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Perth artist Sam Bloor won the City of Joondalup’s 2025 Invitation Art Prize for Chance Encounter. The City awarded him $25,000 and said it would acquire the installation for its collection.
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How a phone encounter became Chance Encounter
Bloor says the idea began when he saw an emergency phone in a gallery beside a label reading “not art.” He imagined a partner phone elsewhere in the space labelled “art,” then returned to an earlier concept: connecting phone boxes through their publicly available numbers.
That origin explains the work’s telephone-related premise, but the available account does not establish an operating network of payphones or provide details about the hardware used. The City describes the resulting work as a site-specific installation.
#1 Best Overall
Why the judges selected the installation
Judges Helen Carroll, Glenn Iseger-Pilkington and Abigail Moncrieff called it a “poetic and cinematic installation” that “invites repeat viewing.” They said chance encounters, mystery chats and the unknown frame the experience, inviting audiences to participate as collaborators and drawing on a need for connection.
The 2025 prize and exhibition
The City reported 142 entries and selected 10 artists for the exhibition at Joondalup Contemporary Art Gallery, which ran from 16 October to 13 December 2025. The City said the prize has supported more than 700 artists since it began in 1998.
Rank #2
- Length: 0.5in / 1cm, Height: 10.25in / 26cm, Width: 8.75in / 22cm
- By Klaus Honnef
- Hardcover
- 95 pages
- Imprint: Taschen
The 2025 selection panel comprised Abdul Abdullah, Carly Lane and Katherine Wilkinson. The City’s shortlist announcement also noted an artist fee, longer production time and gallery presentation standards as features of that year’s program.
How the Popular Choice award differed
Bloor’s $25,000 award was the overall Invitation Art Prize. In January 2026, the City announced Tim Meakins and Erin Coates as joint winners of the separate Popular Choice Award; they were not the overall prize winners.
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- Height: 10.75in / 27cm, Depth: 0.5in / 1cm, Width: 8.75in / 22cm
- By Klaus Honnef
- Hardcover
- 96 pages
- Imprint: Taschen
About Sam Bloor
VOID_MELBOURNE describes Bloor as a Perth-based visual artist whose practice spans personal-scale objects, public-scale billboards and installations. His background includes a 2022 Perth Festival public commission, exhibitions and awards, and acquisitions including work held by the Art Gallery of Western Australia.
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