2 August 2016

The award, sponsored by St John of God Health Care, attracted entries from more than 260 artists, who were inspired by the theme ‘the resurrection.’

Runners up included Libby Byrne from Victoria and Camilla Loveridge from Western Australia.

2016 judges Dr Petra Kayser, Prof Ted Snell and Rev Tom Elich praised Megan’s textile art piece, which was made using Bible paper and thread.

“Here is a whole Bible, every printed page carefully rolled up and sewn into a basket in a long process of assemblage. The bread basket brings together word and sacrament…the bread basket is a container but an empty vessel, it speaks of absence and presence, and we found that many possible readings and meanings can be drawn from this humble, yet complex object.”

Megan said that the resurrected Jesus walking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus captured her imagination.

“Their world had fallen apart, the script they knew had come undone. As Jesus walks with them; he takes their undone script and, on their journey, stitches it back together again.”

“In approaching the theme of resurrection I felt it was important to convey both death and life in the piece, and a vessel is a great metaphor for capturing both absence and presence. In trying to raise Jesus in the work by “stitching him back together”, I also created his death, by taking out each page of the Bible and rolling them up so they can’t be read,” she said.

“I hope that when people see the work they realise that it isn’t about me, and it’s not even about art, it’s about Jesus.”

Megan’s winning work and the 43 Mandorla Art Award finalists can be viewed on the Mandorla Art website.