Travis MacDonald (winner)

The top of the pond 2024
oil on linen
2024 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize (winner)
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and Niagara Galleries, Melbourne

Artist statement:

The top of the pond is the final iteration of an ongoing study of public fountains, specifically the circular spraying pond model. They are an affordable solution to a public beautification project and citizen relaxation. No statues, just water from water, liquid and light. Light travels in straight lines, enters water, water follows a path of least resistance. A tricked-out Monet idea. The parable load of the fountain—of youth, of fertility/libido, knowledge, of rest and restlessness—is traversable. What squirts is a random digit generator, white noise. Like a number of radios stuck between stations, too much matter squeezed through a nozzle, a polite and mundane disorder. At Princes Park on route to the studio, there are two of them. They turn them off at night in the winter.