The organisers of the £12,000 Emerge Awards, which champions emerging talent and diversity in the creative industries, have this evening announced the winners of the inaugural twelve category UK-wide competition.
The judges, who were elected to adjudicate in their specific fields, include Brett Rogers, OBE, the director of The Photographers’ Gallery, the artist Yinka Shonibare MBE RA, Chi-chi Nwanoku, OBE, founder and director of the Chineke! Foundation, Craig Hassall, Chief Executive, Royal Albert Hall and Will Alsop, OBE, Stirling Prize-winning Architect, aLL Design.
The winners are:
Art
Maxwell Rushton (London)
For Drawn-out, a monumental work completed in isolation over the course of a year for which the artist used 10-metre rolls of paper, each filled with four repeated hand-drawn lines – approximately ten million lines in total.
Film
Elizabeth Mizon (Bristol)
For her short film Borders, which explores a time when women received a physical examination to enter the UK. Mizon worked with the poet Shagufta K to create the piece, which offers a personal and intimate insight into the hushed-up ‘virginity tests’ that the UK Home Office forced upon women migrants in the 1970s.
Photography
Nicholas JR White (Okehampton)
For Black Dots, an exploration of mountain bothies and bothy culture throughout the UK, the result of almost three years spent traversing the UK’s most remote landscapes to better understand what these buildings are, where they are located and the culture that surrounds them.
Music
Breantonia (London)
Breantonia is a 23-year-old singer/songwriter/producer from South London. Having spent over 10 years producing music for fun, she has written with and performed backing for multiple up-and-coming artists. Now, she’s debuting on her own with the EP, ‘Organic’.
Performance
Lanre Malaolu (London)
For Figure, a dance film about boys growing up without fathers which explores how early detachment from a father figure affects emotional growth and engagement with the world. Through a fusion of physical theatre and hip-hop dance, it follows two young men as they search for answers.
Design
Katie O’Rourke (Manchester)
For her Body Positivity Campaign to improve the image of the British Fashion Council and re-position them as an organisation which encourages body positivity.
Craft
Pinkie Maclure (Perth)
For Radical Stained Glass, a reinvention and progression of a medieval art form in order to protest, amuse and tell stories about the madness of modern life.
Gaming
Liam Comerford (Liverpool)
For Empires of the Undergrowth, an ant colony management game where whilst underground the player can excavate their nest, construct tunnels and chambers, and when on the surface can claim territory, gather resources, overwhelm fearsome arachnids and clash with other colonies.
Fashion
James Reeves (London)
For Graduate Collection, a fashion collection exploring formality through military and white-collar worker references.
Architecture
Khanh Nguyen (Leicester)
For Vertical Villages, an architectural project that explores ways of accommodating the growing population.
Digital Art
Jake Moore (Nottingham)
For Dreams in Ultraviolet, a computer animation with sound that is the first part in a trilogy.
Creative Writing
Emma-Marie Smith (Bath)
For The Window Doll, a story of girlhood, shattered youth and parental abandonment, with some funny moments too.
