Louis Pratt

3rd Prize Winner

Instagram: @louispratt.artist

Website: louispratt.com

Artwork Title: Modern Gods - introspection

Artwork Medium: Resin, polylactic acid, marble dust, acrylic polymer, steel and paint

Year Created: 2025

Artwork Description:

Modern Gods – introspection is a sculptural work that explores the dynamic convergence of human form and collective energy, embodying a sense of transcendence and mythic unity. Drawing from the iconography of ancient deities, particularly the multifaceted representations of Indian gods with multiple limbs, this piece interrogates the timeless interplay between individuality and the collective spirit. The multiple limbs in these traditions symbolize both the immense power of the divine and the capacity to reach out in many directions, simultaneously embracing and acting upon the world.

In this work, I sought to capture that same essence of boundless energy and potential within the modern human condition. The figures, entwined and interdependent, evoke a moment of both exaltation and quiet assertion, merging to become something greater than the sum of their parts. The limbs and torsos coalesce into a singular mass, challenging the viewer’s perception of boundaries and echoing the collective drive towards shared purpose and higher aspirations.

The raw, gestural surface celebrates the immediacy of touch and presence, drawing the viewer’s attention to the imperfect and ephemeral nature of the human experience. Each figure reaches inwards, skyward or leans into the support of another, suggesting a cycle of ascension and grounding, an eternal struggle towards meaning and transcendence.

In Modern Gods – introspection, the mythic and the mortal merge, suggesting that our modern gods are not distant or divine, but rather found within the union of human bodies and the striving of the soul. It is in this convergence that the work finds its quiet power: a monument not to external gods, but to the divine within each of us when we reach for connection, for purpose, and for one another.

Artist Bio:

Louis Pratt is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist whose practice spans sculpture, painting, and video. He is best known for his pioneering work in figurative sculpture and his innovative use of emerging technologies.

Central to Pratt’s practice is the human figure, which he often constructs using 3D scans of real people. These digital scans, drawn from the personal data of individuals, form the raw material of his work. In reconfiguring and manipulating these digital bodies, Pratt raises urgent questions about data ownership, privacy, and identity in the digital age. His work foregrounds how intimately our bodies, and by extension our selves, are now entangled with data systems, surveillance, and commodification.

Through these figurative forms, Pratt critiques the contemporary condition, engaging with themes such as the erosion of autonomy, the quantification of identity, and the vulnerability of the self in an age of ubiquitous data capture. His sculptures become both representations and distortions, symbols of how our likenesses are fragmented, interpreted, and repurposed by technology.

Pratt has achieved national and international recognition as an Australian contemporary artist, particularly for his trailblazing use of digital tools in the creation of sculpture. His work stands at the intersection of art, technology, and social commentary, offering a powerful meditation on what it means to be human in an increasingly data-driven world.

Private Awards Ceremony