Ingot Prize

The Denied series is a commentary on the silenced narrative of women, on the historical denial of women to reach their full potential due to patriarchal constraints.
Prieto uses collected objects of the past, understatedly arresting in their beauty and craftsmanship, their chipped metalwork or well-handled surfaces conjuring images of past hands. These objects of action and purpose are immobilised, suspended in an entrapment that represents the invisible cages in which women have found themselves across history. Each metal bar illustrates the barriers put between women and their aspirations, lines of control and denial.
Prieto carefully creates a purposeful frame which imprisons the object in mid-air, hovering on the brink of action, it mirrors the frustration felt by women as their own actions have been halted by imposed roles, society and the patriarchy. Yet women have always been determined, as these objects are to break free; a small part always succeed in escaping the cage. For despite their obstructions, women will continue to push through the barriers, albeit an inch at a time.

The work brings together two aspects of my experience growing up in Lima, Peru; the religious processions, in particular La Procesión del Señor de los Milagros (the Lord of the Miracles), where large numbers of people convened to carry a wall with a painting of Jesus through the streets of the historic city centre.
The painting is a replica of a wall painting that survived a devastating earthquake in 1655, while all the walls in the same building fell. Experiencing this expression of collective consciousness as a child, left strong memories in me, which come through in the human representational elements of adults and children, marching in silence towards the unknown, but instead of being united by religion, they are joined by the irresolute determination given by the reliance in the group, as their source of strength and carrying a shanty town, which is a distinctive characteristic of Lima's urban landscape, transformed in the work, into a symbol of freedom and hope.

Since 2017, I have been collecting passport-style photographs of the different hairstyles I create on my head as a Black woman. This ten-year project, now in its eighth year is a documents of the cultural power of Afro hair and highlights its role as a carrier of history, identity, and tradition.
Alongside this archive, I work as a metal sculptor, focusing on Black British history and the stories of unsung figures who have shaped contemporary life. My recent work engages with the ongoing conversation of the return of the Benin Bronzes. Touching on bronze head figures taken from the Benin Kingdom in the 19th century, a place where I was born, and a place renowned for its bronze-casting heritage.
For this opportunity, I propose a bronze sculpture of a traditional Benin queen, adorned with an elegant Afro-textured braids in a royal hairstyle covered in royal beads in traditional patterns. In Benin culture, hairstyles hold signified power, lineage, and spiritual authority, and I want to merge these historic styles with my contemporary hair documentation as a person from Benin kingdom, this will be significant to my heritage and ongoing project about Afro hair. Casting this work in bronze is essential, as the material connects directly to my ancestry, the legacy of Benin craftsmanship, and the themes of repatriation I explore in my art practice.
Having this sculpture realised in bronze would allow me to embed my Benin heritage within my ten-year archive and further highlight the importance Afro hair and Benin bronze making through historic lost wax method of bronze making.

JIGGERY POKERY (CECI N'EST PAS UNE PIPE) is a bold, wry sculpture from the 'Freudian Chew Toy' series, developed during a residency at the Freud Museum. The work merges Freud's passion for antiquities and dogs with contemporary ideas about play, desire, and sensory experience.
An ancient smoking pipe from Freud's own collection and a toy bear are transformed into a sculptural chew-toy, the object slips between power, play, consumption, pleasure and desire. Its familiar forms echo toys for dogs, adults, and sensory aids for neurodiverse users alike, revealing continuities in how we soothe, stimulate, and express ourselves.
Presented on a welded rebar chair, the sculpture nudges viewers to sit with humour, tension and curiosity. A work that engages wit to bridge antiquity and the contemporary moment, speaking about objects we handle out of need, habit, or longing, and referencing the jagged terrain of our mental and emotional worlds...
Casting JIGGERY POKERY in bronze would give 'erroneous' weight and permanent form to this absurd and psychologically charged piece while making it physically suitable for anchoring outdoors.

“Vessel for souls” is constructed using paper yarn and traditional crochet techniques, specifically bobble stitch and single crochet. The work transforms a humble craft into a contemporary object. The repetitive crochet process mirrors cycles of life and memory.
Each bobble becoming a tactile marker within the structure, symbolizing the presence of countless souls woven together.

A compact, geometric sculpture built from pixelated fractal blocks, based on the sacred geometry of natural patterns such as Romanesco broccoli and bismuth crystals. Its repeating, three-dimensional forms have been proven to evoke calm, focus, and a sense of wellbeing in the observer, turning nature's mathematical structures into a therapeutic visual experience.

Sculpted in wax. Head is removable to allow access to the hollow stash jar.
This work reimagines the ancient Egyptian canopic jar - once a sacred vessel preserving organs for the afterlife - as a symbolic container for the residues of contemporary culture. Where the ancients prepared for eternal life with reverence and ritual, my piece becomes a 'stash jar' of sorts, covered in icons of consumerism, excess, and fleeting pleasures like McDonald's fries, Nike shoes, and rave culture paraphernalia.
These are the objects that dominate our lives and shape our identities - commodities and habits that speak to what we value, worship, and depend on today. By casting this in bronze, a material long associated with permanence, monumentality, and legacy, I aim to transform the disposable remnants of modern life into something enduring.
Real Canopic jars from ancient Egypt are funerary vessels used during mummification to hold the embalmed organs of the deceased. Where each jar was associated with a specific deity, mine features the head of my old dog Rudi - a true dog god.

victoria helena's practice is a direct confrontation with the immense and often paralysing realities of our time. They term their work Apocalyptic Expressionism - a material inquiry into the human condition at the brink of ecological, technological, and psychological event horizons. Functioning as a form of ritualistic atonement, creating space for grief and acceptance to serve as a pathway to provocation and liberation.
Their sculpture, Studies in the Law of Attrition - (untitled 1), is a stark manifestation of these concerns. The work, a wall-based form of blackened sisal and natural latex, is organic and arterial, reminiscent of a root system or vascular cranial structure. Its tangled mass casts a complex web of shadows that speaks to the hidden complexities of loss. A memento mori for the Anthropocene, its intricate structure hints at a sense of tenacious mending in the face of entropy.
To imagine this piece cast in bronze is to see the work fulfil its role as a ritualistic atonement. The casting process, where the original is destroyed by fire to forge a permanent object, would sacrifice the fragile gesture to create the enduring artifact. The bronze sculpture would no longer speak of the process of attrition but become its definitive, fossilised form, a static memory of repair. It would stand as a solemn relic and a permanent record of our actions that raises the question: can our shared acceptance and grief become the catalyst for meaningful action?

This sculpture emerged from images that came into my mind during meditation: a face enveloped by many hands, tender yet suffocating. For me, it conveys a sense of overwhelm, a feeling of being drowned by forces outside our control, the submerging of oneself under internal or external pressures. A friend said it reminded her of her toddlers grasping for attention in the mornings. I feel this captured its essence quite nicely. As an invitation to reflect on the delicate balance between connection and suffocation.
This work is the result of a very time consuming multi step process of moulding and remoulding my own fingers. I have the final mould of this piece, and if I were fortunate enough to be awarded by having it cast in metal, could be used to make a wax cast.

'Nest' will take the form of a bronze figure resting within three cushion-like concrete forms. Both materials will be cast from fabric moulds, giving an unexpected appearance of softness to the solid surfaces.
The bronze will be cast from the interior of stitched clothing; a torso and sleeves shaped into an anthropomorphic form. Its arms rise upward in a gesture that is both human and bird-like, reaching skyward, in contrast to its weight which sinks into the concrete below. This tension between ascent and gravity, take-off and landing, suggests the intimacy of a nest shaped by touch: a form created through haptic movement, grounded yet still connected to air and flight.
Helen's process begins by pouring plaster into stitched clothing, then peeling the fabric away to reveal the intimate traces of weave, seam lines, and even the soft flocking and colour left by the cloth. Translating this delicacy into bronze - retaining the same sensitivity of surface while achieving outdoor durability - marks an exciting evolution in her practice.'Nest' will be her first sculpture cast in bronze.