Aylsa McHugh - Highly Commended

Sunshine Coast National Art Prize 2024 - Highly Commened

_{[Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by Christian Capurro]}

$5,000 - Sponsored by De Deyne Family

Artist Statement

Numen is the result of my research and interest in representing the ineffable phenomenon of the numinous experience. Numinous, a concept coined by German theologian Rudolf Otto, describes “persons, things or situations having a deep emotional resonance, psychologically associated with experiences of the self - referring to a dynamic agency or effect independent of the conscious will.” According to Otto, it possesses a specific yet inexpressible quality. Usually, this feeling or the source of it, is interpreted as God, but for some it might be the Absolute, the Ancestors, the uncanny, or the supernatural. This 'particular' state can take many forms - it can cause one to feel small and insignificant, or the self can cease to identify with the individual body and expands to become one with Everything. I am interested in the universal truths of these transient feelings and experiences. 

Judge, Julie Ewington, comments

Alysa McHugh is a Melbourne based artist, based in Narrm Melbourne., and I am interested in her current experimentation with different forms of making – she also makes prints.

I am intrigued here by the combination of evident emotional states, conveyed through the physical actions of the subjects, and the exquisite restraint of the physical work. The protagonist/dancers are poised, bound up in their own thoughts and emotions, yet they reveal these to the unsparing eye of McHugh’s camera, and to we viewers. There is a nice tension here between the photograph’s ability to capture the appearance of reality, and the suggestion of other realms of experience. The aluminium ground with its silvery sheen, contributes to the otherworldly mood, suggesting the mystery of representation, and its limits.