Golden Bay duo win at 2022 Castaways Sculpture Awards

The City of Rockingham 2022 Castaways Sculpture Awards winners were announced over the weekend and two Golden Bay artists took home a prestigious prize.

The annual outdoor sculptural exhibit showcases artworks created from repurposed materials and celebrates artistic environmental awareness.

This year the exhibit consisted of three exhibitions and had a prize pool of $26,000.

Sharon Baxter and Rachael Lemon from Golden Bay were among the talented winners, taking home the $5,000 Water Corporation Sustainability award for their piece ‘Fanciful Floral Flurry.’

The unique art piece uses unlikely materials, such as plastic bread ties, to depict a grouping of botanic-like flowers.

Rolleystone-based artist Aaron Fry took home the $10,000 Alcoa Major Award for his piece ‘Giant Boutonniere.’

Fry’s work uses aluminium and salvaged scrap metal to portray an oversized frangipani flower with an assortment of other smaller flowers.

The $5,000 Innovation Award was presented to Bibra Lake artist Shaun Sawbridge for his refurbished Rolls Royce Avon jet, the ‘Aqua Racer.’

In the Castaways Schools Competition, Atwell Primary won the Primary Schools section with ‘Ocean Cabinet’ and Alta-1 College from Port Kennedy won the Secondary Schools section with ‘The Lost World.’

City of Rockingham Mayor Deb Hamblin congratulated the winning artists and encouraged the community to visit the exhibitions.

“The quality of work submitted for Castaways in 2022 was of a very high standard and the City congratulates the successful artists for the outstanding level of creativity they have shown,” Mayor Hamblin said.

“Castaways is running on the Rockingham Foreshore and at the Rockingham Arts Centre until Sunday 30 October, and we strongly encourage community members to visit the exhibitions.”