An eye on the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture
Nardoo Flag Wave by Tom Nicholson
Tom Nicholson, practising artist and lecturer in Fine Art at the Faculty of Art & Design at Monash University, has been named a finalist in the prestigious Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture.
The Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture, held every three years, focuses on the urban environment and the importance of sculptural practice, and its role in informing and enriching public life and civic spaces.
Tom said the Melbourne Prize is a great chance to make an ambitious and experimental work in the public sphere.
“The Prize is a great asset for artists and for this city. Art in the public sphere is often hampered by pragmatic and political constraints, so it is great to be able to make a work for a really significant civic site without the limitations of durability and excessive bureaucratic processes.”
Tom described his work for the Melbourne Prize as an attempt to re-think the monument.
“My work looks to reject the overblown meanings that are part of the failure of the classical monument but also to find my way into the monument’s domain: a form which addresses us in a public context about shared histories and a collective future,” said Mr Nicholson.
This is not the first time Tom has been named a finalist in this competition. In 2008 he won the Professional Development Award for his sculpture entry, Monument for the flooding of Royal Park, which included a three-month residency at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Sculptural works by the six finalists will be on display at Federation Square from 7-21 November.
The overall winner of the competition, who will take home $60,000, will be announced 9 November.
Visit www.melbourneprizetrust.org for further information.