2012 Blake Prize for Religious Art Winners

Fabian Astore’s The Threshold was inspired by a girl in a Turkish mosque.

A little girl runs carefree in concentric circles past 20 men worshipping in Istanbul’s Suleymaniye Mosque, while presumably her mother prays out of sight behind a lattice.

Ten months on, the girl has become the innocent face and figure of Australia’s 2012 religious art prize – though she may never know it.

“The context of where she is is extremely powerful,” says the Bankstown-born, Balmain artist Fabian Astore. “That particular space would be off limits to her, I’m assuming, once she reaches puberty.”

via 2012 Blake Prize for Religious Art Winners.