I am honoured and honestly a little overwhelmed to announce that I am a finalist in the Aesthetica Art Prize 2023. I have been selected for The Seagrass Walk, my installation at the National Marine Aquarium. I found out a little while ago and have been trying to process the tumult of feelings that followed. I am awash with joy, excitement, nerves, and something I don’t have a word for but that comes of having my work recognised in this way. Aesthetica are hugely important and highly respected, and the prize is one of the biggest of its kind. Achieving this kind of recognition for my work is deeply special, and deeply moving.
Hilariously, when I got the email congratulating me and say I am a finalist, it caught me completely off guard. I had genuinely forgotten I’d entered. I submitted The Seagrass Walk in a state of brain fog and exhaustion just after the installation opened, and then forgot I’d done it. To discover that not only had I entered but I was a finalist was a truly wonderful surprise, made more wonderful once I spotted this note on my ever-growing submissions spreadsheet: ‘Did exhausted so maybe not the best representation of my work but the best I’ve got.’
It turns out that the best I had was more than good enough. I want to thank my past self for somehow finding the energy to try. It was worth it.
Finalists for the Aesthetica Art Prize get included in an anthology publication, get free tickets to the annual symposium and a free portfolio review, get promoted on social media, and most excitingly are part of a group show in the York Art Gallery. The show opens with a Private View on March 23rd and will be open until June. I have bought my train ticket to York and booked a bunk in the YHA dorm rooms. I cannot wait to see my work among the other finalists.
As The Seagrass Walk is an entire corridor, including fish tanks, it obviously can’t move to York. However. thankfully, the video portion of the installation can play in the gallery, and so that’s what will be in show. I’ve never made a piece of film work before, so showing it feels extra special and extra scary. It also feel well earned, after all, it was the film I almost froze getting footage for.
Right now, as I share this incredible news with you all, I want to thank Aesthetica. Making art is a wonderful thing, but it can also be lonely. Making art about the climate crisis is essential, but it can also be heart-breaking. To have The Seagrass Walk held up and recognised in this way is exactly what I need to help me keep going and keep working.
I cannot wait for York and sharing stories of the exhibit with you all. But that’s next month, until then, the van is calling me.
Tremendous news! From what I read and follow, this only makes sense! Onward!!
What superb news! Hope you are awarded the prize!
Marika (your loving grandmother)