Two students share the Jens Hansen Excellence Award in Visual Arts and Design for 2014 at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT).
The prestigious annual award by Jens Hansen - The Ringmaker is presented for Studio Practice in the final year of the Bachelor of Arts and Media programme. This year it was decided by two external moderators - Rachel Hoskin from UCol and Bridie Lonie from Otago Polytechnic. The award was presented at the opening of the 2014 Bachelor of Arts and Media (BAM) exhibition at NMIT on Friday, 28 November.
NMIT Creative Industries Arts Tutor Catharine Salmon said "The outstanding students Haiyun Jiang and Erika Isaksen have quite different creative practices, Haiyun works in graphic design and Erika Isaksen with video installation."
Haiyun (Harry) Jiang from Hunan Province, China used T-shirts as a medium for his exhibition work, exploring in a humorous way, cultural, societal and economic relations between Chinese and Western societies. Rachel Hoskin noted that Haiyun had developed "an exemplar project in graphic design and insightfully placed himself within it. He has developed an excellent range of well executed products and ‘nailed’ his project aim."
Bridie Lonie described Erika Isaksen’s project as "a vivid and generous celebration of the vitality and drama of everybody’s everyday." Erika’s digital installation has three screen projections with sound, juxtaposed in a conceptually intriguing and stimulating way. The work explores the absurd repetitiveness of the everyday as a crucial part of a fulfilling and meaningful life.
"Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Jens Hansen Excellence Award," says Halfdan Hansen, owner of Jens Hansen - The Ringmaker. "Past winners have proven themselves to be ‘ones to watch’ in the creative community, and we can’t wait to see what the future brings for this year’s winners. We believe in fostering talent in trades and in creative design, and sponsoring this award is a way for us to contribute to that."
The Nelson Mail
Dec 4 2014