Pornokitsch

One of the changes we've made for the Kitschies in 2011 is the addition of a new prize category: The Inky Tentacle for Cover Art.

It gives us great pleasure to introduce the experts that will be on the 2011 Inky Tentacle's judging panel:

Darren Banks is an artist who incorporates found and made film footage into sculpture to explore ideas about horror, the domestic, science fiction and defunct technologies. Banks has exhibited nationally and internationally. His 2011 exhibitions include: Defective Science, Genova, Italy; Mural Newspaper organized by Hugo Canoilas, Abrons Art Center, New York; Translate/Transcribe, Art Moscow; ROTATE, Workplace Gallery, The Contemporary Art Society, London. He will be represented by Workplace Gallery at NADA Art Fair, Miami, 2011.

Hayley Campbell writes for The Comics Journal, London’s Gosh! Comics Blog, and is currently working on a book about Neil Gaiman for Ilex Press. She also writes essays about all sorts of non-comics things at her website.

Curator Catherine Hemelryk graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2004 before moving to Vilnius where she was Curator at Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius and worked on projects including Tales from the Travel Journal vol. I, Extreme Crafts. She continues to work internationally as a guest curator, lecturer and writer with projects in Berlin, Belgrade, Hoorn and Tbilisi. In 2011 she took over the programme at Fishmarket, Northampton part time, where she has curated projects including Adam Burton, George Shaw, Christopher Orr, Distruktura, Johnny Amore & Irene Pascual, Alan Moore, Catherine Bertola, Darren Banks and collaborations with BCA and MK Gallery. Her independent projects include (Now that would be) Telling, commissioning work by Hayley Lock and five writers such as Liz Williams at five stately homes across England. 

Craig Kennedy is first and foremost a geek and has worked in the TV industry for 13 years. For the past seven years he has been lucky enough to work for SYFY creating on air promos and trailers. Last year he was nominated for three Promax awards and won silver for Most Effective Promo for the launch of V.

Pornokitsch will be represented by Anne C. Perry.

The winning artist or designer will receive a cash prize (£250), an iconic Tentacle trophy and a bottle of delicious The Kraken Rum.  As with the other categories, the Inky Tentacle finalists will be selected in January and the winner announced on 3 February, at SFX3.

Although the judging criteria is still the same as in the other categories ("progressive, intelligent and entertaining"), the Inky Tentacle is also open to anthologies and collections, so long as the book's first UK publication is in 2011. (This means no paperback editions if the hardcover was from 2010, or reprints, or anything like that. We're keen to get the first UK cover for each text.)

We've had a lot of great submissions already and are still open for more (and will remain so until 31 December). You can find details on how to submit on both The Kitschies' website and Facebook page. The Kitschies are presented by The Kraken Rum. You can learn more about our generous and tentacular sponsor here.