Monash University Fine Art student Erin Hallyburton has been awarded a coveted Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) fellowship for her sculptural work, the third Monash student to receive the award in the past decade.
The Schenberg Art Fellowship, open to Australian art schools, awards a cash prize of $35,000 to the most promising talent in PICA's Hatched graduate exhibition. Erin joins Monash alumni Anita Cummins (2019) and Laxlan Petras (2012) as Schenberg Art Fellowship recipients. No other art school has been awarded the fellowship as frequently in the last 10 years.
Erin said the prize was life changing and that she was "incredibly honoured and humbled" by the recognition her work is receiving.
"Balancing my art practice, full time study and work over the past few years has been extremely challenging and this prize will support me to invest more time and energy into my art making,." she said.
Erin's mixed media installation examines a Caulfield fish and chip shop's influence on our perceptions of our bodies, colonisation, class and obesity. She graduated from Monash's Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) in 2021 and is currently studying Monash's Master of Fine Arts.
"Erin's artwork fundamentally transforms our everyday experience of the local fish and chip shop through the most curious and compelling use of materials", says Dr Spiros Panigirakis, Monash's Interim Department Head of Fine Art.
"She not only challenges how we understand our bodies in the space of the gallery, but places a critical lens on society at large.
"The win is also a testament to the strong research culture nurtured in Monash's Fine Art Honours program, one of the most rigorous of its kind in Australia, and the dedicated community that have underpinned this excellence over the years".
Erin's work is on show at the Hatched National Graduate Show 2022 at PICA until 17 July, 2022.
