THE Pro Hart Outback Art Prize People’s Choice Award has been won by former Broken Hill City Art Gallery manager Blake Griffiths for his work The Shearers.
Griffiths said he made the work while on a residency in Iceland, reflecting on his time in Broken Hill, the role of shearing and more broadly, the agricultural industry that he grew up with.
“I feel thrilled to receive the People’s Choice Award for the Pro Hart Outback Art Prize,” he said.
“Winning the democratically awarded prize perhaps feels even better than the open award!
“Thanks to all the individuals in town who cast their vote for my work and who took the time to think about the work.”
Griffith’s work transcribes an archival image of a group of shearers holding blade shears and their partly shorn merino sheep, with the original photo being estimated to have been made in about 1870.
