Environmental Advocate Award Winner

Anthony Sawrey

The Stain 2025

Line marking paint on grass
1000 x 1000 cm

About the Work

The Stain. What is this indistinct formless pool on the ground? What has taken place here? The Stain fades so quickly and conveniently, yet remains etched in our memory. This mark, this inconsequential nothing, reflects the passage of humans on this Earth beyond sculpture, beyond painting, beyond lifetimes but connected to all stories and myths over the ages. The Stain is a record, an accusation but is also transitory and fragile. It can be washed away over and over but still remains in the heart. Walk into this site. It is not a place of monumentality but intimacy: an ephemeral area to reflect on the secrets that surround us and haunt us in the night.

About the Artist

Victorian-based artist Anthony Sawrey has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sydney College of the Arts, 2007) and a Master of Fine Art (Victoria College of the Arts, 2009). While he majored in studio painting, he went on to create large-scale environmental art, utilising line marking fluids and motorised spray pumps.

He has produced commissions for numerous exhibitions and clients, including Sculpture by the Sea Bondi (2013, 2024) and Cottesloe (2017, 2022), Lorne Sculpture Biennial (2014, 2016), Sculpture in the Vineyards Wollombi (2012–14), Moreland Sculpture Prize (2013–14), Melbourne Test Sites public arts program in 2016, SWELL Sculpture Festival (2022, 2024), and Beechworth Contemporary Art Prize (2022).