Village sculptor acknowledged

Louisa Rust

While it may not be renowned for its art scene, Shellharbour was represented in the finals of a prestigious national art prize recently by Shellharbour village resident Anita Larkin.

Ms Larkin’s sculpture Conduit was chosen as a finalist for the Wynne Prize, the landscape and figurative sculpture section of a competition that also encompasses the famous Archibald Prize for portraits and the Sulman Prize for subject and genre painting and mural projects.

This year there were 1973 entrants across the three prizes, with only 100 selected as finalists.

Ms Larkin said her artwork was a response to the way society communicates since the advent of new technologies such as mobile phones and the Internet.

“In our technology-based society, communication is often a secondary communication,” she said.

“A person relates information to their computer or types text on a mobile phone, and then the communication is relayed from that technology on to another person.

“Although technology has brought us all closer together, allowing easier communication with people from all over the world, in other ways it has separated people from each other by replacing face to face communication.”

Ms Larkin said her artwork was a wearable sculpture for two people, connecting them at the head, heart and feet.

“It is an apparatus for direct and intimate communication between two people: A felt conduit connecting two people by mind, heart and sole.

“The felt was made by hand using the hair of several sheep. Felt is an intriguing material that is both primitive yet industrial, a primal material with its roots deep in ancient nomadic cultures.”

This is just one of several recent successes for Ms Larkin, who will hold a solo exhibition of her work at the Defiance Gallery in Newton, Sydney, next year, and was also chosen as a finalist for the Wynne Prize in 2006.

“I’ve always had a passion for making things,” she said.

Ms Larkin’s art work, along with those of the other finalists and prize winners, will be on show at the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, until May 18.