aMBUSH Gallery, in partnership with Kambri at ANU, is seeking works from Australian-based visual artists, graphic designers, and digital agencies for their upcoming poster prize and exhibition, The Hero’s Journey – a time capsule exhibition and social experiment in one that explores the turbulent times of 2020.
The Hero’s Journey is a classic narrative arc shared by almost every story ever told: a character ventures out to get what they need, faces conflict, and ultimately triumphs over adversity.
The year 2020 is our journey. It begins with ordinary people in the ordinary world, but quickly crosses the threshold from normal life into the domain of uncertainty, and asks us all to be heroes when unprecedented historical events rock our world.
There are trials to bear, monsters real and imagined to slay, ordeals to face, and crises that take us into our darkest hour – the Australian bushfires, COVID-19, Black Lives Matter protests, political acts of ignorance and infamy, swarms of locusts and killer bees, and the widespread global economic impacts felt post-pandemic, just to name a few. How did you heed the call of 2020?
The Hero’s Journey will allow artists to express how they’re heeding the call of this important time in world history by documenting their experiences in the form of a poster. How does daily life feel? What does it look like? Is there treasure to be salvaged and lessons to be learnt? And what will life look like when we emerge from this tumultuous year? Does a ‘golden age’ await?
Curated and presented by aMBUSH Gallery, 50 finalists will be featured in an online exhibition, with a physical exhibition in November at aMBUSH’s gallery space at Kambri at ANU, Canberra (restrictions permitting). One winner will be selected by an independent panel to receive an AU$3,000 cash prize.
The Hero’s Journey promises to be a compelling artistic examination of how the world has responded when unprecedented historical events forced us all to be heroes.
Entries are now open and close Thursday 10 September. Finalists announced: 1 October. Winner announced: 15 October. Exhibition: November 2020 (tbc). For more information, including entry guidelines, visit: www.ambushgallery.com for details.
Image: The Hero’s Journey – poster artwork by Mark Chester Harding