WEBVTT

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(mellow music)

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<v ->Hi, I'm Maria.</v>

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I'm the Collection Manager

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at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.

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<v ->And I'm Renée, I'm the Collection Administrator</v>

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at the National Portrait Gallery.

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<v ->First, we'd like to say a big thank you to our friends</v>

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at International Art Services

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for making this award possible.

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<v ->And the work that you see behind us</v>

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is the inaugural winner of the

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Darling Portrait Prize Art Handlers' Award 2022.

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<v ->And the title of the work is</v>

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'Weight of the Mind's Periapt.'

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<v ->And the artist is Jane Allan.</v>

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There's so many beautiful works for this particular prize,

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the Darling Portrait Prize,

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but we made our decision for a couple of top runners

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from our perspective based purely on aesthetics.

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So we had only just looked at the works

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and we hadn't looked at any of the artist statements

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or anything like that.

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And we had our top two and we decided on this one

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and then we went in to read the artist statement.

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And we couldn't believe how kind of poignant

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the artist statement was

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and how much more richness that we got about the painting

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of things that we were really curious about,

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about all of those details.

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And suddenly, you know, it just seems like

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absolutely the right decision

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for both of us to have made, so.

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<v ->It is, and there's such a lot of heart, a lot of warmth.</v>

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(women laugh)

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There's so much warmth in this portrait.

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<v ->It is, yeah.</v>
<v ->It is absolutely beautiful.</v>

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<v ->And it's got animals in it, which for Maria and I,</v>

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<v ->Yes, big tick.</v>
<v ->I think is,</v>

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for us, a big tick.
(women laugh)

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It's got a little black cat, so very happy about that.

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<v ->And the cat's quite elderly, isn't he?</v>

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<v ->I think so, yeah.</v>

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Mendelssohn is the name of the cat of the artist's carer.

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So yeah, I think that's such a fantastic element.

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<v ->And I love the fish at the bottom.</v>

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<v ->The fish are beautiful.</v>
<v ->There's one that's fishing.</v>

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<v ->Yeah.</v>

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So there's all these little kind of moments that, you know,

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are so enjoyable about it.

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And there's ones, as you kind of get closer to the work,

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that you don't see from a distance,

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like sections that have been painted over

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with kind of text underneath it.

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There's a little section on the left adjacent to the cat

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that looks either kind of like a railway map

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or maybe a constellation.

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You know, we both talked about the fact

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it kind of has elements of like the American artist Basquiat

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and also the Australian artist Imants Tillers,

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and that kind of semi-industrial

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kind of colour palette and tonality.

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And it was just something that, you know,

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really captured us.

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And the more we looked at it,

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the more excited we became about the content

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and all the little signifiers kind of in the,

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you know, individuals' names and the robin

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and the heart and the fish on the bottom so yeah.

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<v ->And I think it tells us so much about the subject, Warren.</v>

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<v ->Yeah.</v>

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<v ->I really want to meet him.</v>

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He sounds quite fascinating...

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<v ->Yeah.</v>

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<v ->...just from looking at the little clues</v>

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that the artist has left

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about Warren and his life, and then you know,

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it draws you in in a slightly different way.

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<v ->Absolutely.</v>

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<v ->I think you find out so much, but apart from that,</v>

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it is a beautiful work that I would very much like

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on my wall.

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(women laugh)
<v ->Yes.</v>

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<v ->And it would really help people enjoy.</v>

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<v ->We both, yeah.</v>
<v ->Yeah.</v>

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<v ->We both really.</v>

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<v ->Oh, so happy, and it was a really easy decision to make.</v>

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<v ->Yeah.</v>
<v ->And we worked...</v>

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...closely together.
<v ->Yeah.</v>

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<v ->And our taste sometimes comes together.</v>

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<v ->Yes.</v>

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<v ->Sometimes miles apart.</v>

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<v ->Yeah. (woman laughs)</v>

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<v ->But on this one,</v>

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it was a very much...
<v ->Yeah.</v>

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<v ->...there was no fighting.</v>

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<v ->No, there was no fighting.</v>

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(woman laughs)

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No, we immediately knew.

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I think it's one of those ones,

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<v ->Yeah.</v>
<v ->like Maria said,</v>

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where we, even though sometimes our styles

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are very, very different.

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This one, we definitely found that common ground on,

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so yeah, I think it's a lovely work.

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<v ->Yeah, I think so too.</v>

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(mellow music)