The 2025 Mapleton-Bree Prize for Work in the Creative Arts

Prelude is a powerful and moving film that masterfully blends archival imagery, landscape, and narration to create an immersive experience of hidden familial memory. It is available to watch via Vimeo.

This year's prize panel, chaired by Professor Ian Klinke, describes the film as follows:

Through a poignant exploration of her mother’s life and their intertwined histories, DeNike activates a polyphonic field where personal and collective memory converse and collide. Her use of mixed media and non-linear storytelling queers temporal conventions, revealing emotional resonances that are both intimate and shared. This evocative work, which draws on a range of collaborations with the wider community at St John’s, leaves a lasting impression, reimagining how we remember and retell.

Entries by Elliot Wigham (BA Music, 2024) and Connor Phillips (MA Fine Art, 2024) were highly commended by our panel.

Wigham's entry, a large-scale orchestral score entitled Hir nych yr angau ('long is the langour of death') offers a highly emotional memorial to a loved one. Elliot's piece can be listened to here.

Phillips' entry, a large (244 x 244 x 8 cm) oil painting across two panels, is a thematic exploration of desire and intimacy, with models embodying roles relating to the ancient myth of Apollo and Daphne. Apollo and Apollo can be viewed below.

Congratulations once again to this year's winner, Jen DeNike, and many thanks to everyone who submitted works for consideration. Year on year, entries have continued to be of an incredibly high standard. We look forward to next year's competiton!