‘This Vital Arc’: OZ Minerals metro copper sculpture award winner exhibits work
10 Aug 2011
Today – on the lawns outside TAFE SA – Adelaide College of the Arts, the OZ Minerals Copper Sculpture for 2011 will be unveiled.
The copper sculpture ‘This Vital Arc’ is part of the South Australian Arts Living (SALA) Festival. Adelaide based sculptor and educator Chris Ormerod was the metropolitan winner of the 2011 OZ Minerals Copper Sculpture Award which provided copper and funding to complete his work.
‘This Vital Arc’ will be unveiled this morning by the Honourable Minister Tom Koutsantonis, South Australian Minister for Mineral Resources Development and OZ Minerals Managing Director and CEO Terry Burgess.
Chris’ sculpture is a tall, free standing form connecting the land and the sky. The dynamic shape is reminiscent of lightning, of energy in a raw form. Of an arc being freshly struck. The sculpture stands 6 metres high, 2.4 metres wide and 1.5 metres deep and weighs approximately 200 kilograms.
Chris successfully combines his art practice with teaching metal fabrication and welding at TAFE. Chris relies on his metal working skills that he has been developing over thirty years.
Winning last year’s OZ Minerals Copper Sculpture Award, and having a year to develop the piece, has given Chris the ability to reflect on the metal that plays an important part in his art practice. “Copper is always present when I work, the welding cables that carry the energy to my welding tongs, in the mig wire that I melt, everywhere there is copper. I am indebted to copper. This work is a homage to the metal that gives me ‘The Vital Arc’. I thank OZ Minerals for this wonderful opportunity.”
OZ Minerals Managing Director and CEO Terry Burgess commented “This is a very striking piece of work – and a great example of how the arts and mining can work together.
OZ Minerals is proud to be able support South Australian artists to work with copper.”
Minister for Mineral Resources Development the Honourable Minister Tom Koutsantonis said: “Mining provides many benefits to the state that are broader than just employment and OZ Minerals is a great example of a company which shares those benefits in many ways.”
‘This Vital Arc’ will be exhibited on the lawns outside TAFE SA – Adelaide College of the Arts in Adelaide as part of the SALA festival until 29 August 2011.
Regional winners, of OZ Minerals’ 2011 Copper Sculpture Award, Rachel and Mark Young are currently exhibiting their artwork, a landscape in copper, ‘After the rain’ in the Cultural Precinct Gallery at Roxby Downs until 21 August 2011.
Schools winner Victor Harbor is putting the finishing touches on their copper signage which will be displayed on the front wall of their school.
Last night OZ Minerals announced Mei Sheong Wong as the winner of the 2012 OZ Minerals Copper Sculpture Award. Mei has proposed producing a free standing copper sculpture in the form of a concertina artist’s book. The artwork will include etched images and narrative text, detailing miner’s stories. This concept has been inspired by a previous opportunity Mei had to tour mining sites in South Australia. Mei will have until the start of the 2012 SALA Festival to in which to complete her artwork.
About the OZ Minerals Copper Sculpture Award
The OZ Minerals Copper Sculpture Award is part of the South Australian Living Arts (SALA) Festival. 2010 was the first year the OZ Minerals Award was offered. Winners of the 2011 OZ Minerals Copper Sculpture Award had twelve months to create their artwork to exhibit as part of the 2011 SALA Festival.
The OZ Minerals Award is similar to a commission. South Australian artists are given the opportunity to submit ideas and apply for assistance in obtaining copper and production costs. Artists are then able to sell their works after the SALA Festival.
About OZ Minerals
OZ Minerals operates the Prominent Hill copper mine in northern South Australia, located approximately 130 kilometres from Coober Pedy and 130 kilometres from Roxby Downs. The mine has a preferential local employment policy with approximately 80 percent of its work force from South Australia.
OZ Minerals is proud to be an award partner of the SALA Festival.
L-R: Minister for Mineral Resources Development the Hon. Tom Koutsantonis,
sculptor Chris Ormerod and OZ Minerals Managing Director and CEO Terry Burgess.
For more information contact:
Nancy Bellistri
Communications Officer
OZ Minerals
(03) 9288 0249
0418 993 252