Category Archives: awards

awards, exhibitions, sculpture

Yarra Valley Arts/Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition & Awards

13 October – 8 December 2019 Yering Station 38 Melba Hwy Yarra Glen 3775 Australia

Carmel Wallace REFUGE 2017/8 Recycled safety-net, pine needles, thread. Size:variable (8m x 230cm x 15cm fully extended). photo by Kristian Laemmle-Ruff
Carmel Wallace REFUGE 2017/8
Recycled safety-net, pine needles, thread.
Size:variable (8m x 230cm x 15cm fully extended)
WINNER of the YERING STATION SCULPTURE AWARD

Created in Billilla gardens during my 2017/18 Bayside Artist Residency, Refuge embodies migration, resilience and shelter. This work is made of fallen pine needles both thickly matted on the floor and threaded into a discarded trampoline safety-net. The tree that provided the needles is a migrant pine species from the Canary Islands off Africa. Unique in shape as a result of a lightning strike in 1918, it is listed on the National Trust register for its ‘curious form’ and celebrated for its difference. Although bearing the scars of a survivor, it is appreciated for its beauty and contribution of shade and shelter for birds, possums, insects and humans in the public garden where it grows. Many people worked with me under this tree to create Refuge and in doing so celebrate difference, community and contribution.

awards, exhibitions

Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize Finalist 2015

I have been selected as a finalist in this year’s Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize with my work Daphne.

CARMEL WALLACE_Daphne 2015_fiberglass reinforced plastic; recycled manufactured leaves_L 77cm x w 14.5cm x h 12.5cm
CARMEL WALLACE_Daphne 2015_fiberglass reinforced plastic; recycled manufactured leaves_L 77cm x w 14.5cm x h 12.5cm

Daphne was inspired by the Laurel tree in the Portland Botanical Gardens and the myth of Apollo and Daphne that has been interpreted widely in art and literature. According to myth, Daphne is transformed into a Laurel tree so she can escape the advances of Apollo. In the words of Andrew Marvell:

                                                The Gods, that mortal Beauty chase,

                                                Still in a Tree did end their race.

                                                Apollo hunted Daphne so,

                                                Only that She might Laurel grow.

                                                                                    The Garden 1681

This myth is pertinent in a contemporary environmental context where recognition of our relationship with the natural world and the interconnectedness of all life forms underpin the development of solutions to current issues.