By TANIA PHILLIPS
TWIN Spirit has taken out the People’s Choice award of the Olive Cotton Photographic Portraiture competition at the Tweed River Art Gallery this year.
The Award exhibition closed at the end of September, but due to the large number of votes to count, and the building renovations at the Gallery, the final tally has only recently been counted.
The vote count has now been finalised and the clear winner was Twin Spirit, a moving portrait by Sydney photographer Tina Fiveash.
Tweed River Art Gallery staff said the result was not a surprise as many exhibition visitors had commented on the work.
During his floor talk on the Olive Cotton Award guest speaker Doug Spowart invited the audience to select the work that most appealed to them.
“A significant number in the group were drawn to Twin Spirit,” the exhibition curator Anouk Beck said.
“Without any prior knowledge of the photographer or their intention, audience members responded to the evocative ghost like figure embracing their more solid twin”.
When informed she had won the People’s Choice Award, photographer Tina Fiveash said: “This is the best news… I was interested to find out (the winner) after hearing a lot of people liked my work, but I wasn’t getting my expectations up”.
Over 1500 votes were cast by those among the 10,422 visitors to the exhibition keen to take on the role of judge. The People’s Choice vote winner receives a $250 award from the Friends of the Tweed River Art Gallery Inc.
The Olive Cotton Award for photographic portraiture is held at Tweed River Art Gallery every second year and attracts entries from all over Australia vying for a place on the wall, and the chance to become the $20,000 Award winner. The next Award exhibition will be in August 2015.
