‘Rubbish’ Portrait Claims Top Prize
In 2014, Adele Varris of Juicy Design was co-winner in an art prize held by The Fig Group and the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture. The competition called for the remake of a famous artwork. Adele and her team chose Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. The team wanted to explore the concept of indulgence and waste by recreating the famous painting solely from trash they had collected.
‘Rubbish’ portrait claims top prize
January 21st, 2014, 08:00AM
Angelyne Wolfe and Adele Varris (Juicy Design), who teach at Hale School in Wembley Downs, and Caris Matic spent five weeks collecting rubbish to construct their live artwork-cum-photo inspired by Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.
Wolfe said the competition rules were to ‘bring out the artist within’ and interpret one of five famous portraits in an unusual way.
‘The model looks so beautiful and pristine in Gustav Klimt’s piece, so our concept was to recreate the piece with everyday ‘rubbish’ and make a statement on the waste we produce and create something beautiful,’ she said.
Wolfe said the three friends decided to use trash after seeing the ‘piles and piles’ of lolly wrappers they had accumulated after the Perth Royal Show.
‘Ultimately, this project was an exercise in examining the foods we eat, products consumed and the waste we produce,’ she said.
‘It made us really consider how much packaging we go though and made us realise that we should make an effort to reduce the amount of waste produced and non-organic foods we eat.’
