Treasured art event returns to celebrate sustainability and youth
Installations using the elements to create art and offering up a subterranean lifestyle are set to draw a crowd for the 2025 Strand Ephemera.
Townsville
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It’s one of the city’s most treasured events, showing casing artwork along one of the most picturesque locations in Townsville.
Ephemera will feature 29 installations from both local and national artists.
Acting-Mayor Ann-Maree Greaney is expecting a lot of people to come and see the artworks.
“I’m expecting thousands and thousands, into the tens of thousands of people,” she said.
“I think it’s wonderful that you discover all these artworks and you come back to The Strand again and discover more artworks.”
This year’s theme is ‘Trace-Less’ with artworks needing to follow the guidelines of sustainability, the environmental impacts of the materials in their works and connection to country.
Artists had to follow the artist brief for their artwork to be considered for the event, with a judging panel picking 29 out of 150 nominations to go on display.
One artwork, which embraces humour, includes an entry to a bunker and a sign selling the ultimate subterranean lifestyle, complete with its own website.
“I’m glad I’m not doing the judging because I’m sure it would be a very hard task,” Cr Greaney said.
Prizes for this year include $10,000 for the Artistic Excellence Award, $1,000 each for the People’s Choice Award and Environmental Advocate Award, and a new award of $1,000 for Young Artistic Excellence.
With the introduction of the Young Excellence Award, Cr Greaney said they were hoping to get young artists on-board to showcase their work.
“It’s very important that we bring the young artists, the up and coming artists up to see what opportunities await them in this space,” she said.
Previously the winning artwork would be displayed at The Strand, but Cr Greaney said that won’t be happening this year.
“We have a lot of artwork on the strand so it’s getting quite crammed here.” Cr Greaney said.
“We’ll discuss that going forward about whether we install artwork in different locations around the city.”
One installation which will be on display is ‘Dream Studio” by Victorian artist Cameron Robbins.
Mr Robbins said the artwork was a footprint of a studio he had.
“It’s made as a framework with no cladding so that you’re still in the outdoors, and it’s full of a wind drawing instrument that actually creates drawings using the wind and weather,” he said.
“It’s a very exciting proposition for an artist to have a studio in such a plum location, so even if it’s only for two weeks, I’m really enjoying myself.”
Mr Robbins is hoping Townsville gets a lot of different weather conditions for his artwork to be at its full potential.
“It’s a very sensitive instrument and people who walk up and down The Strand will notice that it’s able to move in very light winds,” he said.
“But it’s also very robust, so it’ll be able to last very well during any blustery events.”
Ephemera kicks off this Saturday and runs through August 3.
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