistake on a very detailed, very fine thing”, she said adding that “the piece was a different way to look at what drawing can be”.
Well she’s got plenty of time to “DASH ONE” out ready for next year!
Charlotte Davy, head of art at New Zealand’s national museum, TE PAPA, who judged this year’s competition said of the winning entry,”It’s such a beautiful… minimal work where she’s really exploring a kind of meditation of process, literally just repeating forward-slash over and over again … creating a beautiful woven pattern, I felt it was really delicate, strong, and it spoke a lot to me about finding a place of contemplation in a world that feels quite chaotic.”
Among other entries was a jumbled pile of old carpet removed from an old state house.
Stiff competition then!
Coming back into the real world I was joined in the second hour by Margaret Mills who reported on the Essex postman, Samuel Wyatt, who in 1833 received an award for his dedication to his work which involved him trudging his round of 26 miles every day for 30 years!
Listen here to what Margaret told me about this incredible chap: –
See you again next week,
Scott
