SWELL Art Prize 2025

14 - 23 March 2025, Broadbeach Community Space, Gold Coast

Brutal Mechanism

Meg Stoios, 2024, Found objects (office chair, wood, jewellery, paper, sticky tape), Dimensions variable, roughly 160 x 160cm floor space

Stakes daggered through the heart of a mundane office chair offer a glimpse into the still violence wielded by capitalist compulsions tethering workers to their jobs. The nipple piercing and apple tattoos are small expressions of resistance to the professional image. Appearing as snake eyes and apples respectively, the story of Adam and Eve offers supposed justification for the origins of toil and the way we moralise work.  

This work would not have been possible without the support of a GC Creative Spaces funded residency.

GC Creative Spaces is a City of Gold Coast initiative to connect creatives with space to thrive and connect with the creative community.