THE LESTER PRIZE | ILLUMINE_ALUMNI COLLECTION
Shining a light on our celebrated finalists: we explore what motivates them to make art, the stories they tell and the themes they pursue.
Ep 10
Artist Name: Joshua Cocking
Finalist 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 & 2019
Artist quote: “My work looks at the clash of culture and nature. It can be beautiful, but it can also be brutal.
Nature has been weaponised—geography and the environment are used to isolate and imprison people around the world.
I’m interested in an opposing idea of an alternative pre-history. The yearning for an old wisdom now lost. A crossing between fact and fiction in our ecological history.
I prefer to keep the brush strokes of the narrative quite broad and avoid my work becoming too didactic.”
Feel inspired to enter the Prize this year? This is your chance to win a part of $75,000 in cash and prizes. View our Terms & Conditions, complete a Subject Consent Form and submit your artwork online by 10 July 2020: www.lesterprize.com
Feature Artwork | Joshua Cocking The sum of all things 2019. Oil on aluminium composite panel, 60 x 60 cm.
Cover Artwork | Sally Stoneman Portrait of an artist 2014. Oil on canvas, 52 x 41 cm.
Photography | Courtesy of the artist.
