We are excited to share that Sid Pattni, Visual Arts teacher at the Carramar campus, has won the Kennedy Prize – an annual art award for ‘beauty’ for his incredible “Portrait of Moz”. We’re also very pleased for Sid that he has been accepted into the Masters of Contemporary Art program at The University of Melbourne beginning next year.
The Kennedy Prize, offered by the Kennedy Arts Foundation, is based and exhibited in Adelaide but open to Australian artists nationwide, and is awarded to works that embody, comment on or celebrate beauty, so it’s no surprise that Sid was drawn to enter.
“The Kennedy Prize is a prestigious national painting award so I thought I would put my work forward to see how I stacked up with other professional artists around the country. I was so happy to be selected as one of the 40 finalists!” said Sid.
“I thought Moz’s story was poignant and resonated with the theme of ‘beauty’. After speaking to Moz on several occasions, what stood out to me was his unwavering resilience and positive outlook on life, even amongst such trauma and hardship. There is a beauty in his resilience, and I thought that may resonate with what the prize stood for”.
The judges agreed, saying “The haunting portrait of Kurdish refugee Moz … spoke to the judges with his arresting gaze. Overlaid with rhythmical stitching that evokes a sense of time marked and endured, confinement and restriction it illustrates so beautifully liberties denied. The work champions the beauty of resilience in the human spirit to triumph against the most unimaginable odds and gives a voice to those that come to Australia for a better life/ future”
The win came as something of a surprise to the very humble Sid, though.
“I’m in a state of shock to have won the prize, to be perfectly honest. I was just happy to be selected as a finalist amongst so many brilliant artists from around the country, so to have won is something special. As an artist you spend a lot of time in solitude, working on your practice, hoping that you are improving. At times, you question if your work has any presence or is telling a meaningful story. To have won the prize and received that objective validation has just imbued me with energy and excitement for the future”.
This is a future which looks incredibly exciting, with a move to Melbourne and beginning his Masters at The University of Melbourne in 2024, although all of us at St Stephen’s School will sincerely miss Sid at both Carramar and Duncraig.
“I’m really excited about undertaking my Masters next year! The course is structured to allow me to experiment and expand my practice whilst receiving feedback and critique from some amazing art lecturers”.
“I’m filled with mixed emotions at the thought of leaving, though. On one hand, I’m really excited to move to Melbourne and be amongst a thriving arts scene. On the other hand, I am really going to miss the students and staff I have come to know so well at St Stephen’s over the last few years. I’m going to try and stay in touch with as many people as possible, as it’s been such an amazing community to be a part of. I’m not looking forward to the Melbourne weather, that’s for sure!”
We wish Sid every success in the next, incredibly exciting phase of his personal and professional life.
Did you see our recent newsletter article about Sid’s debut solo exhibition – The Story of Us?
Read it here.