By Marco Ceccarelli
Of the 44 artworks shortlisted for this year’s Mandorla Art Award, it was Megan Robert’s The Bread Basket at Emmaus – the Flesh returned to Word which was chosen as the worthy recipient of the St John of God Health Care Prize.
Two Highly Commended prizes, sponsored by the Catholic Archdiocese of Perth and the Anglican Diocese of Perth, were also awarded during the opening night of the 10 day Mandorla Art Exhibition on Friday, 15 July 2016, at the Linton & Kay Galleries – Perth.
Camilla Loveridge, with her piece titled Over Jerusalem, was awarded the Catholic prize, while Libby Byrne was awarded the Anglican prize for her piece Resurrection: A daily navigation (awarded in absentia).
The 2016 judges, Dr Petra Kayser, Prof Ted Snell and Rev Tom Elich, were impressed with Ms Robert’s artwork as it expressed the mystery of The Resurrection – the theme chosen for this year’s art award – through the story of the journey to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-35).
Ms Robert’s Bread Basket is made from the pages of three bibles carefully rolled into scrolls and then machine sewn together with red thread.
Speaking to The eRecord, Ms Roberts, who is originally from New South Wales, explained the reasoning behind her decision to create this particular artwork, referring to the act of Jesus emptying Himself to be the Bread of Life.
“In approaching the theme of The Resurrection, I felt it was important to convey both death and life in the piece and a vessel is a great metaphor for capturing both absence and presence. In trying to raise Jesus in the work by ‘stitching Him back together’, I also created his death, by taking out each page of the Bible and rolling them up so they can’t be read.” Ms Roberts said.
“The resurrected Jesus walking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus really captured my imagination, especially the part where He is recognized as He breaks the bread. The world of the disciples had fallen apart, the script they knew had come undone and as Jesus walks with them, he takes their undone script and on their journey, stitches it back together again, the rolled up pages of death open but in a new way,” she added.
“The work points to Jesus. It’s not about me and it’s not even about art, it’s about Jesus. The living Jesus feeds us by his Word, he walks with us and in the same way He was raised to life, He is ‘stitching’ us back together again too, in this life and in the next.”
The judges were also impressed with Camilla Loverdige’s work, describing it as “a beautifully worked, tactile painting of a landscape. Attached to the surface of the painting is a brittle white round shape, which makes the absent body of Christ, present through the host.”
A Perth resident, former art teacher and full-time practitioner of art since 2005, Ms Loveridge described her work as “the burnt terrain of humanity and life.”
She spoke of her love for renaissance art and of wanting to bring the ancient and historic alive through her painting. “The painting is about a past event, a historical event, but it is also part of the present, particularly in regards to a site that has been characterised by conflict over the centuries.
“The host is superimposed over the tomb as a presence and I believe this has a very ‘now’ tactical quality. I wanted to bring history into the present, a present which is redemption through the resurrection of Christ.
Ms Loveridge also saw her work as “a microcosm for the globe – a small aspect of the bigger picture of humanity if you like
“When I speak about that burnt terrain of humanity and life I want to suggest that suffering is part of being human. In suffering we grow, and through suffering we connect with each other. To be downtrodden and scourged like Christ on the cross, that common suffering can pull us together. If we believe in the greater good, a God, then there is hope. Hope for the future, hope for now,” Ms Loveridge said.
Chair of the Mandorla committee and lecturer in theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Dr Angela McCarthy spoke at the awards evening about Mandorla’s ability to create a place where religious art may be showcased, appreciated and supported.
“The mandorla art award seeks to provide and avenue for artists to express religious themes based on the bible and to connect with other artists. We provide material about our themes and encourage the artists to express the richness of our Christian beliefs in a way that enlightens our understanding and forms valuable ways of forming new understandings of biblical stories and themes.
“Artists help us form our understanding of God and therefore draw us closer to God,” Dr McCarthy said.
The People’s Choice award will be announced when selected artworks tour to New Norcia this year.
The Mandorla Art Award for contemporary religious art is Australia’s most significant thematic religious art prize, attracting some of the country’s finest artists since its 1985 inception.
For more information, visit www.mandorlaart.com