Societás™ and Medium Magazine are pleased to announce the winners of the 5th edition of the Creative Graduate Prize™.

Founded in 2005 and open to graduates of the visual arts globally, the prize brings the spotlight to the best emerging young artists across all genres of fine art, including painting, illustration, photography, sculpture, installation and short film.

The Creative Graduate Prize™ 2009 took the theme of ‘Change’ and attracted the highest number of entries in the prize’s history. Due to both the volume and quality of the prize entries selecting the nominees took a month longer than usual.

The prize jury comprised innovators from the international creative industries including contemporary artists Stuart Semple, Tessa Farmer, Lone Sigurdsson and Eileen Botsford, photographer Ellis Scott, Design Laboratory director Yann Mathias, as well as the Creative Graduate Prize™ founding directors Melissa Sterry of Societás™ and Laurie Cansfield of Medium Magazine.

The Creative Graduate Prize™ 2009 had three prize categories:

Static Art – open to painters, photographers and illustrators.

Moving Art – open to animators, short film makers and performance artists.

Installation Art - open to sculptors and spatial artists.

Every Thursday morning, the retailers of Eindhoven put their empty cardboard boxes on the street outside their shops. I hitched a ride on the garbage truck and discovered that these boxes are compressed into bales, shipped to China as one of Holland’s biggest export products, and that they find their way back to the shopping street as new packaging for exported products.

I enriched this endless paper stream with stories about the history of Eindhoven’s main shopping street. The cardboard forms the backbone of the shopping street (without recycling cardboard, no new boxes; without new boxes, no new products in the shops), while the street forms the historic backbone of Eindhoven. From the boxes that I largely found in two shopping streets, I made cardboard scenario models that portray moments from the more recent and very old history of the street. Then one Thursday morning I returned the stories to their place in the street, in front of the shops. For about three hours the scenes became part of the street again, but then the garbage truck arrived to pick up the stories together with the cardboard. Ready for the big recycling trip around the world, to come back as packaging for all our beloved new products.

The story of the global cardboard cycle and the local stories of Eindhoven that joined the cycle are shown in a circular final installation of white paper scenario models on thin metal tripods, slideshow of the street installations, a soundscape, and me as a storyteller.
With this project I try to show the layers of a city, how a street can unrecognizably change in time, how the meaning of stories can change in no time, but how everything is still connected in some way. I try to trigger people to look with different eyes to the world around them, and maybe understand a little bit better the growing network of stories we’re part of. I think it can make the world more beautiful and exciting in our minds.

Congratulations on being a winner in the CGP. What are you working on next?
Thanks again! This year I will develop and experiment with different site-specific storytelling projects like scenario-installations, cartoongraphy and story-signposts. Hopefully it’ll make a nice toolbox to work with in the following years.

How has your working practice developed since you graduated?
I was lucky I could start working in an architecture office (Ooze) directly after graduation. It made me find out how the mix of urban research and illustration can be combined in practice.

At the same time I felt the urge to develop the storytelling installations and models I made for my graduation project, so I started working as a freelancer. The first months as a freelancer I got the opportunity to create some new projects. MU (www.mu.nl) gave me the opportunity to create a new installation for the exhibition Paper Zoo in MU, visualizing the life cycle of paper as a food chain.
I also translated the paper ‘scenario-models’ to story-signposts, telling stories about the location of the signpost connected to the village it’s pointing at.

Since December I share an atelier with friend and colleague Stijn van der Vleuten, we’ll collaborate on several projects in the future.
We are now working on a presentation in transparent lockers of ordinary objects with personal stories, commissioned by an archive and a professor of ethnology at the University of Amsterdam.

Which creative projects/movements/productions in your part of the world are you excited about at the moment?
I think the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven is making an interesting development these days. They’re reinterpreting their collection, searching for connections with the world of today, and trying to transform it from an exclusive museum to a square for everyone.

What impact, if any, do you think competitions can have on a creative person's work and career?
Competitions give you an opportunity to show and especially explain your work. Hopefully it will give also opportunities to create new work!

Where can we see more of your work?
www.floriandevisser.nl

The term 'Holon' describes a whole thing, that is simultaneously a whole and a part. Each holon has two tendencies: To exist as an autonomous, self-reliant unit and to be also an integral and dependent part in sub-ordination to controls on higher levels. My photographic work Holon deals with lived utopias in Germany and the relation between humans to their environment. The protagonists of my series see themselves as individuals, that are — as a part of it — responsible for the protection of nature.

In times of mechanisation and industrialisation, they are mavericks with this special way of life to search for the physical and spiritual closeness to nature. They react on the society‘s alienation from environment, which is apparently affected by human intervention and which is nothing more than cultivated landscape. The beauty of nature seems to be an alternative draft in comparison to the tremendousness of the reality, simply because the imperfect social and ecological reality nourish the desire and hope of a better world.

The conviction, that advancement is possible, is an important motivator of our society and the fundament for utopias, for ecological and social experiments. Today‘s utopias were lived in little microcosms, political and religious movements, that revoke from the conventional life. Characteristic for the utopia is, that it works in a reduced scale, but never as a lifestyle for the common society.

My project 'Holon' shows the life of communities and radical living individuals, who emancipated from the consumerism and the globalisation of the western world. Lot of them are living completely self-substaining, they supply themselves through the cultivation of wholefood products and live without money, electricity and water conduit.

Congratulations again on being a winner in the CGP. What are you working on next?
I am planning to realise a project in Istanbul about living in Gececondus, which is a Turkish word meaning a house put up quickly without proper permissions - "placed (built) overnight". In common usage, it refers to the low cost apartment buildings or houses that were constructed in a very short time by people migrating from rural areas to the outskirts of the large cities. Such buildings may be constructed without going through the necessary procedures required for construction, such as acquiring building permits, and can be very densely populated. Half the residents of Istanbul - perhaps six million people - dwell in gecekondu homes. This areas leaded to the flooding in Istanbul last year. I am still interested in working on ecological topics, because that touches my heart deeply.

How has your working practice developed since you graduated?
I am working a lot to publish my work in every way. Before I graduated, I did not even thought about this aspect taking so much of my time. Until I am starting my next big project, I'm working for my own and for magazines. I try to photograph things that have nothing to do with traditional documentary photography, I am building some installations for my own, try new ways, read a lot photography theory. And I learned to use that little spare time I have to reach my goals - I cannot live from photography yet, so I'm working on weekdays and do my own work at night or at the weekend. That demands a lot of energy and discipline to push things forward.

Which creative projects/movements/productions in your part of the world are you excited about at the moment?
I love furniture design which is built ecologically, using recycled goods. I cannot tell why, but I am crazy about provisorily architecture - buildings that grow naturally, which are individual and not customized. This is an important aspect of my work, too. Most of my best friends are photographers, documentary filmers or landscape architects, my parents live in a low-energy wooden house, my boyfriend is an global social worker, that influenced and still influences and inspires me a lot.

What impact, if any, do you think competitions can have on a creative person's work and career?
I think competitions are a wonderful instrument to feel that you're on the right way with that what you're doing and can give some support to get more attention as an artist. But I try not to be influenced by a style that is en vogue at this time just because I think I might win a competition.

Where can we see more of your work?
www.malwinerafalski.com

The first illustration is about changing the desert into the forest. It describes my with that many kinds of people will do something for the earth.

The second illustration is about a girl who wants to change herself, but she stuck in the middle of the city, dreaming. It's describing that sometimes changing is difficult.

Congratulations again on being a winner in the CGP. What are you working on next?
Thank you very much! I'm really happy that I could be a winner in the CGP. I'm working on the new fantasy series now. I will try to create much more images this year.

How has your working practice developed since you graduated?
It was tough right after I graduated though, I had myself try everything that I could try. I could learn so many things from the actual experiences, and from many mistakes too! And I'm still learning :)

Which creative projects/movements/productions in your part of the world are you excited about at the moment?
I'm focusing on the environmental issue now. The gallery that I've been worked with is the first green gallery in New York. Plus I'm working on the green project with them! I hope I can do something.

What impact, if any, do you think competitions can have on a creative person's work and career?
Impact? hmm, I think competition can help our motivation and it's always inspiring for me.

When the competition has a specific theme like CGP I will create the a image that I've never thought of, and I can see what other people think from the same word "change". So that's interesting.

Where can we see more of your work?
www.yokofurusho.com

These photographs examine the existence of “The Sublime” in the western post-industrial landscape. They explore how these terrains posses a physical and intellectual exclusivity for a general observer and how they , due to the nature of the industries that create and maintain them, have a built-in obsolescence and I hope the production of these images has not only extended my own understanding of the evolution and topography of these landscapes,. In the foreseeable future most of these places will no longer exist in their present form, due to shifts in global economies, changing labour forces, a “greener” awareness in society and the emergence of new technologies in industry. This may be one of the few intentional records that documents not only their existence, but also the strange uniqueness of these disappearing environments.

Congratulations again on being a winner in the CGP. What are you working on next?
I’ve a couple of projects on going at the moment, one based in the Thames estuary concerning the islands out there, the other is more long term revolving around the idea of disappointment. I know that sounds a little vague but it is a very long winded premise and therefore a deeply dull read. Also a couple of us are producing a quarterly photographic newspaper called “Uncertain States” which is not only good fun to do, but also a great learning curve.

How has your working practice developed since you graduated?
I think I am more aware how a strong idea is as important as a series of strong images so I am planning my work a lot more than I used to, which in the long term makes the photography a lot easier to produce.

Which creative projects/movements/productions in your part of the world are you excited about at the moment?
I’m very interested in 3d image making at the moment. I’ve been fascinated since the first holograms appeared about 25 years ago, but the CGI and 3D in film making has improved beyond belief in the last 2 years and is now producing productions where my suspension of disbelief is total. I’m wondering if this can be applied to still images.

What impact, if any, do you think competitions can have on a creative person's work and career?
I’m not sure long term, but on a short term I think peer approval and recognition are great for anybody’s confidence, which can only be a good thing.

Where can we see more of your work?
I’ve got a couple of images on show in the ‘Open West “ exhibition at the Summerfield Gallery, Cheltenham (opens 19th Feb) plus a piece in the ‘Down and Out’ exhibition in Wall Space Gallery, Seattle (WA) till the beginning of February then it moves to Portland (Oregon) until mid march. My website is at www.davidgeorge.eu

Florian was also the overall winner of the CGP and an explanation of his project can be seen at the top of this page.

See more of Florian's work at www.floriandevisser.nl

'Sculpt-Couture' aims to change the way of thinking about fashion & sculpture. I have mixed those media with psychology and philosophy theorys.

The interaction between man and environment favors creation of masks. Since birth, we wear clothes across the life span. They take various forms, enriched by colors, shapes and fabrics, often possessing artistic values as sculptures. It is a form of symbiosis, an unbreakable bond. Body becomes a medium for art form, combining the person and his/her clothes into one object, gaining new forms and meanings.

In relations with outside world, clothes become a mask, an armor, a camouflage. They are the first message sent when in contact with another human being. People constantly create their image using clothes, emphasizing some qualities of their personality, while hiding the other. We can interpret the image using aesthetic values, or turn to psychological and practical approach. The choice of clothes is never accidental. These carefully selected compositions are my work's starting point, defining its form. Through observation, I am creating personas - images determined by people and mental state of their minds. I'm inspired by the cloth forms I encounter, which results in a unique, personal interpretation. I strive to capture the physical form of mental image. I don't present specific persons, merely summarizing the "impressions" of images and behaviors. I'm featuring exceptional (extreme) individuals, highly influencing the environment. Their image forces us to interpret them in a way they "expect", a way they "let" us for. Those characters appear to be "out of the time", they could have lived in the past, can live now or may live in the future. Their goal is to create delight, desire and concern, to embarrass or disgust, just like strangers who raise extreme, strong feelings.

I am well aware that after getting to know the person, his or her visual outlook loses its meaning, but the point of my attention goes further. I focus on the messages carried by the aesthetic values of the created raiment, driving attention to how easily we are influenced by visual suggestions clothes may provide.

Congratulations on being a winner in the CGP. What are you working on next?
Thank you very much, I am really happy with this distinction. At the moment I am working on my new projects which are also associated with sculpture and fashion.

I am definitely going to continue my project Sculpt Couture, I still have a lot of unused sketches. I also want to create my own collection with the qualities of sculpture as well as a series of Pret a porte clothes . I am planning to use new materials and keep on experimenting with form. So I hope my new stuff is gonna be real good.

How has your working practice developed since you graduated?
Luckily there is a big interest in my work in the world of art and fashion, not only in Poland. Ever since I finished studying my works have been exhibited in 4 shows and 2 more are scheduled for next March and May. My work was also published in the press, which resulted in invitations to a few photo sessions. I am a winner of a competition for young designers, organized by a very good cultural magazine in Poland. I also cooperate with London’s artist W.P.Onak, together we created a beautiful film with the use of my projects. We were invited to the Art & Fashion Festival in Poznan, where I was pursuing one of my projects which was reported live (life streaming) on the Internet.

Which creative projects/movements/productions in your part of the world are you excited about at the moment?
Nowadays it is difficult to confine to specific part of the world or discipline of art. Walk through the forest can be as inspiring as a visit to the theater! I love to visit museums, watch wild animals in the zoo or to analyze the human anatomy. Sensitive man can find inspiration everywhere! However, if I am to give some examples than nowadays I often examine the work of polish sculptors Alina Szapcznikow and Magdalena Abakanowicz. They are very subtle and feminine in their approach to the material and form.

With great interest I follow what is happening in the world of fashion! It's amazing that some of the great creations of the designers are like walking works of art. I love the haute couture collections such as Gareth Pugh, Victor & Rolf, Hussein Chalayan, Alexander McQueen, John Galaino or Jean Paul Gautier. Very inspiring for me are also film works of such artists as Matthew Barney, the animations of Quai Brothers or video clips from Floriia Sigismundi. I love the photos of Nick Night, and recently of Paco Peregrina. I can give you ten thousand other names of people who inspire me. I believe that the sensitivity of a man evolves lifelong so the range of inspiring research is constantly changing.

What impact, if any, do you think competitions can have on a creative person's work and career?
I believe that contests are a great opportunity for young artists to confront with other artists, and to show and promote their work. In the era of the internet and unlimited access to cultural goods, competitions select the best of the best, giving them the opportunity for further development!

Where can we see more of your work?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HcpJt6yCKU

'The Old Man and the Golden Dog.'

Congratulations again on being a winner in the CGP. What are you working on next?
Firstly thanks again for awarding me this Prize. Currently I have a few projects in the production stage. I have another stop-motion animation video in development that will be a mixture of live action and animation. I’m also collaborating with musicians on various music videos, and I am planning to work closely with my sister who is an illustrator. Alongside these pieces, I have been and am still working in various production companies and on different shoots in London.

How has your working practice developed since you graduated?
I was very lucky as I have some contacts in the media industry so straight after graduating I started working on different types of shoots and gaining experience within a variety of different companies.

It has been hugely beneficial to be a part of the industry as, already, it has enhanced my skills and broadened my perspectives.
Although I’m still learning, as my experience of working on shoots continues, I am getting more and more confidence in video making with a better understanding of all stages of production, from initial concept to shooting and editing.

Which creative projects/movements/productions in your part of the world are you excited about at the moment?
I love animation in its many different forms. It can be used to communicate serious messages and at the same time provide light hearted entertainment.

I’m very interested in, and excited about, the fact that you can shoot top quality HD videos on Digital SLR’s now. I have just bought myself a Canon 7D and it is amazing. The quality is full HD and the price wasn’t too bad either bearing in mind it’s a full HD camera. Having such good equipment is a brilliant way for me to experiment with my live action camera work as well as having such a good stills camera to shoot some stop motion animation.

What impact, if any, do you think competitions can have on a creative person's work and career?
In such a competitive industry any sort of recognition only spurs you on – competitions have a large impact in productivity and morale!
It’s certainly given me a great confidence boost! Plus I feel very honoured and lucky to receive an award doing something I love!

Where can we see more of your work?
My website is under construction as I type so for now please visit: www.youtube.com/barwilliams