Sculpture made from discarded sofas has won £10,0000 art prize

A sculpture made from sofas abandoned on the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland, has won a £10,000 art prize. Edinburgh College of Art graduate Emily Binks won the award for a shelter she created from discarded furniture. She will be provided with a house and studio for three months and a monthly stipend as part of the Glenfiddich Residency Award.



Ms Binks, who is originally from West Yorkshire, will also be given a budget to create new works. She graduated with a BA in sculpture in 2015. She said her work combined her passion for art with her love of the outdoors. "Recently, my art practice and personal interests have been becoming more and more intertwined," she said. "I have been re-homing discarded pieces of furniture from around Edinburgh, then combining that with my experiences of being a Scout leader and my knowledge of survival skills.



"I am currently experimenting with construction of temporary shelters made from reclaimed materials which humans can interact with, encouraging them to develop a new understanding of objects both in art and day-to-day life." As part of the international residency programme at the Glenfiddich Distillery, Ms Binks's new work will go on show at the on-site gallery. Andy Fairgrieve, co-ordinator of the Glenfiddich Artists in Residence programme, said the artist would be "a very worthwhile addition to this year's residency line-up".



He added: "Her sculptural assemblage invokes a basic fundamental of the human condition: from building dens as children to setting up homes as independent adults, we can all relate to the creation of a place to shelter and a sense of belonging." The piece was chosen from 61 artists on show at the RSA New Contemporaries exhibition which opened in Edinburgh on Saturday, displaying artwork from graduates of art schools across Scotland in 2015. Colin Greenslade, director of the Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture, said: "The artists in RSA New Contemporaries are selected on the impact of their degree show presentation, and the Glenfiddich Residency Award winner is then selected from this distilled snapshot of newly emerging talent in Scotland."