Chance to make mark at Baywest
EASTERN Cape artists and members of the public are racking their brains to come up with innovative and engaging designs which could net them R50 000 cash in the R500 000 Baywest urban art competition.
“We’ve had a fair bit of interest and we expect a significant number of entries,” competition coordinator Cedric Vanderlinden, owner and director of Park Drive’s Underculture Contemporary fine arts gallery, said.
“A large number of queries have been coming from the public, and not just from professional sculptors.
“People still have until June 26 to submit works.”
The competition is open to anyone living within 150km of Baywest Mall in Port Elizabeth.
Prolific Bay artist Banele Njadayi, whose works depicting township life have been exhibited abroad in galleries such as Chicago’s Gallery Guichard, and Duncan Stewart, whose 2010 Soccer World Cup-inspired art decorates the No 5 Boutique Art Hotel in Summerstrand, have teamed up for the project.
Both artists are also submitting individual designs for the competition.
Once complete, the winning artwork will become a permanent fixture at a new traffic circle, which is 30m in diameter and is situated at the end of Sherwood’s Walker Drive, leading to the Baywest Mall and the Baywest City development. The specifications for the sculpture state that it should be at least 7m tall.
The artist or artists presenting the winning entry will be awarded a R50 000 prize at a special ceremony later this year, with the budget for the artwork set at R500 000.
A Baywest technical team will be on hand to help with the construction of the work.
Baywest City managing director Gavin Blows said the art project spoke to the developers’ core commitment to the community.
ý Parties interested in submitting entries for the Baywest artwork competition will find entry details at http://bit.ly/baywest-art, and the scope of the project at http://bit.ly/baywestart-scope.
For further details contact Cedric Vanderlinden on 082-887-1612 or by e-mail at cedric@underculturecontemporary. co.za.