Becc Orszag received the Siemens-RMIT Acquisition prize for her charcoal drawing, 'cannot contain this', 2009.   

MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: RMIT AND SIEMENS

Eight talented RMIT University students have received $32,000 in scholarships to further their careers in the arts, thanks to the ninth annual Siemens-RMIT Fine Art Awards.

The winners, chosen from 43 shortlisted artists, were announced by RMIT Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Daine Alcorn, at an awards ceremony held at RMIT Gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, 20th January.

Chairman and Managing Director of Siemens Australia and New Zealand, Albert Goller, presented the awards.

Mr Goller said: “Education, technology and above all, innovations are the lifeblood at Siemens and we foster a creative environment where ideas can develop and grow.

“We are proud to support the development of talent each year, demonstrating innovative thinking through arts and creativity.”

Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art – Drawing) student Becc Orszag was awarded the $1,000 Siemens-RMIT Acquisition Prize, as well as a $2,000 Undergraduate Scholarship to spend on travel,

Her large charcoal drawing, cannot contain this, will now enter the Siemens corporate collection.

Ms Orszag said the drawing was concerned with losing unique identity within a collected identity.

“I have portrayed a class of children all clothed in the same uniform,” she said.

“It is just a very basic uniform, and I have concentrated on the individual detail of their faces to try and show the individual breaking free from a collective ideal.

“I’m searching for the moment at which the individual surrenders their unique identity for that of a collective, stemming from a concern of the troubling absence of individual thought within a contemporary society.”

Ms Orszag used layering of charcoal and erasure as a means of creating a malevolent air in her work, starting with a 1918 Austrian school photograph and stripping it back to make it her own.

“I used violently erased planes to expose the intense voids of darkness that surround the subjects, which find themselves suspended in a dreamlike reality,” she said.

Ms Orszag plans to use her prize money towards a trip to the United Kingdom to look at art schools for possible post-graduate study.

The Siemens-RMIT Fine Art Scholarship Awards help RMIT Fine Art students further their careers by assisting their research and production costs.

The awards attracted more than 200 entries this year, with 43 shortlisted artists exhibiting their work at RMIT Gallery.

Other Undergraduate Scholarship Awards of $2,000 each for spending on travel were awarded to:

•Jennifer Bishop: second-year Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art – Sculpture), for her sculpture, We’re on a Road to Nowhere.

•Malcolm Lloyd: third-year Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art – Drawing), for his perforated paper piece, Punching time #5.

•Clare Rae: Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art – Photography), Honours, for her series of three inkjet photographs, From Climbing the Walls and other Actions.

•Lucie Hallenstein: third-year Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art – Painting), for her large folded paper work, Paper Shelter.

Postgraduate Scholarship Awards of $7,000 each were awarded to:

•Marita Lillie: Master of Art candidate, with her works, With and Without Consent and Untitled # 6 Public Transport Surveillance Series.

•Saskia Moore: Master of Fine Art graduate, for her work comprising of a mass collection of envelopes entitled The Fold.

•Ernesto Rios Lanz: Doctor of Fine Art candidate, for his multimedia work, Sand-Clock.

The Siemens-RMIT Fine Art Awards exhibition is at RMIT Gallery until 5pm, Saturday, 23 January.