National Contemporary Art Award, 2025

With a cash prize pool of more than $30,000 and egalitarian ‘blind judging’ process, the National Contemporary Art Award competition has brought the cutting edge of Aotearoa New Zealand art to Kirikiriroa Hamilton since it was established in 2000.

My finalist piece: Compositions of Identity - Series 2, 2025, oil on board, 109×187cm.

Compositions of Identity follows themes of anonymity, objectification, and social projection to form the subjects' identities.

When considering that Identity requires an audience (as opposed to The Self, which is self-perpetuating), ironically, by removing the identity from the subjects, what is left is social presentation and behaviour: the essence of identity. This leaves the viewer free to deduce and apply identity to the subjects.

This concept is pertinent to current life, where expression of identity has become a justifiably important issue, however remains problematic, since Identity is sacred to The Self, but applied by The Other.