Artwork made with typewriter wins NZ's premier award for drawing, and $25,000

August 3, 2020

Poppy Lekner’s Forward Slash took out the top prize.

The winner of this year's Parkin Drawing Prize has been announced.

The prize is New Zealand’s premier award for drawing and comes with a $25,000 reward.

This year's winner is Wellington photo media artist Poppy Lekner, who won yesterday for her drawing Forward Slash.

Her drawing features hundreds of forward slashes from a typewriter on an A4 piece of paper.

Ms Lekner was asked about her artwork on Seven Sharp.

"I made it with a typewriter. I started writing with a typewriter then I thought about it a bit more and thought I really like the marks the typewriter makes," she said.

"I’m there and the typewriter is there and it’s kind of a cool combining of the typewriter and ink and paper and thought this could be a drawing."

Playing "devil's advocate", Seven Sharp host Hilary Barry asked if "some might ask if this is a drawing?"

"It is a drawing for me but I can understand how it might be a leap of faith for some people who would not see the pencil and a clear representation of an object they recognise," Ms Lekner said.

"But once you investigating what drawing is and look at contemporary art you’ll see it’s part of a bigger exploration into what art can be."

Her drawing won out over 482 entrants, which can be viewed here.

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