Michael Candy, who graduated from the QUT Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) course in 2013, has been awarded a Biennale WRO 2015 award for his piece BIG DIPPER.
The WRO Biennale in Poland is one of the most prestigious events on the global New Media Art calendar and Candy's success so early in his career suggests that he will be an internationally important figure in the field. During his time as a student Candy developed a distinctive style of kinetic work, melding electronics with a mischievous sensibility often designed to provoke.
WRO's program for the Biennale is substantial and during the week of its opening events, Biennale WRO 2015 Test Exposure was visited by over 30,000 visitors, including the special program for the European Museum Night, exhibitions, performances, screenings, concerts, and conferences.
Earlier this year, BIG DIPPER featured in The New Aesthetic?, one of four annual headline exhibitions at The Block, QUT Creative Industries Precinct. Suspended in mid air, the kinetic light sculpture consists of a mechanically rotating helix and plywood spine, from which fluorescent tubes gently wave upwards and downwards. The work was designed, built and assembled in India over the course of one month in 2014 as part of the Kochi Artist in Residency program and then recreated in Australia.
BIG DIPPER will be on view at QUT Gardens Point Precinct on 23 August as part of epic robotic spectacular Robotronica.
