RESILIENT ARTIST INTERNATIONAL PRIZE AWARD
Perceptions Warehouse launched a Resilient Artist International Prize Award when the lockdown started.
When times are difficult, when the artist is confronted with uncertainty and change, creation becomes their most precious form of contemplation, communication and expression. We wanted to encourage the sharing of passion and creations.
All art forms were created during the Pandemic and shared with our community. Votes were casted by the public through our website.
All art submitted is also eligible for becoming part of a short film edited and created by Perceptions Warehouse, with the intent of inspiring other artists during this difficult time.
This was a wonderful opportunity to focus on a new creation, have your work recognised and showcased to a large audience, and come together with other artists.
OUR WINNERS:
With plenty of applicants, close to A THOUSAND VOTES,
and a lot of gorgeous creations, we are very happy to announce our 4 winners:
Literary Arts Award
Isabella Hart, for her poem "A Few"
Follow her work -
Short films Award
Abigail Clay, for her short film "It's Not Fair"
Follow her work -
Visual Arts Award
Rebecca Gibbs, for her drawing "Keep Turning Your Pages"
Follow her work -
Performing Arts Award
Sabrina Gargano, for her performance in "WOLF"
Follow her work -
CONTESTANTS
Literary Arts
Lent
Over the next month
The theatres will close
The jobs will get furloughed
The money will stop
And the hopes will get cancelled
I sit in a messy pile
of risk, fear, ambition, creativity, and failure
Palm Sunday
I sit at the feet
Of my creativity
And she says
(ain't nothin gonna break my stride)
Today I am big
I am huge
And you feel free
But if you scare me
If you force me into
Labels and boxes and over-shaping
It proves I no longer fit
If you put your impossible expectations on me
I will dry up
And run away
And starve
And so will you
Maundy Thursday
I sit in the sun
With my creativity
And she says,
Not just yet my precious
First remember how to breathe
And breathe
And breathe
1. The Quarantine Diaries
by Amy Garner Buchanan
Good Friday
My god, my god, why have you forsaken me?
In the Tomb
I sit and I listen
to others' creativity
He's getting quarantine commissions
I'm discovering how much tax I owe
We are not the same
But he reminds me of earlier times
So I select the golden filter
Impossible smiles are on our faces
We circle each other, hand-in-hand
In a colourful large space
But really
It was grey early morning and I was outrunning my sads
To arrive at rehearsal with new edits
It was waking up in the middle of the night
Because a play needs writing like a baby needs birth
Because love it will not let me go
It was breathing through
And trusting
And waiting for you
In stillness
A stubborn following of your thread
Was all it ever was
And so I wait
And step by step
I hope my way through the maze
2. Homage to Hakuin
by Charles Mugleston
3. Summer Inside
by Joanna Poulton
4. Waiting For The Day
by Danny Shooter
Closeness is gone and its replaced with distance,
The effect of no touching is felt in an instant.
Relationships are broken by cause and effect,
The space between bodies is cause for concern and neglect.
We’re unhappy because we can’t walk the streets,
But the birds are revelling in our empty seats.
The skies are resplendent with bluey hues,
And we’re confused having not seen that kind of beauty,
although nature left us clues.
I’m waiting for the day when holding hands will be the norm
and we won’t be met with a media storm
when someone coughs or sneezes.
Relax everyone, it’s allergies, Jesus.
We’re taking this time to reflect on our lives,
the decisions we made and the secrets we hide.
Should I lose weight? Am I in love?
I’m running my own business, but is it enough?
Am I a bastard for selling toilet paper?
I love my girlfriend but I want to escape her.
Not all the time, every now and again,
when she’s singing in the shower or hocking up phlegm.
I’m changing my career. I want to be a chef,
I’ll take an online course in the few weeks I have left.
The lockdown is a countdown for us to begin
the fresh start we’ve longed for since puberty crept in.
New years can suck lockdowns dick,
The eve of it lifting will give our arses a kick.
5. The Yang Within Her
by Sarit Gafan
With poise
She strides by my side
Head held high
Even when mine is
Not
And these judgements
She asks
With outstretched claws
What would you have me do with them?
And as I am still learning
I simply say
Leave them be
Leave them be?
To burn a hole in your heart?
To weigh you down on your path
And steer you with
Lies?
My feet stop.
Her paws...pause
Oh
I say,
Shall I rip them to invisible shreds?
That is what one does with untruth
I smile and breathe in an infusion of peace
Feeling her inner smile open like a flower
As her eyes close and her head bows gently
Her guard now at ease
Yes, she breathes, yes
And this self-doubt
What would you have me do with it?
Leave it be, it is of no consequence
The air vanishes
She halts
Her eyes blazing raw power
Yet I feel only love and strength from her
She digs deeps inside her
Transmuting her fire into a light
That will heal not burn
Every self-doubting thought
Is an insult to your divinity
And leads you down a path of suffering
That is NOT why you are here
And I am NOT here to walk by your side and watch you lose yourself
I am here to remind you
Every day
EVERY day
Of your magnificent light
Until YOU
Remind ME
She knows the tears in my eyes
And the tears in my heart
The battle scars
And lays down beneath a tree
Her heart inviting me to take shelter
In the fortress of her understanding
I curl up beside her
The compassionate lioness
Soothing her infant warrior
Resting my head on her heart
We breathe as one
In the tonic silence
My strength breaking out of its longsuffering prison
You
She whispers
You
Then I know
That she is the one
The one standing guard over my beautiful heart
Until the day it transforms
Into pure Divine Light
6. Letter To The World
by Judith Trustman
World, my cousin,
the songbirds are back
stocking the shelves
of the hedge with their
weightless african rooms
Sister, my home’s town,
daffodils spill to the verge
after snowdrops waited
for you to hold your nerve
a little at a time now
The lambs scatter
the wind who spills showers
to wet the head of every born
newcomer, on field or farm
now the greedy flood
is over at least for now
City, my busy brother,
rest the bones, the tubes
for the train wrecked tired
who carry the days
or those working nights
may they have the best
from us who need favour
or care or food
the dynamite is
it’s the nurse who
shops late at night
close to burnout
the cleaner who
toilets our sick house
whose eye sweeps
the aisles empty
who sisters our need
husbands our world
7. Black Out
by Kelsey Cooke
Was she really too out of it?
Too many rum’n’coke,
results in black out,
odorous breath shocked her
awake when he bit down on her tongue,
crying,
which means keep kissing
according to him,
a passer-by saw as he held her,
thought he was grinding with a corpse,
“let’s get you home baby girl”
vomit eroded oesophagus,
sweat simmered spine,
I thought I was asleep why are you kissing me?
b
l
a
c
k
o
u
t...
She has since wondered how she let that happen...
She is not one to have her memory left barren,
after a night out dancing with friends,
never before has it come to that end...
an intruder disabling the alarm,
ransacking drawers and dressers,
for charms, treasures to grab,
lick and steal,
he invaded.
Cthulhu reined the sky,
weeks into months slithered by, by and by,
a python enveloped a sweet hummingbird,
imperceptibly tightening, tightening, tightening into incarceration,
the chick powerless to fight the jaws of suffocation,
her lands captured,
his flag impaled,
to pillage and plunder,
smearing cement in the cracks of the cave in which he kept her,
leaving only a lantern lit by gas,
she was smothered alone and blind in the dark,
silent
scared others would judge, excuse,
leave her gasping and used,
marooned on an island of decay,
kept away and away and away,
so she stayed
in the cave
silent.
Once, he oozed in,
bullets behind black bottomless eyes,
filling the cavity with sticky moist dread,
blazoning she lead him on, why wouldn’t he get in her bed?
blocking her exit he swore he did nothing wrong,
if it was really that bad why did she leave it so long
to speak up?
she was overreacting,
the pain was leading him back to drinking
his
torment
away.
Quiet gives way to whispers of truth,
echoes reverb off the troglodyte’s walls
walls
made of dust and trash
ground up beer cans, leftovers, and sticky broken glass,
but garbage leads to mould, to erosion, to
a crack,
as liver of light giving way
to whispers floating through the heat of the night...
this
is
not
your
fault
he
had
no
damned
right
a raindrop peeps into the gap,
tentatively trickles and lands in her lap,
with a tip of her finger she presses the clay,
then pulls and punches the rubble away,
climbing, gasping thick languid air,
as finally fresh rain washes into her hair,
dank musty fear washed out with the fray,
phosphorescent rage,
poured nakedly into her veins,
as Denmark’s Princely mirror laid
bare the shape shifter,
impotent in the face of his own reflection,
washed up and fermenting he shrank in a stupor,
whining he’d only given her affection.
But the Moon paved her way,
lightening flashed in her eyes,
and applauded by thunder,
she severed the ties,
leaving him his filth and a swamp to sink under,
she marched forward screaming into the night,
nothing left for him
but the corpse of a cave,
and an empty and broken gas-light.
8. A Few
by Isabella Hart
No need to be alarmist
Keep Calm
It’s only the Flu
That affects a few.
But numbers doubled, tripled, quadrupled,
And what could the NHS do,
But save a few?
And the Government
In their gilded cage
A barricade
From the devastation of a few
Shutters down, flood lights off,
Zero hour contracts, Self Employed
Not a few.
What do they do?
So they flee
from their commitments
But they’re not free
Rent to pay
Work’s dried up
They have no say.
Their lives in the hands of those at the top
The sanitised hands
Of those calling the shots.
So we wait
And we think
And we ponder existence
Write poetry,
Learn the ukulele,
Draw,
Waiting for what’s in store...
9. Stop Punishing Me With Your Personality
by Catherine Montgomery
You are in my face,
Up close,
In my ear.
In my place,
In this confined space.
You are quite loud,
Please turn
Your volume down,
About a 2
Would do.
You are sitting here
Quite dear,
but,
STOP,
Punishing me
With
Your
Personality.
Short Films
1. Confessions of a Swollen Heart
by Jenna Kaplan
2. It's Not Fair
by Abigail Clay
Abigail Clay presents a condensed version of her story "It's Not Fair" - A Covid-19 Birthday. The full version will soon be available on her storytelling YouTube channel, Miss Whale's Tales: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGvxelLYEp66oVcUj4WhFRw?view_as=subscriber
It's Not Fair draws together themes experienced by many people in this time of lock-down. Although we might understand why we have to restrict our activities, it's still upsetting when life's landmarks are missed and we are separated from our loved ones. However, we may be more likely to appreciate our communities and immediate surroundings more, forced as we are to spend more time within them!
Photos and film footage were captured by Abigail on her daily walks around her village in Kent.
3. Beware The Chicken!
by Alejandro Alberola
Shot on a phone.
Ideally to be seen on a phone.
To enter full screen on your mobile device pinch 2 fingers apart.
4. green screen dream scene
by Benjamin Ridge
No matter where our bodies are physically placed, our minds are free to dream. Wander with me. #dream #freedom #escape
Visual Arts
1. Stefan A. Weil
2. In Isolation
By Geraldine O'Regan
3. Alexandre Simões
4. When Curtains Fall, Artists Rise
By Rhys Jennings
5. Prayer
By Nour Huda
6. Patterns On
By Maysaa Kassir
My artwork " Patterns On " 50x70 cm mixed media on board was inspired by the time the pandemic virus Covid19 attacked Nigeria. As one that lived for 18 years there my biggest concern was the impact of Corona on Africa, I knew it will be hard there, and poor people will be unable to buy medical masks so I used the traditional textile material as a mask to put on.
7. Being Alone
By M. Cecilia de São Thiago - Klimtt
8. Emi Takahashi
9. Black Swan
By Katia Plisikova
10. Flowers in Isolation
By Linnea I.J Karlsson
11. Amanda Hicks
12. Keep Turning Your Pages
by Rebecca Gibbs
13. Trapped
by Claudia Saavedra
14. Phil Davis
Masks during this current emergency became a contentious issue. Throughout the discussions, I kept remembering from my childhood, for me at least, the original and most thrilling masked man: The Lone Ranger – although his is a very different kind of mask – totally useless for health protection, but presenting an opportunity for humour, which I believe is vital right now. Pictured here with his faithful (but more sensible) companions, Tonto and Silver. Perhaps for the time being he should be renamed, The Corona Ranger! His familiar cry modified to, “Hi-ho, Virus! Away!”
15. Subject to Availability
by Astrid Schulz
The official lockdown period in London started on 23rd of March, a little later than elsewhere in Europe. Nonetheless, first signs of public life’s shutdown already appeared one week earlier. There was a lot of reluctance at first. ‘Keep Calm & Drink Tea’, as they say over here in the UK, despite ‘fears of Corona’.
When I was stopped from going out, I learned to live with what surrounds me. Above all, I have an impressive section of tea in the kitchen. No more coffee shops? Fine, I’ll brew my own drinks. And even better, I’ll intend to raise my own morale, whilst threatened with widely predicted mass panic and personal consequences of home isolation, by celebrating each cuppa: ‘Cheers to Corona!’
Since then I consumed more teabags than I can photograph. I am counting the days, too, and the weeks, and my emotions. Each week seemingly differs, each day comes and goes, each drink calms; by now I need to stock up! ‘Here’s to Corona!’
16. Ric Stott
This painting is one of a series I've been making on lockdown reflecting on experiences I had on retreat in Guatemala earlier this year.
The series of 7 paintings explore the energy we hold in each of the major chakras and how I express that through the queer body.
This painting is for the 3rd chakra: solar plexus, source of will and power.
17. Every Cloud....
by Marion Davis
This is a quilted piece around 18 inches square. I made it entirely out of scraps.
18. Marcia Mar
19. Haven
by Nathalie Vaughan
I started the Flowers Project for women’s freedom of expression in art and life, for equality between genders and to spread body-proudness and awareness.
Performing Arts
1. Do I Keep Going?
by Barnabas Sharp
"Do I Keep Going?"
Barnabas Sharp
Duration: c. 5 mins
lnstrumentation: Voice (transpose down an octave if necessary) Piano or Keyboard (if using synth)
Loop Pedal
Preferably, these parts should all be performed by one person, however these parts can be divided amongst others as an ensemble if so desired.
About
A musical response to the Covid-19 virus pandemic that focusses on the effect that the restrictions,
isolations and anxieties are having upon those with mental health issues. The piece opens and repeats a simple question as it becomes a mental health 'mantra' in the face of uncertainty. As we progress through the music, we enter a more positive state of mind as we are encouraged to keep going.
Performance Note
Set-Up: Have a vocal microphone, a microphone recording inside the piano (or through the keyboard) and an auxiliary cable connected to a laptop (if being used) all going into a loop pedal which is then played through a speaker.
Performance: Follow the instructions on the score as they read. Each double bar-line represents each section to be looped. The keyboard parts can be performed either through a piano, synth, ora combination of thetwo. lt is uptothe performerasto which synth sound that they use.
Note: *Between these sections, slowly fade in and out the G# octave oscillations. Alternatively, a recording of something relating to the Covid-19 pandemic can be faded in and out.
**DO NOT LOOP THE LAST SECTION. lnstead, repeat this as you slowly fade out the looped material into silence. Once the volume reaches zero, keep singing this until you decide to stop.
You may wish to use a click-track to help keep tempo when starting the piece.
2. Swinging Daisy
by Margarida Martins
3. Lockdown Breakup
by Anna Krost
4. Lovely Boat
by Forristal and Clarke
5. WOLF
by Sabrina Gargano
6. Should I Leave?
by Collete Keogh-Green
RULES AND REGULATIONS:
By submitting an application or vote, individuals are therefore abiding to the following rules and regulations:
Prize Award categories:
-
Literary Arts Award (prose, drama and poetry) - Up to 500 words
-
Short films Award - up to 5 minutes
-
Visual Arts Award (Drawings, Paintings and Photography) - 1 art piece by application
-
Performing Arts Award (Dance, Music and Theatre) - up to 5 minutes
To enter the competition applicants must email their piece digitally to Perceptions Warehouse (info@perceptionswarehouse.com) on or before Sunday, May 31st, 2020. No entries will be accepted after the closing date. Votes will be received till the 12th of June.
Along with the attached piece sent via email, individuals must write down their artistic name, category they are submitting to (Literary, Short Film, Visual Arts or Performing Arts) and contact number. They are encouraged to write down their social media accounts, so it is shared with their work.
Art pieces will be showcased on the Perceptions Warehouse website and social media from the day after they are submitted (UK timeframe), until the end of the competition. The earlier individuals submit their artwork the longer it will be available to be voted on by the public. The Participant shall not have any claim against Perceptions Warehouse in case of postponement of the Contest.
Individuals must be 18 or over to enter the competition. Groups of more than 1 are allowed to participate in the competition, as long as they are self isolating in the same property. They will receive the same monetary prize award, having to therefore split it between themselves. Competitors may enter only 1 piece to be showcased and voted on. Any further art submitted by the same individual will be ignored. The work may explore any theme, but needs to have been created during the Pandemic.
Artists must provide good quality images and videos of the work for showcasing purposes on the website. If the art form is not attached, somehow not available for download or of too poor image quality, the participant will receive an email back requesting re submission.
Votes shall be submitted by the public also via email. The name of only one artist or piece needs to be clearly stated on the email for any voting to be counted. If more than one artist is mentioned, the vote will not be considered. Individuals are allowed to vote only on one artist or piece. If same individual tries to vote on more than one artist , or on the same artist more than once, by the use of different email accounts, all votes from that individual will be cancelled.
Participants found to have entered plagiarised work will be disqualified in full from the competition. In the event that work has been rewarded and is subsequently found to have been plagiarised, the reward will be rescinded and any monetary awards must be refunded by the participant. All content used including story, write-up, script, depiction, music, graphics, photographs, images, screenplay, sound records, lyrics, background scores, dialogues, titles, sub titles and all other literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work or any other copyright material therein, should be original and belonging to the Participant or licensed to Participant under a valid license. Perceptions Warehouse will not be held responsible for, any unauthorized inclusion of any copyrighted content or materials within or relating to the art piece, including any content or materials that are or may become the basis for any third party claims for copyright infringement.
Perceptions Warehouse retains the rights to edit and showcase the piece in the short film that will be released, with the objective being to inspire other artists.
The participant agrees that the Perceptions Warehouse shall be entitled to use his/her entry or part thereof and or his/her image or likeness in the promotion of the competition and other related Perceptions Warehouse's events.
Any questions related to the Competition must be submitted via email, to Perceptions Warehouse (info@perceptionswarehouse.com).