JCR Art Fund Competition 2017 – Awards Evening

The annual JCR Art Competition offers Pembroke undergraduates the opportunity to submit a work of art to win the George Jenkin Prize. This year the brief was to respond to Carol Ann Duffy’s poem, ‘Give’, and the competition was coordinated by Sydney Gagliano, the JCR Art Representative (BA Music, 2016).

The JCR art committee were thrilled with the diversity of this year’s entries. The Awards Evening took place in the Oak Room in the Master’s Lodgings, and was accompanied by a drinks reception and musical entertainment (see photos to right).

First place was awarded to Joe Mead (BA Economics and Management, 2016) and joint-second place went to Molly Garnett (BA English Language and Literature, 2016) and Tim Jukes (BA Modern Languages, 2016). Congratulations to those who received awards and to all the other entrants who collectively made this year’s competition such a great success. 

1st Place

Joe Mead, graphite, 20 x 10cm

Speaking about his work, Joe commented: ‘I really hoped to convey the feeling of being spurned from the perspective of the narrator, whilst showing the subject in the flattering, enamoured way that the voice of the poem achieves.’

2nd Place

Molly Garnett

Explaining the process behind her sculpture, Molly said: ‘I wished to present a form of the 'gift' of the poem. The box takes a conventional cubic gift box shape, yet what is inside is less appealing or attractive, instead painful and discomforting. The order and connection on the outside of the box represents the efforts to give the 'gift', the reciprocated efforts that are then revealed to be pointless when you look inside at the pins and thread.’

2nd Place

Tim Jukes

The structural forms in Tim’s work were loosely based on the neo-bankside apartment blocks in London. The judges commented that Tim’s diptych was aesthetically interesting, with a nice balance between the two halves and a good use of negative space. They felt that his interest in exploring notions of structure and fragmentation was a thought-provoking interpretation of the poem.

Other Entries 

Tina Shan 

Tom Gibbs

Florence Butterfield 

Beatrice Egid