Past Prizes
2024
Winner
Janjari
Fiona Foley
MEDIUM
Digital Media
I am thrilled to announce that The Alice Prize 2024 is awarded to Butchulla (Badtjala) artist Fiona Foley for her video work Janjari. This is an important, ambitious, and arresting moving image work by a fearless artist whose remarkable career over more than 35 years and across multiple mediums and forms, has consistently interrogated the hidden histories that are suppressed and erased because of colonisation.
Janjari is a Butchulla word for spirit guardian. In Fiona Foley’s Janjari, the magnificent landscape of K’gari (Fraser Island) – and its carpet snake creation story – is the setting for a sweeping meditation on colonial mythmaking versus truth-telling in the present. Her cast of characters wordlessly reclaim Country through ritual and dance, garbed in traditional nineteenth-century costume as a gesture aiming to dismantle past ethnographic practices that have oppressed First Nations people through classification and control.
Though it is a work rich with symbolism, its message is direct and clear, ensuring the hidden histories haunting this particular story are brought into the glorious light of this island setting. Congratulations to Fiona Foley, who was a Highly Commended entrant previously in 2020 for taking out The Alice Prize now in 2024.
Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham
Artist Statement
Janjari – a Butchulla word for spirit guardian – is Fiona Foley’s depiction of the raw and varied landscape found on K’gari (Fraser Island). In this video work, Foley uses her signature tension between a haunted past, contemplation of solitude, and moments of joy and humour to flip the ethnographic lens of colonial myth making. Deeply rooted in her Buthchulla sovereignty and connection to K’gari, Janjari references the Yindingie (carpet snake) who formed the landscape of Butchulla Country, while capturing performers in nineteenth century traditional costume reclaiming their land. There is no dialogue in this three track short film but movement and dance invigorating place and time.
People's Choice
Mrs Simpson
Fiona Johnson
Highly Commended
Mary Barton, The Walls We Build Ourselves – Mesh Enmesh
Local artist Mary Barton is a bold colourist whose painting responds to the evolving built environment of Alice Springs with a vibrant abstract work that packs a punch.
Sally M Nangala Mulda, Two Woman, Pay Day
Local artist Sally M Nangala Mulda’s Two Woman, Pay Day depicts
everyday scenes of Mparntwe camp life: her diaristic work documenting the social and political impacts of colonisation with a beguiling intimacy and warmth.
Finalists
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| Names 1 | Names 2 | Names 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Marisa Avano | Vipoo Srivilasa |
Peta West |
| Jenna Lee | Jake Moss |
Melanie Sinclair |
| Matthew Clarke | ||
| Erica Seccombe | ||
| Naomi Hobson | ||
| Cleo Wilkinson |
||
| Lee Harrop |
||
| Katie Bradley |
||
| Aaron Pei Pie |
||
| Fiona Foley (Winner) |
||
| Linda Fardoe |
||
| Rachel Farag |
||
| Rhonda Pryor |
||
| Christine Ng | ||
| Fiona Johnson |
||
| Melanie Cobham |
||
| Rob Brown |
||
| Henry Smith |
||
| Anna Weston |
||
| Ingrid Morley |
||
| John Derrick |
Judge
Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham
Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham is a independent curator, writer, artist and lecturer at the National Art School.
Based on Gadigal land, Sydney, his most recent roles include co-artistic director of Liveworks Festival for Performance Space in October 2023 and curating Cementa Festival for September 2024.
Instagram @danmudcun