South Australian artist Ida Sophia has won the lucrative Ramsay Art Prize.
The 33-year-old was picked by a panel of national and international judges for her performance-based video work Witness, which depicts her being repeatedly submerged in water.
The video was shot in a single take at The Pool of Siloam in Beachport, on South Australia's Limestone Coast, and was influenced by her childhood experience of seeing her father's baptism and how she felt her father loved Jesus more than herself.
"When I was seven years old my parents split and I felt that my position as my father's favourite had been sort of replaced by religion," she said.
"And so I decided that I would become super religious to win back that place.
"But this is the thing with vain hope, that we do it even though we know that we're not going to achieve what we want."
But Sophia said in filming the video, in which she was repeatedly dunked for 31 minutes, she realised she had not lost the love of her father.
The $100,000 Ramsay Art Prize is the biggest for Australian artists aged under 40 and is awarded every two years.
Sophia said winning the prize felt "completely surreal" and she was "speechless".
"I feel immense privilege and gratitude," she said.
She said the news "hasn't sunk in yet" but described the award as "intensely life-changing".
"What an incredible career moment ... the weight of what this means is not lost on me."
The judges were unanimous in their decision to award the prize to Sophia.
Art museum director and panellist Aaron Seeto said the judges were impressed by the "sophisticated concept, personal symbolism, and emotional connection to the site of performance".
"We were particularly struck by the integration of durational performance and its translation into video, which created a visceral experience for the viewer," he said.
Sophia is a performance artist with a hybrid media, sculpture and installation practice that draws on the body to give performative works.
She is a former student at The Marina Abramovic Institute in Greece and has had shows tour internationally, while she also mentors artists around the world.
Seeto said the prize would help position Sophia "in the context of a national landscape".
"Plus I think the money is important as well, I mean $100,000 would allow an artist to do further research, maybe have a studio for a couple of years," he said.
"It provides a real boost."
Art Gallery of South Australia's director, Rhana Devenport, said the Ramsay Art Prize "sets out to elevate and accelerate careers for contemporary Australian artists".
"Ida Sophia is clearly at a pivotal point in her career – her winning work Witness is technically and conceptually resolved, capturing the breadth of her practice to this point," she said.
