Bidyadanga artist claims Shire of Broome Acquisitive Art Award
Published on 07 September 2023
Bidyadanga-based artist Edward Badal has been crowned as the 2023 Shire of Broome Acquisitive Art Award winner.
Each year, as part of Broome's Shinju Matsuri festival, the Shire acquires the winning artwork from the Shinju Matsuri Art Awards.
The winning art piece is added to the Shire's art collection, which has been growing since the 1970s and holds dozens of artists from leading Kimberley artists. The artworks are displayed on a rotating basis throughout Shire-run facilities.
Mr Badal's sculpture, Artefacts, features a collection of traditional implements such as boomerangs, clapping sticks and digging sticks, which he carved from acacia on his Nyangumarta Country.
The Ngyangamata man who lives in Bidyadanga is an accomplished painter and carver. He is also a Ngyangamata Ranger and profoundly understands his country's cultural and environmental values.
He explained that he created the display to keep up the knowledge his Elders showed him so others could see the tools they used for hunting, singing, dancing and digging.
In awarding Mr Badal's work, the judges, locally-based artists Joshua Cocking, Jacky Cheng, and Bel Cook, said they were taken by the gravitas of his technical ability and honesty in documenting history, tradition, and practicality.
"The work, on the one hand, appears as Museum quality artefact, and on the other a completely contemporary, beautiful minimalist sculpture."
Category winners of the 2023 Shinju Art Awards were:
- Sheree Ford; winner of the Painting Award for her work Gibb River Road #8.
- Jody Loaring: winner of the Sculpture Award for her work Bound to the Martuwarra.
- Jun Jun Jill Jack: winner of the Indigenous Art Award for her work Willi and Wirnpa Waterholes.
- Kate Carr: winner of the Photography and Digital Art Award for her image The Marvelous & Mystical Land of Broome Sea Fog.
- Marie Manado: winner of the Textiles and Mixed Media Award for her hanging Nimanburr Family Tree.
- Sophie Little: winner of the Young Artist Award for her untitled work.
The Awards are open between 10am and 5pm until Sunday, September 10. Come in and vote for the People's Choice winner.