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“CLICK” to view the YouTube video of the winning short-film “BEING PRESENT – Mokoan: Wet”

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Cooper+Spowart and Bree Marchbank have just won FIRST PRIZE in Section 4: Photography and Digital Works in the 2026 Martin Hanson Memorial Art Awards at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum.

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THE BACK STORY OF THE WORK

Many of you will be aware of how Mokoan, (also known as Winton Wetlands) in northern Victoria, has become our muse over the last 5 years. While our previous creative responses have been resolved in artists books and framed diptychs, our recent work is a short film.

In this work we continue to explore the continuing flux of presence and absence in the environment of Mokoan as well as the concept of Being Present in the landscape. Our submission was accompanied by the following statement:

Being present in the landscape is the moment where we lose ourselves – corporeality evaporates, and the physical space becomes a psychological state. A poetic and aesthetic conversation arises through observation, walking and deep reverie with the land and its multi-layered historical and ecological narrative. This place is neither still nor silent; the air and land is dynamic, filled with sound and movement.

The impetus to work on this project came from Nikki James, Yorta Yorta Nation Elder and Traditional Owner, currently the Koorie Cultural Engagement Officer at Mokoan Winton Wetlands. She invited us to present our work at a NAIDOC event she was planning in July this year.

As the design of the project and initial image sequences were resolved we invited Bree Marchbank, a sound artist who has great empathy with the land, its spirit and narrative, to create a sonic composition to further animate the video. Marchbank’s sound combines in situ sampling in the Wetlands, with instrumental and voice work created in response to both being present and the visual narrative of the video.

Our short film was finished and presented at the Wetland’s NAIDOC event on July 10, 2026. Following the premiere of the video we were asked to participate in an impromptu Q&A session – the work was very well received for its communicative ability to present an experience of the Mokoan.

The BEING PRESENT – Mokoan: Wet HD video is 5 minutes 24 seconds duration. Soon after the NAIDOC presentation the video was entered in the Martin Hanson Memorial Art Awards at Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum. We selected the Photography and Digital Works section as it also included moving image, animation and soundscape works.

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ABOUT THE MARTIN HANSON MEMORIAL ART AWARD

Since its inauguration in 1976, this Award has become one of Queensland’s most prestigious regional art events and is eagerly anticipated each year. The Award acknowledges Martin Hanson who was a popular and highly respected local businessman, a Member for Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Port Curtis 1963-1976, and patron to the Gladstone Artists Club. The Awards cover 4 Sections including: Easel Painting, Works on Paper, 3D & Fibre works, Photography & Digital works as well as many other special awards.

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ABOUT THE JUDGE

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Rachael Parsons, Director of New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM). Rachael is an Australian curator, educator and academic. With more than 15 years experience, she has worked as an independent and institutional curator across university, commercial, public and artist-run spaces.

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THE AWARD

 

FIRST PRIZE Section 4: Photography and Digital Works

Sponsored by the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery

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SEE OTHER AWARD SECTIONS AND PRIZES

Martin Hanson Art Award list 2026 – winners-list

 

ARTISTS’ STATEMENTS ABOUT THEIR PRACTICE

 

For Victoria Cooper and Doug Spowart collaboration is a dynamic space to test and challenge their individual creative practice and explore new and unchartered territory. They are informed by Charles Green’s book The Third Hand, where he proposes that collaboration creates a new entity full of potential and possibilities.

Over time their collaboration with Nature and the non-human has deepened and broadened their perceptions of Being-in-the-world. Their practice of Being is fully engaged with Nature.

 

 

 

Bree Marchbank approaches sound creation as ritual and collaboration, using improvisation to explore connections to place. The sound developed through a devotional practice which included field recordings and attentive listening in community and nature.

Her recordings capture the living presence of place, with and without instrumentation, creating sonic textures, and relational gestures that invite deeper connection and shared experiences for the audience. The sound reflects repeating patterns that mirror organic processes of emergence and transformation.

 

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OTHER COOPER+SPOWART WORKS IN HANSON ART AWARDS

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2023 Martin Hanson Memorial Art Award – Works presented

MARTIN HANSEN MEMORIAL ART AWARDS: Our Works

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2020 Martin Hanson Memorial Art Award – Winner of 2 Awards –  Works on Paper

COOPER+SPOWART books win ‘works on paper’ Awards

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2010 Martin Hanson Memorial Art Award – Winner of Works on Paper

SEE REFERENCE to the artwork Australian Banquet, January 25/ 26, 1788

BRITISH LIBRARY Acquires our cyanotype artists’ book

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