Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize

With the Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize resuming in 2021 in a new venue, this year we were delighted to host Cameron Robbins at Redlands to conduct our Redlands Konica Minolta Artist in Residence Program.

After arriving on site, Robbins created a large scale site responsive artwork that now resides just outside the John Roberts Centre, and has been titled En Plein air.

Crafting the work only from found materials sourced around the Redlands site, Robbins has made a structure that consists of a five metre long aluminium pole, ballast of old sand stone, dismantled bike parts and a model aeroplane. Miraculously out of these discarded materials has emerged a wind powered kinetic drawing machine.

Redlands students were actively involved in witnessing the artwork emerging. Visiting the artist in studio, the students’ enthusiasm spilled over as they investigated first-hand what it is to be an artist. The Redlands community had a chance to meet Robbins at a special event which also showcased the Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize Collection.

Robbins is a well-regarded contemporary artist based in Melbourne. He has worked extensively in Australia, most recently at MONA, creating a site responsive artwork that is currently on permanent exhibition. Having worked with many schools, Cameron is very interested in education and children having access to first hand experiences of working with an artist.

His installations reflect a deep interest in the elements, and the resulting work seeks to make tangible the underlying structures and rhythms of natural forces. Artworks such as wind powered drawing machines, steam organs and vortex chambers demonstrate these forces interacting.