Art’s Alive at Arc

Arc Yinnar Biennial Drawing Prize                

October 15 – November 26, 2016      

Image of Alexandra Sasse at Arc Yinnar
Visiting Arc Yinnar Drawing Prize

  

There’s a converted butter factory in a small town tucked into the green rolling foothills of the Strzelecki ranges, where the main street is wide and cars are parked at 45 degree angles. Anyone who can spell Strzelecki must be a local. This is Yinnar on the doorstep of the still-operating Hazelwood coal-fired power station, subject of much debate and despair.

There’s a Drawing Prize here of national repute. Despite the rhetoric of demographic disasters: job losses, mine fires, pollution, asbestos and the rest,  Arc Yinnar an artist run venture has been operating for 32 years. As well as hosting a national prize, it boasts two galleries, public access facilities for printmaking, ceramics, metalwork, photography, painting and drawing, a retail outlet, theatrette and private studios. All this on a shoestring grant of $3000. When the lights go out at Hazelwood, this sort of cooperative venture is what keeps communities afloat and shores up their identity. Its funding should be assured for the long term, but I am told it is reduced every year and tied to utilitarian outcomes.

A drawing show throws up immediate questions; how much drawing is going on, what do people draw and what do they draw for

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Highly Commended, Arc Yinnar Drawing Prize 2016

Alexandra Sasse Highly Commended in arc Yinnar drawing prize 2016 Drawing of Hawthorn looking across to Richmond and Abbotsford from Swinburne University

“A sophisticated observational drawing of a kind not seen often nowadays. The work employed a minimal range of drawn marks to represent a grand view, full of space and depth, and subtly guiding the eye to move from focal point to focal point. A devoted attentiveness is beautifully maintained.” Judges John Wolseley and Geoffrey Dupree