India
Asialink Arts has been working with residency hosts in India since 1994. Please click on the years below to view past residents’ profiles.
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2018
- Amee Porter (NT)
Supported by Arts NT
Amee Porter is a paper artist and designer whose home is a remote million-acre cattle station and tourism business in the heart of the Central Australian desert, located 85km from Ayers Rock (Uluru). Amee uses native grasses to economically and sustainably produce paper, art and jewellery. She specialises in handmade paper production and facilitates hand papermaking workshops for Curtin Springs Paper.
- Cherine Fahd (NSW)
Supported by Create NSW
Photo-media artist Cherine Fahd's multi award winning work is represented in public collections within Australia and overseas. Fahd has been awarded the Ulrick Schubert Photography Award and National Photography Prize. She is currently Senior Lecturer of Photography at University of Sydney. During her exchange Fahd focused on the performance of the human face as a signifier of identity. This enabled the development of new skills in sculpture and performance training.
- Miles Allinson (VIC)
Supported by Creative Victoria
Miles Allinson's first novel Fever of Animals won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2014 and the People's Choice Award at both the Western Australian and the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2016. He was a Creative Fellow at the State Library Victoria and is currently writing his second novel, In Moonland. On exchange Miles continued working his second novel, which explores the political, artistic and religious legacy of the 1970s. His work explores the myths that underpin Australia's changing relationship with India.
- Naina Sen (NT)
Supported by Arts NT
Born and raised in New Dehli, India, Naina Sen is currently based in Darwin. An award-winning filmmaker and video artist, specialising in cross-cultural storytelling, she has produced visual projections for 'Arrkanala Lyilhtjika' the celebrated performance work of The Central Australian Aboriginal Women's Choir. On exchange Naina collaborated with local female artists to create work that explores the intersection of ritual, art, culture, gender, identity and cross-platform storytelling.
- Suneeta Peres da Costa (NSW)
Centre for Australian and New Zealand studies, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla
Supported by Create NSW
Suneeta Peres da Costa is a highly acclaimed writer and has contributed to Australian literature as an editor, critic, broadcaster, teacher and mentor. Her latest novella, Saudade, about Goan migrants to Portuguese Angola and the legacy of Portuguese slavery will be published in early 2018. Based in India Suneeta promoted Saudade, while undertaking research and draft development for a new literary work.
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2017
- Lyn Dickens (SA)
Centre for Australian and New Zealand Studies, Himachal Pradesh University,Shimla, India
Lyn Dickens is a fiction writer and academic; her PhD explored mixed race subjectivity and creolisation in Australian literature. While in India she will work on a novel exploring the effects of political violence and the possibilities of redemption through the lives of two multiracial characters.
Man & Wah Cheung’s collaborative practice involves producing highlydetailed botanical artworks. The pair will engage with Bangalore’s Environment Trust catalogue of restored botanical paintings, illustrations and sketches from the Mysore Kingdom, and investigate transnational plant migration between Australia and India.
Mary Anne Butler is an award winning Darwin based playwright. While in Chennai Mary Anne will work on a memoir based on her childhood interactions with Suni; an Indian national employed by her family in Sri Lanka. The Red Suitcase will be an exploration of innocence, great loss, resilience and survival. Supported by Arts NT
Michael Adams’ project Freedivers and the Blue Planet will involve composing a set of narrative non-fiction essays exploring free diving in relation to place and belonging on our shared blue planet. The essays will be the basis for a book length reflection on diving and oceans, focusing on the concept of grace.
- Lyn Dickens (SA)
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2016
- Mohini Chandra (NSW)
Mohini Chandra is a visual artist who has exhibited internationally including at the Whitechapel Gallery (London) and the Asia Society (New York). As a descendant of Indian-Fijian indentured labourers, Mohini’s cross-cultural work on memory and visual articulations of identity within contemporary globalised cultures explores the fragmentation and fluidity of diaspora experience through photography, moving-image and installation. Extending her project in the Pacific region, ‘Paradise Lost’, Mohini was based at the Kriti Gallery & Residency in Varanasi where she undertook research around her family’s migration from North India to Fiji (via Kolkata), towards the production of new photographic and moving-image work.
Kate Just is an established visual artist working primarily with knitting, textiles and photography. She mines diverse histories and mythologies of female representation and reinterprets them through a feminist lens, addressing a broad range of relevant personal, social and political concerns. During her residency at Sanskriti Foundation in New Delhi, Kate researched the India Durga Goddess and studied embroidery by local artisans at the Sanskriti Museum of Textiles. Her new work in India included a large-scale knitted and embroidered pictorial work exploring ideas of female embodiment and power within a contemporary urban context.
- Hannah Raisin (VIC)
Hannah Raisin is a Melbourne-based video and performance artist. She has exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout Australia since 2007, and co-founded Rear View Gallery in 2009. In 2012 she received first class honours at the VCA, when she was also awarded the VCA’s Rosemary Ricker, Shermerdine Substation and NGV Women’s Association awards. Hannah received Australia Council for the Arts ArtStart and New Work Grants in 2013. At 1.Shanthiroad Hannah explored traditional and contemporary Indian cultural practices and politics and incorporated this into new work.
Mandy Ridley creates object-based artworks for exhibition and site-specific public art commissions. Her works are often layered to trace history, influence and connection for a particular site, establishing points of resonance between people of differing cultural backgrounds through colour and pattern. Mandy has exhibited nationally and internationally since 1996. Her work is held by Artbank and in public and private collections. Mandy worked with the Nizamuddin Urban Renewal Initiative in Delhi, researching new work with members of the Insha E Noor groups of Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti. Her project reinterprets traditional craft skills using contemporary materials and processes.
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2015
- Arlene de Souza (aka TextaQueen) (NSW)
Kriti Gallery & Residency
Supported by Arts NSW
TextaQueen uses the humble and unforgiving felt-tip pen, aka 'texta', on paper to explore complex politics of gender, sexuality, race and identity, in tangent with ideas of self-image and inter-personal relationships. Represented by Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney, she has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work is held in collections around Australia. TextaQueen's residency with Kriti Gallery will mark her first visit to India in 17 years. While there she will explore her heritage and develop a new self-portrait series set in hybrid Australian-Indian landscapes.
- Kate Blackmore (NSW)
Kriti Gallery & Residency
Supported by Arts NSW
Kate Blackmore is a Sydney based artist who works across video, installation and performance. Her practice is informed by feminist methodologies and often explores themes of violence, power and control. Collaboration is a central element in her work, which has been influenced by her position within video and performance collective Brown Council. Kate's solo and collaborative projects have been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions including Artspace (Sydney), Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney), Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane), National Museum of Contemporary Art (Seoul), New Museum (Beijing), and National Gallery of Indonesia (Jakarta). At Kriti Gallery Kate will collaborate on a multi-channel video work with members of female activist group, the Gulabi Gang.
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2014
- Daniel Edwards (ACT)
1.Shanthiroad
Supported by Arts ACT
Daniel Edwards is a Canberra born textile and installation artist exploring elements of culture and gender in craft practices. He is the Head Weaver of the collaborative Canberra 100 Community Tapestry. Working with fibre, cloth and other easily accessible domestic items, Daniel investigates the possibilities that occur when gender, culture and technology intertwine. Daniel is of Anglo-Indian heritage but has never been to India before. At 1. Shanthiroad in Bangalore, Daniel will explore notions of identity through patterns, fibres and textiles. He will collaborate with local textile artists in India, and share his new found skills and experiences on return to Canberra.
- Vinisha Mulani (WA)
Kochi Muziris Biennale
Supported by Department of Culture and the Arts, WA
Vinisha Mulani is a creative producer and facilitator who has worked in a number of arts organizations throughout Asia and the USA. In Australia she has worked with the Footscray Community Arts Centre, Australian Centre for Contemporary Arts, Human Rights Arts and Film Festival, and was the creative producer of a Department of Human Services film which outlined the importance of the arts when working with diverse communities. After volunteering at the first Kochi Muziris Biennale in 2012, Vinisha will return on her Asialink residency to work in the media team and on the Art and Medicine Symposium, which presents the benefits of the arts in a medical context.
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2013
- Chris Gallagher (TAS)
Teamwork
Supported by Arts Tasmania & The Australia-India Council
Currently the Director of the Tasmanian Writers’ Centre and the Tasmanian Writers’ Festival, Chris brings 30 years experience in arts management and documentary and drama film-making to her Asialink residency. Chris will work in India, joining Teamwork, a highly versatile company with roots in the performing arts, social action, and the corporate world. Teamwork manages a range of high profile international cultural festivals and Chris’s background in arts and program management will equip her as she joins them in presenting the 2014 Jaipur Literary Festival.
- Julieanne Campbell (NSW)
Teamwork
Supported by Arts NSW & The Australia-India Council
Julieanne Campbell is an arts manager who has worked in Australia, the UK, US and Asia. Her career began as a journalist in Indonesia in the early 90s, but she soon specialised in communications and business strategy in the arts. Julieanne has worked on 3 Venice Biennales, the inaugural Media_City_Seoul, and was General Manager of Performance Space, Sydney for 10 years. In 2012 she joined Parramasala, an international contemporary arts festival that celebrates the global impact of South Asian arts and cultures. At Teamwork, New Delhi Julieanne aims to develop a network of independent producers in South Asia to present work and facilitate artistic exchange.
- Kyle Page & Amber Haines (SA)
Kriti Gallery
Supported by Arts SA
In 2005 Kyle began working with Gavin Webber at Dancenorth where he performed in Gravity Feed, Night Cafe, Remember Me and Underground. He has worked with the Japanese company Batik, and in 2007 performed Meryl Tankard's Kaidan. Amber Haines graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2006. She began her professional career with Chunky Move, and has toured Gideon Obarzanek's GLOW and Mortal Engine throughout Australia, Europe, UK, South and Central America. In 2009 Kyle and Amber joined Australian Dance Theatre, performing in G, Be Your Self, Worldhood and Proximity. At Kriti Gallery in India, Kyle and Amber will develop a dance work, informed by the work of renowned Indian Neuroscientist, V.S Ramachandran.
- Michael Bullock (VIC)
1.Shanthiroad
Supported by The Australia-India Council, The Australia Council For The Arts and IASKA
Michael Bullock is a Melbourne artist working mostly in sculpture and painting. He has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions, symposiums and workshops in Australia and Asia. The IASKA Spaced Reciprocal Residency at 1.Shanthiroad, Bangalore will continue his current artistic research on the material and trade of sandalwood, of both Australian and Indian varieties. These woods are highly valued for their perfume and used for the manufacture of incense in Hindu and Buddhist ceremony. Bangalore and its surrounding cities are at the centre of the Indian Sandalwood industry. He intends to explore this industry as a creative entry to India, exploring both the fragile ecology of the tree and its associated artisanal industries in a global market place.
- Paul Brown (NSW)
Katyayani Theatre Group
Supported by Arts NSW & The Australia Council For The Arts
Paul writes plays and film scripts about scientific and environmental issues, often working in community contexts. He was co-founder of Sydney’s Urban Theatre Projects, and co-author of Aftershocks, award-winning verbatim theatre about the Newcastle earthquake. Paul also teaches and publishes in environmental studies. He has developed collaborative projects in India and Thailand on waterways affected by climate change, conservation and human settlement, and the problems of cities and rapid modernization. In collaboration with Katyayani (director Sohaila Kapur), Paul will focus these themes through documentary drama about New Delhi.
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2012
- Janet Meaney (ACT)
1.Shanthiroad
Supported by Arts ACT
Janet Meaney lives and works in Canberra and holds a PhD in performance art from the Australian National University. As the locus of her performance art practice, Janet’s body and experiences reflect aspects of the human condition in order to engage her audience in the process of self-reflection. At 1. Shanthiroad in Bangalore, Janet will explore contemporary developments in street performance as a tool for social reform and the ways in which this is incorporated into current trends in performance art. Her long history of teaching art to community-based groups will aid in breaking down social barriers by narrowing the gap between life and art.
- Jesse Sullivan (QLD)
Darpana Academy of Performing Arts
Supported by Arts QLD & The Australia Council for the Arts
Jesse Sullivan is a musician and cultural producer from Brisbane, working internationally as a radio content creator and producer of electronic music. He is best known for his music project, Suckafish P Jones, which explores a diverse cultural palette of sounds within the context of contemporary bass music, as well as his work with Forcefed Fistfuls, a program dedicated to global nascent trends in electronic and club music. Jesse's work collaborating with the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts will be realised through collaboration with local multi-arts practitioners; investigation and recording into local sonic cultures; and eventual presentation and performance of a collaborative work with the Academy.
- Margie Medlin (NSW)
Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts
Supported by Arts NSW & The Australia Council for the Arts
Working as a scenographer and media artist Margie combines dance with the moving image for performance and installations. Recent credits include SWIFT and Monumental developed in collaboration with Choreographer Ros Warby, as well as Morphing Physiology, a documentary of the Quartet Project funded by a Science and Art production award from the Wellcome Trust, London. In 2007 Margie became the Director of Critical Path, Sydney, a unique organisation offering research opportunities for choreographers. The focus of Margie’s residency at Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bangalore will be to contribute to the themes of the 2013 Biennial of Dance and Digital Arts. Margie will also mentor choreographers participating in the Mobile Theater project leading up to the Biennial.
- Sandra Bowkett (VIC)
South Asia Foundation
Supported by Arts Victoria & The Australia-Inda Council
In the potters’ colony of Kumhaargram on the outskirts of New Delhi, potter Sandra Bowkett plans to explore the intersection of her ceramic practice with that of the traditional Indian potters who she has come to know over the last decade. By returning to the potters’ wheel under the instruction of her Indian counterparts, Sandra will learn their throwing technique of massed small vessels. Sandra aims to free her work from the restraint of 30 years of a particular throwing technique and develop a range of drinking vessels and bowls. On her return to Australia, she intends to translate these investigations into a range of high-fired objects.
- Virginia Jealous (WA)
Himachal Pradesh University
Supported by Department of Culture and the Arts, WA & The Australia Council for the Arts
Virginia Jealous's poetry collection, Things Turned Upside Down, was accepted by Picaro Press in 2011. As a poet, freelance travel writer (with Lonely Planet Publications and the Weekend Australian) and former emergency relief worker (with Australian Red Cross and Oxfam), Virginia is preoccupied with how 'outsiders' continue to shape the world of others. At Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla, with its particular Raj connections and other colonial-era endeavours - like the region's apple industry, started by American Quaker Samuel Evans Stokes - she will explore the blurred boundaries between poetry, travel writing and creative non-fiction.
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2011
- Andy Jackson (VIC)
University of Madras
Supported by the Australia-India Council & The Australia Council for the Arts
Andy Jackson's poetry explores identity and difference and his collection Among the regulars was recently published. He has won numerous awards including the Most Innovative Work Award at the 2009 Overload Poetry Festival. In 2010 he was an Emerging Writer in Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre, Perth and is currently the Library Coordinator for Australian Poetry. At the University of Madras Andy will engage with the literary community while writing a suite of poems exploring the personal stories behind the medical tourism industry.
- Angela Driver (TAS)
Teamwork
Supported by Arts Tasmania
Angela Driver has worked as the Administration Manager at Tasdance for 6 years. In 2007 she completed a Churchill Fellowship researching performance events for social change, and in 2009 graduated from the Tasmanian Leaders Program. She was General Manager of the 2010 Regional Arts Australia national conference and the Junction Arts Festival. At Teamwork in India Angela will develop the skills to manage a highly versatile production house and hopes to implement this model in Tasmania on her return.
- Kush Badhwar & Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad (NSW)
Sarai
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & The Australia-India Council
Kush Badhwar specialises in photography and the moving image and his work investigates cultural production and reproduction. Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad has a background in product design and an interest in the role of the designer in rapidly changing urban environments. At Sarai, a program of the Centre of the Study of Developing Societies in India, Kush and Bahbak will consolidate their shared interest in the areas of cultural identity and public space through a long-standing friendship that will result in creative exchange with New Delhi.
- Stephanie Bishop (WA)
Himachal Pradesh University
Supported by The Department of Culture and the Arts, WA & The Australia-India Council
Stephanie Bishop’s first novel The Singing was published in 2005 and in 2006 she was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelists. Stephanie is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement and The Australian. At Himachal Pradesh University Stephanie will examine the complex migrational patterns of Anglo-Indians who considered themselves British, yet who appeared non-white, and emigrated to Australia during the White Australia Policy. This research will inform her second novel.
- Steve Mayer-Miller (QLD)
Darpana Performing Arts Academy
Supported by Arts Queensland & The Australia-Indonesia Institute
Steve Mayer-Miller is the Artistic Director/CEO of Crossroad Arts, a cultural development organisation that works across the fields of film, dance, theatre, visual arts and music. The organisation uses the concept of mapping to explore identity, belonging and dislocation across communities in North Queensland, the Asia Pacific region and Canada. At Darpana Performing Arts Academy in Ahmedabad Steve will undertake concentrated research in local innovative practices, particularly in the area of synthesising theatre and cinema.
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2010
- Catriona Mitchell (VIC)
Teamwork
Supported by Arts Victoria and the Australia-India Council
Catriona Mitchell was Program Director for the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Ubud, Bali, in 2008, and previously worked for the Melbourne Writers Festival. She runs an annual event for the Melbourne International Film Festival called Books at MIFF. Mitchell will work with Teamworks on the planning and organisation of the Jaipur Literature Festival to broaden her programming, managerial and production experience, with a view to utilising her newfound knowledge in her career as a literary programmer in Australia.
- Jacob Boehme (VIC)
Ishara
Supported by the Australia-India Council & The Australia Council for the Arts
Jacob Boehme is a Melbourne-born artist of Narangga/Kaurna heritage and a graduate of the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association and Victorian College of the Arts. He has worked extensively in Indigenous cultural preservation and the development of contemporary performance of traditional Indigenous stories, as well as cross cultural dance and puppetry presentations with Indigenous and Indian, Maori and Native American communities. His residency with Ishara in Delhi will afford the opportunity to further explore the relationship between Indigenous and Indian forms of physical and visual storytelling, and to seed new projects.
- Sally Golding (QLD)
Filter
Supported by Arts Queensland & The Australia Council for the Arts
Sally Golding is a media artist and curator based in Brisbane. She uses cross-discipline approaches to create startling sonic/visual explorations into expanded cinema, performance and audiovisual installation. Golding has both performed in and programmed for key festivals and events internationally and throughout Australia. During her residency in Bangalore with host organisation Filter, Golding will research and produce new live media work and explore collaborations with local media artists. She will perform at Filter’s annual festival Experimenta, develop screening programs for exchange, and facilitate workshops for participatory live outcomes.
- Sangeeta Sandrasegar (VIC)
1.Shanthiroad
Supported by Arts Victoria and the Australia-India Council
Sangeeta Sandrasegar’s practice centres around postcolonial and hybridity theory and draws strongly from her mixed heritage: an Anglo-Australian mother and Indian-Malaysian father. Sandrasegar has been represented in group and solo exhibitions since 1996, and is the recipient of several fellowships and prizes. In 2004 she completed a Doctorate of Philosophy between the Victorian College of the Arts, and The Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne. Sandrasegar explores her context within Australia and its relationship to migrant communities and homelands in her work. At host organisation 1 Shanthi Rd in Bangalore she plans to broaden this methodology through research and dialogue that explores how artists render the political, religious and social environments of metropolitan India.
- Sylvie Haisman (NSW)
Himachal Pradesh University
Supported by the Australia-India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Sylvie Haisman's forthcoming book This Barren Rock: a True Tale of Shipwreck and Survival explores her ancestors' abortive attempt to migrate to the Antipodes – a story first visited in her 2008 ABC radio feature Tell Me A Shipwreck. Her short stories have been published in Heat, Southerly, Island and Turbine magazines, and she was a prize-winner in the 2008-09 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. At Himachal Pradesh University she plans to extend her interest in nineteenth century global travel and migration by working on creative non-fiction stories about early Indian migrants to Australia.
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2009
- Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley (VIC)
1.Shanthiroad
Supported by The Australia-India Council and The Australia Council for the Arts
Based in Melbourne, Janet Burchill and Jennifer McCamley have been collaborating on artworks for over twenty years. Burchill and McCamley’s work employs a diverse array of media, including neon, sculpture, painting, photography and video. They have exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. A major survey of Burchill and McCamley’s work – Tip of the Iceberg - was presented at University of Queensland and the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, in 2001. While in Bangalore, they explored local architecture and public garden-scapes and worked towards a new photographic series.
- Josh Hogan (WA)
Darparna Academy
Supported by The Department of Culture and the Arts, WA and The Australia India Council
Josh Hogan works as a percussionist, composer and producer across a range of new performance media. In addition to a range of freelance projects, he is the founder and artistic director of the percussion group Taal Naan, and a member of the groups Nova Ensemble, Pi and Tetrafide. As part of his residency at the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Ahmedabad, he undertook intensive study of Konnakol (South Indian vocal percussion) and explored a range of northern and southern Indian rhythmic and dance forms. He also recorded and produced material for an album under his solo moniker Rusty Joe, featuring local Ahmedabad musicians.
- Kabita Dhara (VIC)
Katha
Supported by Arts Victoria and Australia India Council
Melbourne-based editor, bookseller and book reviewer, Kabita Dhara believes that Indian and Australian writers, publishers and readers deserve more direct access to one another. At Katha in New Delhi, she worked on literature that has been translated into English from India’s many regional languages, with a view to understanding the processes behind choosing a title for translation and assessing markets for it. She also spent time with multinational publisher Macmillan, learning how they assess the suitability of titles from overseas markets for the Indian market and the channels of distribution available to international publishers.
- Kate Sulan (VIC)
Darpana Academy
Supported by Arts Victoria and The Australia Council for the Arts
A director and dramaturge based in Melbourne, Kate Sulan is Artistic Director of Rawcus, an award-winning theatre company of performers with and without disabilities. Her work draws on dance, theatre and visual art disciplines and has been described as “a moving assertion of humanity with a wicked sense of humour”. Sulan has worked with companies including Back to Back Theatre, Stuck Pig Squealing, The Women’s Circus, Next Wave Festival and Malthouse Theatre. Her residency with the Darpana Academy in Ahmedabad allowed for creative dialogue, experimentation, reflection, and the seeding of new works.
- Katherine Philp (QLD)
Tibetan Institute
Supported by Arts Queensland and The Australia Council for the Arts
Cellist Katherine Philp graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium in 2008. She performs in a wide range of classical chamber music and orchestral settings as well as crossing over to collaborative world music and improvisation projects. Through improvisation, composing and arranging she explores how western musical mediums can be manipulated and crafted to work successfully with Tibetan folk and classical music. Philp undertook a residency at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in Dharamsala, India. There she worked to build on her knowledge of Tibetan classical and folk music traditions through collaborating with local musicians and assisting with the research and documentation program at TIPA.
- Keri Glastonbury (NSW)
Himachal Pradesh University
Supported by The Australia-India Council and The Australia Council for the Arts
Keri Glastonbury is a poet, essayist and creative writing lecturer at the University of Newcastle. She is currently the poetry editor of Overland, an editor with the small publishing company Local Consumption Publications and has directed ‘Critical Animals: National creative research symposium’ as part of Newcastle’s emerging arts and media festival This Is Not Art (TINA). Her latest poetry collection, Grit Salute, will be published in 2009. Glastonbury was based at The Australian Studies Centre at Himachal Pradesh University, where she worked on various DIY life-writing projects, including introducing zines to the local literary community.
- Melissa Keys (VIC)
Khoj International Artists
Supported by The Australia Council for the Arts and The Department of Culture and The Arts, WA
Curator at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Melissa Keys is responsible for curating and managing PICA’s exhibition, studio and public programs. Over the last ten years she has been employed in a variety of roles at Monash University Museum of Art and Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne. Throughout this time she has also been an active independent curator. During her residency at KHOJ International Artists Association in New Delhi, Keys researched and developed her understanding of local contemporary visual art and curatorial practice, and built build relationships with a view to co-producing a curatorial project and a series of collaborative exchanges.
- Susan Hawthorne (QLD)
University of Madras
Supported by Arts Queensland and The Australial Council for the Arts
Author of five collections of poetry, Susan Hawthorne has had her work included in Best Australian Poems 2006 and 2008, in Australian and international literary magazines, in metropolitan newspapers and on radio. Since 1998 she has been a Research Associate at Victoria University where she supervises post-graduate students in Creative Writing. Hawthorne is an aerialist, a student of Sanskrit and a publisher whose residency at the University of Madras allowed her to develop her skills in the art of Indian poetry rhythms. Her time in Chennai was used to write a long poem - using the bovine as a central metaphor - that addresses the symbolic role the cow plays in both Indian and Australian culture.
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2008
- Aimee Smith (VIC)
Darpana Academy
Supported by the Australia-India Council and the Department of Culture and the Arts, WA
Since graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), Aimee Smith has been involved in dance opportunities around the world including performances in Germany, Canada, Belgium and the UK, and the premiere of her performance installation Press Play at the Next Wave Festival (Melbourne). In addition to creating works independently, Smith is an active member of STRUT dance, has received commissions from Buzz Dance Theatre and WAAPA, and recently received the WA Dance Award for Emerging Artist. During her residency with the Darpana Academy, Ahmedabad, she continued her exploration and work in arts for social change.
- Christine Williams (QLD)
University of Madras
Supported by the Australia-India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Christine Williams has published four biographical works in Australia, England and India. Her subjects have included the Australian novelist, Christina Stead, and the Indian philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti. Following a NSW History Fellowship prize, Williams's work on major environmentalists in Australia, Green Power, won a National Trust of Australia award for Cultural Heritage in 2007. Her residency with the University of Madras gave Williams the opportunity to further her research for an upcoming biography of the Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar, in the context of the strong bond between Australia and India in their mutual love of cricket.
- Soda_Jerk (QLD)
1. Shanthi Road
Supported by the Australia-India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Soda_Jerk (Dan and Dominique Angeloro) are Sydney-based remix artists who work across the media of video, photo-collage and installation. Working exclusively with found material, their practice involves reconfiguring fragments of screen culture and vintage print media into new constellations. In addition to their collaborative work as artists, writers and curators, Dan Angeloro is completing a PhD on remix practices and Dominique Angeloro is a freelance arts writer. During their residency at 1 Shanthi Rd, Bangalore, Soda_Jerk researched Bollywood cinema culture and modes of spectatorship. They also collected DVD and print material for a new video remix work and a suite of photo-collages.
- Jayne Boase & Casey Van Sebille (SA)
Teamwork
Supported by Arts SA and the Australia Council for the Arts
Programs Manager for the Leaders Institute of South Australia, Jayne Boase, has extensive experience in arts management specialising in community cultural development and disability arts. Casey van Sebille has 30 years international professional experience as an awarded designer/theatre worker and is currently head of the Design Department at the Adelaide Centre for the Arts. During their residency in New Delhi with an international production company that has roots in the performing arts and social action, they engaged in discussions on the communication of cultural identity, expanded on design generation processes which will lead to outcomes in Australia.
- Ken Spillman (WA)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia-India Council and The Department of Culture and the Arts, WA.
Ken Spillman is an award-winning author whose work spans the genres of history, novels for young adults and children, short fiction, poetry, scriptwriting and criticism. He is the author of 19 books and has compiled five collections of writing. Spillman's work is represented in many anthologies, and the US reference Contemporary Authors has compiled a detailed entry on his career. During his residency at Sanskriti Kendra, Spillman completed No Boundaries, a lively 'young adult' novel set partly in New Delhi. He also researched the compilation of a cross-cultural anthology for schools.
- Linda Jaivin (NSW)
The Bookworm
Supported by The Australia-China Council
Linda Jaivin is the internationally best-selling author of five novels and two works of non-fiction, including the comic-erotic Eat Me, the China memoir The Monkey and the Dragon and her most recent novel An Infernal Optimist, a dark comedy set in an immigration detention centre. Jaivin is a fluent Mandarin speaker who lived in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan for nine years and has done literary and film translation as well as arts writing on China. While at The Bookworm, Beijing, she worked on a new novel set in China as well as projects touching on Chinese history, biography and the arts.
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2007
- Bryan Woltjen (WA)
School of Pallikoodam and the Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust
Supported by the Australia-India Council and Arts WA
A designer of stage, costume and puppetry, trained at the WA Academy of Performing Arts, with further training and experience in London and Sydney. Now Fremantle based, Bryan Woltjen has designed productions varying from local fringe to outdoor operatic promenade, from novelty giftware to four metre high multi-operator harnessed junk puppets. Infatuated by the collaborative process, Woltjen works across Australia as a multi-artform designer of theatre and spectacle, specialising in the development of new work. In India, Woltjen worked with the School of Pallikoodam in Kottayam, engaged in a spectacle based production and workshops with Dadi Pudumjee of the Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust, New Delhi, and established links with contemporary and traditional puppetry.
- Gwyn Hanssen-Pigott (QLD)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia-India Council and Supported by Arts Queensland
Ceramicist Gwyn Hanssen-Pigott has been presented with a Visual Arts and Crafts Emeritus award and an Order of Australia Medal in recognition of her contribution to the visual arts. Recently honoured with a major 50-year survey exhibition, Hanssen-Pigott's works are highly acclaimed overseas and are extensively represented in collections internationally. She has also represented Australia at the Museo Internazionaledelle Ceramiche in Italy. Hanssen-Pigott travelled to Sanskriti Kendra, near New Delhi, to research India’s rich clay tradition. She produced a new body of work for exhibition in India and Australia entitled The Hope Trail which was presented at the Terra Cotta Museum at Sanskriti Kendra.
- Jennifer Pfeiffer (VIC)
Teamwork
Supported by the Australia-India Council and Arts Victoria
Jennider Pfeiffer is a member of the UNIMA International Executive and President of the UNIMA Asia-Pacific Commission. An independent artist and theatre-maker, her long-term practice is located in interdisciplinary and cross-cultural arts. In India, she worked with Teamwork, an international production company, on the prestigious Indian National Theatre Awards. Through her residency she sought to increase her on-the-ground festival experience, extend networks in the region, and examine the feasibility of regional touring circuits for puppeteers.
- Kirsty Murray (VIC)
University of Madras
Supported by the Australia-India Council and Arts Victoria
Kirsty Murray is a prolific author of award-winning fiction for younger readers, often focusing on Australian history and identity. Murray is researching the true story of an Australian children’s theatrical troupe that toured India in 1910. When the children reached Madras (Chennai), they went on strike, abandoned their manager and appealed to the local community for support. On residency at the University of Madras, Murray developed a new historical fiction based on the experiences of an Australian child performer in India.
- Rakini Devi (VIC)
Adishakti
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Victoria
Rakini Devi’s work involves hybrid theatre, dance, choreography, and spoken word texts based on her own cross-cultural identity. Born in Calcutta, her background in Indian classical dance and ritual worship of the Goddess Kali have been the subject of many of her internationally presented works. Devi was based with Adishakti in Pondicherry, where she researched contemporary art practice in the context of her Indian heritage. In this residency she took advantage of Adishakti’s many exponents with knowledge in Indian martial arts, Ayurvedic medicine and Tantric studies.
- Stephen House (SA)
Sanskriti Kendra
"Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Supported by Arts SA
Stephen House has had 14 plays and three short films professionally produced. His work has toured nationally and internationally and won awards from the Australian Writers’ Guild and Adelaide Fringe. He has held international literature residencies, and tours his self-performed monologues and offers master-classes on play writing and theatre practice. During his residency at Sanskriti Kendra, near New Delhi, House researched and developed his first novel, a significant part of which is set in India, and explores the hidden corners of life and the unique characters who inhabit them. He also worked on a new collection of poems.
- William Lane (TAS)
ORKA-M International Institute of Innovative Music
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Tasmania
Violist William Lane is a prize-winning solo artist, chamber musician, improviser and collaborator who has performed all over Australasia, Europe and North America. Lane has collaborated with some of the most important musicians, composers and ensembles in the field of new music, and is Artistic Director of a twenty-piece contemporary music ensemble based in New York City, Berlin and Melbourne, GRENZENLOS. In India, Lane worked on collaborative projects with Indian musicians Dhruba Ghosh and Ragesh Mehta and was in residence at the ORKA-M International Institute of Innovative Music, Mumbai.
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2006
- Barbara Brooks (NSW)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts
Barbara Brooks' publications include Leaving Queensland, a book of short prose, and a biography, Eleanor Dark: a Writer's Life. Her work has appeared in many Australian and international anthologies, and at the time of her residency she was completing a Doctorate of Creative Arts at the University of Technology, Sydney. A fascination with the historical evolution of verandah architecture and its migration to Australia took Brooks to India where she spent her residency researching her forthcoming book Verandahs; a book which crosses fact and fiction with poetry, memoir and essay. Brooks travelled extensively and interviewed architects, writers and artists to gain insight into Indian culture, architecture, history and people.
- Dianne Reid (VIC)
Darpana Performing Arts Academy
Supported by Arts Victoria & Australia-India Council
Dianne Reid is an independent dance and video artist and was previously Artistic Director of Dancehouse, Melbourne. Her residency at the Darpana Performing Arts Academy offered her a period of concentrated artistic research, a context for collaboration with a range of artists across disciplines and an opportunity to engage with the traditional practices and contemporary innovations in Indian culture. Reid spent her time creating Unfixed, a live dance and video work which was performed at the Vikram Sarabhai Festival. As a result she was invited to extend her residency to further refine the work for the tour to Mumbai in 2007.
- Graeme Miles (VIC)
University of Madras
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts WA
Graeme Miles’ poetry has appeared in various journals and anthologies, and his first collection, Phosphorescence, was released in 2006. During Miles' residency at the University of Madras, Chennai, he completed work on his second collection of poetry Ano Kato. The collection deals with the broader themes of orientation and disorientation, space, place, religion and myth, some of which are explored through the filter of Sanskrit spatial concepts and classical Tamil poetry.
- Louiseann Zahra (VIC)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia-India Council & Arts Victoria
Louiseann Zahra works as a sculptor, installation artist and curator and has had numerous group and solo exhibitions in Australia and Paris. Her work embraces a range of media and technique with a special interest in textiles, metal casting, sound, photography and film. In India Zahra created a large-scale installation work at Sanskriti Kendra that was exhibited in 2006 in Melbourne.
- Luke Beesley (QLD)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia-India Council & Arts Queensland
Luke Beesley is a poet, short fiction writer, arts critic and public artist, whose poetry has been published in Australia's major publications and permanently etched into Brisbane's Eleanor Schonell Bridge. Inspired by India's culture, Beesley had a highly productive residency at Delhi's Sanskriti Kendra, producing a large quantity of lyric poems, short prose poems and drafts for short stories. He gave readings in Delhi and Kolkata, researched and travelled widely to Jaipur, the holy cities of Varanasi and Dharamsala, as well as hill stations and palaces.
- Ruth Watson (ACT)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported Arts ACT & the Australia India Council
Ruth Watson is an internationally renowed Australian artist whose recent shows include the 2004 group exhibition Paradise Now? Contemporary Art from the Pacific at the Asia Society Museum in New York and The World Over at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and City Gallery, Wellington in 1996. During her three-month residency in India at Sanskriti Kendra, Watson made a new series of 'miniatures' based on maps, a large-scale work based on a game board 'a form of spiritual Snakes and Ladders'. She also gave a public lecture in Delhi at the Garhi Studios, part of the Lalit Kala Academy, and attended a new media conference at the Max Mueller Bhavan.
- Tim Dargaville & Rosalie Hastwell (VIC)
Adishakti Theatre Company
Supported by the Australia-India Council & the Australia Council for the Arts
Rosalie Hastwell and Tim Dargaville undertook a joint arts management/performing arts residency with the Adishakti Theatre Company in India. Both Tim and Rosalie are highly respected arts practitioners with national profiles in their respective fields. Tim Dargaville worked with the students at the Bangalore School of Music to develop a performance for their East-West Encounter (international music and dance festival). He also spent time learning the mrindangan and konakkol at Karnataka College of Percussion. Dargaville conducted piano masterclasses for senior students and teachers, directed the Bangalore School of Music Choir and recorded streetscapes at the Bangalore market for use in composition. Rosalie engaged with the local village and visited leading community cultural development companies in India.
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2005
- Catherine Jones (VIC)
Teamwork
Supported by Arts Victoria & the Australia-India Council
At the time of her residency Catherine Jones was the Associate Producer and Business Manager for the Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne. She has worked in project and arts management across a variety of disciplines and on festivals including the Melbourne Festival, Out of the Box Festival of Early Childhood, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Brisbane Biennial. In India she worked with Teamworks, a highly versatile arts event and production company, with roots in theatre, social action, and the corporate world. Jones’ primary project was the inaugural Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards, a new event designed to profile and showcase the Indian theatre industry.
- Jayne Fenton-Keyne (QLD)
Rimbun Dahan & the Singapore Poetry Festival
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts QLD
Jayne Fenton-Keane is a poet, new media artist and composer who takes poetry to different spaces with her poetry-sound fusions, installations and performances. The author of three poetry books, Torn, Ophelia's Codpiece and The Transparent Lung, Keane is an award winner in several genres, is completing a doctorate on embodiment and spatial poetics, and the founding Director of National Poetry Week. During her residency Keane explored pilgrimage as a creative method for inviting new knowledge into her writing. Activities included a residency at Rimbun Dahan in Malaysia, a residency at the Singapore Poetry Festival and appearances with the CGH Earth Chain in India.
- John Zubrzycki (NSW)
Supported by the Australia-India Council & the Australia Council for the Arts
John Zubrzycki is a journalist whose 25 year association with India has included stints as a Hindi student, diplomat, consultant and foreign correspondent. Zubrzycki's last assignment on the sub-continent was in Pakistan and Afghanistan covering the aftermath of the September 11 attacks for The Australian newspaper. During his residency in India Zubrzycki researched the story of Mukarram Jah, the last Nizam of Hyderabad, and how the heir to India's largest princely state found himself running a sheep station in the Australian outback. Zubrzycki divided his time between Hyderabad and New Delhi exploring the many facets of this unique link between India and Australia.
- Josephine Starrs (NSW)
Sarai
Supported by the Australian Council for the Arts
Josephine Starrs is an artist whose video and new media works have been shown extensively in Australia and overseas at electronic art and media festivals. During her four-month residency at Sarai, New Delhi, Starrs created an interactive multi channel video installation. The resulting work, Seeker, was exhibited at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in February 2006 as part of the Contemporary Commonwealth exhibition. At Sarai she also conducted a workshop on gaming culture resulting in participants designing locative fictional game experiences. Additionally Starrs attended, 'World-Information City' in Bangalore, an international exhibition and symposium event focusing on the way the city is affected by information and communication technologies and the rise of electronic surveillance and control.
- Margaret McDonell (QLD)
Penguin India
Supported by Arts Queensland & the Australia-India Council
Margaret McDonell is a freelance editor who has worked on a variety of projects for a diverse assortment of clients, from indigenous life writing for the University of Queensland Press to aviation texts for the University of Western Sydney. Her residency with Penguin India involved editing a range of genres and enabled McDonell to pursue her interest on the impact of culture on the art of editing. She visited many publishers, book fairs and bookshops, and met editors, translators, academics and students of Australian literature. In addition, McDonell was invited to address students at a range of Indian universities. Following her residency she worked as Coordinating Editor with IAD Press, an indigenous publisher in Alice Springs.
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2004
- Andrew Hansen (VIC)
Ishara
Supported by the Australia-India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Andrew Hansen is a puppeteer and co-founder of Melbourne’s highly regarded puppet and visual company, Handspan Theatre Ltd. Hansen has worked on productions for both children and adults, including theatre and touring productions, parades, festivals and one-off events. During his residency, Hansen travelled extensively throughout India and worked on eight different puppetry projects. He presented puppetry workshops organised by host organisation Ishara’s director Dadi Pudumjee and had the opportunity to experience and learn about rare forms of Indian and Keralan puppetry.
- Angela Chaplin (WA)
Imago Theatre Group
Supported by Arts WA and the Australia Council for the Arts
Writer/director Angela Chaplin was the Artistic Director of Deckchair Theatre at the time of her residency. Previously she was the Artistic Director of Magpie Theatre, and Artistic Director of Melbourne's Arena Theatre. During her residency Chaplin working with Imago Theatre Group devising Trash-the Musical, a reworked Bollywood interpretation of The Beggar’s Opera. She also worked with Imago Theatre’s In Education Company where she devised a play about young people and violence. Chaplin also held writing workshops with local writers, with major tertiary institutions and spoke at various forums. A major outcome from the residency is that Trash-the Musical is being co produced by Deckchair Theatre, WA and Teamwork Production, New Delhi.
- Linda Neil (QLD)
Supported by Arts Queensland and the Australia Council for the Arts
Linda Neil has had a multi-faceted career as a writer and musician. Her plays have been performed Australia-wide, as well as broadcast on ABC Radio National, and she has written scripts for stage, radio and screen. Due to illness and the 2004 Boxing Day tsunamis, original plans for her residency had to be abandoned. Instead, encounters with a yogi who’d spent seven years in the forest, playing the violin for room sweepers and diplomats and collaborating on a CD of music all contributed to the narratives eventuating from her time in India. At the completion of the residency Neil had received offers to be Artist-in-Residence at Alexandria House and at the Otago Polytechnic College of Art and been invited to perform at Goldsmith’s College in London.
- Mandy Ridley (QLD)
Khoj Artists’ Workshop
Supported by the Australia-India Council & Arts Queensland
Artist Mandy Ridley is an experienced theatre and costume designer and has also worked in art project management. During her residency, Ridley worked for six weeks at the Khoj artists’ workshop in New Delhi and collaborated with Indian artist Reena Saini Kallat in Mumbai.
- Saskia Beudel (NSW)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia-India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Saskia Beudel’s first novel Borrowed Eyes, was shortlisted for the 2003 Christina Stead Prize, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and the Kibble Dobbie award for a first manuscript. She has also published short fiction and visual art catalogue essays, and has taught at tertiary institutes in Melbourne and Sydney. Hosted by Sanskriti Kendra in New Delhi, Beudel conducted background research for a novel set partially in India, and produced over 60,000 words of draft material.
- Vandana Ram (NSW)
National Centre for Performing Arts
Supported by Arts NSW and the Australia-India Council
At the time of her residency Vandana Ram worked as the Cultural Diversity Manager at Community Cultural Development NSW, with a particular focus on the cultural needs of small, emerging and refugee communities around Western Sydney. During her residency she researched and investigated comparative CCD practice between Australia and India. She also engaged in workshops, discussions and presentations with artists and NGO's working directly with communities in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and New Delhi. As a direct result of her residency she invited Geeta Dharmarajan, founder of Katha to participate in Crossing Borderlines and Translating Narratives in 2005. Furthermore Ram’s Khoj has continued with the community cultural project that she initiated: Khirkee Arts Education Program, Shop-MakeOvers and the Khirkee Public Mural Program.
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2003
- Barry Scott (VIC)
Katha
Supported by Funded by the Australia-India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
At the time of his residency Barry Scott was responsible for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and the Ross Trust Script Development Awards through the State Library of Victoria. In India Scott worked with Katha, an Indian literary organisation which provides educational services, publishing in translation and community programs. Among Scott's achievements was the delivery of an arts-based event for children, the provision of marketing advice and the management of events with international authors for Katha's major literary festival, Katha Utsav. Inspired by the residency he continues developing his own press, Transit Lounge Publishing.
- Louisa Bufardeci (VIC)
Khoj International
Supported by the Australia-India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Louisa Bufardeci completed her undergraduate degree in fine art, majoring in drawing at the Victorian College of the Arts and has frequently exhibited her work in group and solo exhibitions in Melbourne and overseas. During Bufardeci’s residency in India in 2003/4 she worked for six weeks in Delhi at the Khoj International Artists Residency. At Khoj Bufardeci re-mapped the constituency of Malviya Nagar an area in Delhi’s suburban south, focussing on mapping the shanties, commercial stalls, animals and people that are generally overlooked in mapping processes. Louisa also travelled to Mumbai, Hampi, Kochi, Madurai and Chennai where she gave lectures and informal talks on her practice and connected with local artists.
- Racheal Cogan (VIC)
Masterclasses with Karaikudi R Mani
Supported by the Australia-India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Racheal Cogan co-founded the ensemble the haBiBis in 1993 which performs music from Greece and the eastern Mediterranean. She has also performed with many ensembles in Australia, Greece, Vietnam, and the United States. Cogan went to Chennai in India to study south Indian classical music with mridangam master musician Karaikudi R Mani. Her musical knowledge and skills was extended through lessons on the history, structure and composition of Karnatic music and through challenging rhythmic exercises and classes on improvisation and composition. She wrote several new pieces whilst in Chennai, and she collaborated with the musicians from Mr Mani’s percussion ensemble, the Sruthu-Laya Kendra.
- Sudesh Mishra (VIC)
Jawarharlal Nehur University
"Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia India Council
A fourth generation Fijian of Indian origin, Sudesh Mishra holds a Ph.D from Flinders University and has taught at universities in Australia, Fiji and Scotland. He is the author of four books of poems, including Tandava and Diaspora and the Difficult Art of Dying, one critical monograph, Preparing Faces: Modernism and Indian Poetry in English, two full-length plays, Ferringhi and The International Dateline, and several short stories. Mishra participated in several conferences and literary events whilst in India as well as immersing himself in the landscape and people of India.
- Tess De Quincey (NSW)
Ranjit Karlekar & SHAPE
Supported by the NSW Ministry for the Arts and the Australia Council for the Arts
Tess De Quincey has worked extensively in Europe, Japan and Australia as a performer, teacher and director. In collaboration with Ranjit Karlekar & SHAPE in Calcutta, De Quincey initiated Embrace an interdisciplinary performance. Her residency focussed on skills development through the investigation of parallel principles between Natyashastra, the main classical exposition and theory of Indian artistic practice and Body Weather, which is the underpinning practice of her company DQC which originated in Japan. DQC presented three workshops and two collaborative performances in India. The second stage of the performance which was presented in Sydney, including Indian performer Santanu Bose.
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2002
- Amanda McDonald Crowley (SA)
Sarai: The New Media Initiative
Supported by Arts SA and the Australia Council for the Arts
Amanda McDonald Crowley worked on the International Symposium of Electronic Art 2004 and was previously Associate Director of the 2002 Adelaide Festival of Arts and Director of the Australian Network for Art and Technology. McDonald Crowley undertook a residency with Sarai: The New Media Initiative, Delhi, a recently opened space for independent research and practice in media and urban culture. She conducted a series of lectures and workshops on curatorial practice in the new media field and assisted to coordinate and design effective regional and international networks with Sarai.
- Caroline Lynn-Bayne (NSW)
Jazz India
Supported by the Australia-India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Vocalist Caroline Lynn was initially trained in jazz at the Guildhall School of Music, London. She currently works as a jazz singer, also with her own project 'World Edge', and with composers/musicians Mark Isaacs and Peter Shaeffer. Her residency in India was undertaken with Jazz India, where she was immersed and trained in the rich traditions and musical sophistication of Indian music. She worked intensively with Indian vocalists on her vocal skills (technical ability, flexibility, stamina) and her musical skills (ear, melodic sense, rhythm). She also performed six nights a week at the exclusive Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai, teaming up with local jazz musicians.
- Christine McKenzie (VIC)
Katha
Supported by the Australia India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Christine McKenzie was Director of the Victorian Writers' Centre and has run literary events and projects for over a decade. During her residency with Katha in Delhi, she contributed to the programming of two major literary festivals and conferences, organised various literary events, wrote promotional material and identified promotional strategies that could be developed to suit the context of India. The many contacts and cultural insights she developed into the way that events are organised in India proved to be vital to the planning and success of the Asialink Literature Tour with Peter Carey and Kim Scott in 2003.
- Emily Floyd (VIC)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia-India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Melbourne artist Emily Floyd completed her Fine Arts Degree at RMIT University in 1999. Her sculptural installations have investigated ‘the space of literature’, mapping out the structure of several novels including Heart of Darkness, Wuthering Heights and Crime and Punishment. In India Floyd was based at Sanskriti Kendra in Delhi where she used the retreat in part to plan for a major exhibition called New03 at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in March 2003. While there she also to devised a performative work about cross cultural experiences critiquing the model of the guide book.
- Inez Baranay (QLD)
Madras University & Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts
Inez Baranay is the author of six published books: four novels, including The Edge of Bali and Sheila Power; a prose collection, The Saddest Pleasure, and a non-fiction account of a year in Papua New Guinea Rascal Rain. She has also published many short stories, articles and reviews in a range of publications since the early 1980s. Rupa Press in India will publish Baranay’s new novel, neem dreams, set in southern India, later this year. This publication is a direct result of the residency program. During her four months residency Baranay researched a new work planned as linked novellas about contemporary India.
- Joan Grounds (VIC)
Collaboration with NS Harsh
Supported by the Australia-India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Joan Grounds went to Silpakorn University in Bangkok in 1989-90 as the first resident with this program, then initiated and run by the Australia Council's Visual Arts Crafts Board. Grounds has forged a strong working relationship with Thai artists, in particular La Harsha, and has since returned to Thailand to lecture in Chiang Mai. In 1996, she was selected to work with NS Harsh who she previously worked with in Asialink's Fire and Life exhibition. Her self-initiated residency in Mysore, India in 2002/3 continued an artistic dialogue maintained between these two artists. Grounds and Harsha initiated and completed a temporal work together and completed a video-document of their work.
- Meaghan Delahunt (VIC)
Sarai New Media Collective
Supported by the Australia India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Meaghan Delahunt is a prominent novelist and writer who was hosted by Sarai New Media Collective in New Delhi. During her residency she researched and worked on her second novel The Prayer Wheel, which is about the many lives and deaths of a Buddhist monk as he strives and fails to gain enlightenment. An essay written during the residency was published by Sunday’s Spectrum magazine in Scotland. Delahunt maintains ongoing links with Sarai Media Initiative, Rupa Publishing, the mediation centres in Dharamsala and Delhi, writers in Delhi and Bhopal and the Tibet Support Group.
- Robyn Friend (TAS)
Supported by Arts Tasmania and the Australia Council for the Arts
Robyn Friend writes fiction, oral histories, reviews, essays, and occasionally poetry. Her second novel, The Butterfly Stalker was published in 2002. During her residency Friend researched her next novel The Lovers’ Handbook in which the pivotal action is a terrorist attack in rural Punjab. Friend conducted literary research as well as investigations into the cultures of rural northern Indian communities.
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2001
- Bem Le Hunte (NSW)
Supported by the Australia India Council and NSW Ministry for the Arts
Bem Le Hunte was born in India to an Indian mother and English father, and currently lives in Australia. An anthropologist turned advertising copywriter, Le Hunte worked in the music industry and for Indian Television before turning her hand to fiction. During her residency Le Hunte launched the Indian edition of her first novel Seduction of Silence at the Australian Embassy and the book reached number one on the bestseller lists while she was there. She also researched the Jewish community in Calcutta where she was born, along with the lives of other refugees who have come to India at different times, as the basis for her second novel Where the Pepper Grows.
- David Pye & Barbara Rogers (WA)
Dasksha Sheth Dance Company
Supported by Arts WA and the Australia Council for the Arts
David Pye is a composer and percussionist working principally in the areas of contemporary music and dance and is founder and artistic director of the Nova Ensemble. Together with costume designer, Barbara Rogers, Pye will use his residency time to work with the Dasksha Sheth Dance Company at the Academy for Arts Research Training and Innovation to develop a production of Gilgamesh. Rogers’ residency focused on costume design and sourcing of fabrics and props for the production which was part of the Perth International Festival in 2002.
- Jodie Fried (NSW)
Darpana Academy of Performing Arts
Supported by the Australia India Council, the NSW Mionistry for the Arts & the Australia Council for the Arts
Jodie Fried is a set and costume designer with extensive experience in theatre, film and television. She has designed several shows at Sydney Opera House for Ensemble Theatre and costumes for the Bell Shakespeare Company. Fried's film credits include costume design for the animated feature Duck Ugly, design assistant on telemovies South Pacific and The Potato Factory. In India Fried worked with Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad, designing for contemporary and traditional performance art with international artists and performers. She designed for seven productions, one of which toured four Indian cities while another toured the US.
- Peter Callas & Yuri Kawanabe (NSW/Japan)
Supported by the NSW Ministry for the Arts, the Australia-India Council & the Australia Council for the Arts
Peter Callas has worked in the fields of film, video art and computer graphics for over twenty years. His work is in the permanent collections of numerous major museums including the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Yuri Kawanabe was born in Japan and came to Australia in 1984. She has held individual exhibitions worldwide and her work has been represented in a number of important Australian exhibitions, which have travelled to Asia. During their combined 2001 Indian residency, Peter Callas and Kawanabe worked collaboratively on an experimental ephemeral installation incorporating ideas of enshrinement and emblematisation - themes common to both artists' practice.
- Tim Denoon (NSW)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Tim Denoon is a NSW poet whose work has appeared in a range of Australian journals including Southerly, Siglo and Overland. During his residency Denoon worked on a substantial collection of new poetry and conducted research into a novel set between coastal South Australia and Goa. He also found a number of opportunities for collaborative work with other writers and artists including translations, essays, and activism. Denoon gave readings and recorded a number of lectures on Australian literature for the Indira Gandhi Open University and was featured in national newspapers.
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2000
- Antigone Foster (NSW)
Niranjan Jhaveri & Jazz India
Supported by the Australia India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Antigone Foster is a jazz vocalist, specialising in scat and improvisation and familiar with Indian vocal percussion techniques. Foster has worked with the Elektra String Quartet and their composer, Romano Crivici, to develop solo vocal works which combine jazz and Eastern techniques for performance at the Sydney Opera House. During her residency, Foster worked with Niranjan Jhaveri and Jazz India to further develop these techniques of raga (repertoire) and tala (rhythm) and performed at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai.
- Brook Andrew (VIC)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia India Council
Brook Andrew is an artist whose work encompasses digital photography, video and sound, performance, neon, web based projects, drawing and installation. During his residency at Sanskriti Kendra, Andrew investigated global issues of capitalism, mainstreaming and propaganda. He created a collection of hand painted tin signs that mimic advertisements in streets, on buildings, trees, fences and telegraph poles. He also created work based on the stereotyping of the ‘blak’ body and the dominant modes of capitalist representation within the Bollywood cinema genre.
- Maree Delofski (NSW)
Jamia Millia Islamia University
Supported by the Australia India Council and NSW Ministry for the Arts
Maree Delofski is an award-winning documentary screenwriter from New South Wales. Her feature documentary A Calcutta Christmas won a Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival and many of her films have screened nationally on SBS television. Delofski used her Literature residency in India to research and write a script focusing on Hollywood film star Merle Oberon. She conducted extensive research, beginning in Calcutta and traveling to Bombay to interview Bollywood film stars. In Delhi she was based at the Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia University where she gave workshops, seminars and screenings. The resulting film, The Trouble with Merle was premiered at the 2002 Sydney Film Festival and was screened on ABC television.
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1999
- James Cunningham & Suzon Fuks (QLD)
Draavidia Art & Performance Gallery
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts
James Cunningham, choreographer, and Suzon Fulks, director, photographer and film maker are the co-artistic directors of IGNEOUS. They have produced dance-videos, the multimedia dance theatre productions BODY IN QUESTION and THE HANDS PROJECT and short works for collective dance events in Sydney and Montreal. During their residency Cunningham and Fulks collaborated with Draavidia Art and Performance Gallery in Cochin to work with local performing artists, including Kathakali dancers, Kalari martial artists, musicians and performers. Their collaborations with local artists resulted in well publicised projects such as Flow and Cheating Death, of which a video was made. As a direct result of the residency and support from the Australia-India Council, kalaripayatt master Vinildas Gurukkal travelled to Australia in 2003 to give master classes and participate in Cunningham and Fulk’s new production.
- Josh Wilson (WA)
Supported by Arts WA and the Australia Council for the Arts
Josh Wilson is a writer of fiction, humour and travel. He has completed an MA on travel writing and India at The University of Melbourne, and has returned to Fremantle to run In Emergency Press. During the term of his residency Wilson completed work on Passions, a novel about love, travel and coincidence, furthered his study of Hindi and researched a range of essays on Indian cosmology. Wilson also gave numerous lectures at various universities around the country and appeared on national television discussing Australian culture. He is currently working on an essay about life and death in Varanasi and has assisted with a report to further develop Australian Studies in India.
- Mark Wilkinson (VIC)
National Centre for Performing Arts
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Victoria
At the time of his residency Mark Wilkinson was the Acting Director, Federation Centre for Decorative Arts, City of Darebin. Previously held the positions of Arts and Cultural Planner for Darebin, Administrator for the Melbourne Workers Theatre, Melbourne Writers Theatre and manager of the Carlton Courthouse Theatre. In India Wilkinson worked with the National Centre for Performing Arts in Mumbai where he conducted a feasibility study on establishing a formal arts network in Mumbai and the practicalities of staging an international arts festival. He also participated in a range of arts management workshops at Sanskriti Pratisthan and the Morarka Craft Centre.
- Nicholas McBride (NSW)
Darpana Academy of Performing Arts
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, New South Wales Ministry for the Arts and the Australia India Council
Nicholas McBride is one of Sydney’s most sought after jazz drummers. He has performed with Sam Rivers, Dale Barlow, Judith Durham and Andrew Hill and toured Asia extensively with Mike Nock. In India McBride worked with the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad in the lead up to their Golden Jubilee. McBride integrated his knowledge of rhythms and his interest in the drumming traditions from India through composition and performance and worked with performers across all disciplines. He created a work for the Darpana Group called Art Beat and wrote music for Tabla artist, Akash Bhatt who will feature on McBride’s next CD.
- Rodney Stennard (ACT)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Tasmania
Rodney Stennard works predominantly within the drawing medium producing art based from models constructed in his studio. Stennard has been the recipient of Australia Council and Arts Tasmania grants which have contributed to solo and group exhibitions in Tasmania, Sydney and Melbourne. During his residency at Sanskriti Kendra, Stennard was influenced by colour and Hindustani classical music as well as the meditative discipline of yoga. He produced large pastel drawings on handmade paper for an exhibition entitled Jhana Raga at the Lalit Kala Akademi Gallery in Delhi, and these were subsequently shown at Smyrnios Gallery in Melbourne.
- Satendra Nandan (ACT)
Supported Arts ACT and the Australia Council for the Arts
Satendra Nandan was born in Fiji and completed his doctorate at ANU. He was a member of the Fiji Parliament from 1982 then moved to Canberra following the coups in the late 1980’s. Nandan’s publications include three volumes of poetry, one acclaimed novel, The Wounded Sea, and 3 co-edited collections of essays. The residency provided him with the opportunity to work on a range of India-related projects: a novel set in New Delhi, Canberra and Suva, a collection of semi-autobiographical pieces titled Indian Fragments, a book on the life and values of Mahatma Gandhi, and the Delhi section of his autobiography, Requiem for a Rainbow: An Indo-Fijian Journey. He also worked on a translation of Patrick White’s Tree of Man into Hindi with academics at JNU.
- Victoria Spence (NSW)
Darpana Academy of Performing Arts
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts
Victoria Spence has worked in a wide variety of contexts as producer, coordinator, curator, director, performer and collaborator in a range of performances, events and site specific installations. During her residency at the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Spence worked on the construction and decoration of the Academy’s new café and creating a new work A Sup(p)er Happening. This work was a performance and food event facilitated in the finished café and utilising the performance skills of a variety of Darpana students and staff.
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1998
- Adrian Sherriff
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts
Adrian Sherriff is a composer and musician who specialises in South Indian drumming. He plays with a number of ensembles including the Australian Art Orchestra, Musiiki Oy, Artisans Workshop, Night Music, Wuruwuru and Sruthi Layam Percussion Ensemble. Sherriff is also composer and musical director with Natya Sudha Dance Company and Tara Rajkumar. During his residency in Madras Sherriff composed and performed with Karaikudi R. Mani, and the Madras String Quartet exploring compositional methodology and consolidating his understanding of Indian music.
- Anne Whitehead (NSW)
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts New South Wales
Anne Whitehead has had a long career in film and television as a scriptwriter and producer and is now a prize-winning non-fiction writer. Her book Paradise Mislaid: In Search of the Australian Tribe of Paraguay about a group of Australian colonialists seeking utopia in Paraguay won the NSW Premier’s Award for Non-fiction in 1998. During her residency Whitehead researched material for her next book on the intriguing true story of the marriage of the Indian Rajah of Pudukkotta and Molly Fink from Melbourne.
- Bernadette Walong (NSW)
AARTI
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the NSW Ministry for the Arts
Bernadette Walong is one of Australia’s most highly sought-after dancer/choreographers. She has danced and choreographed for the Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre, the Australian Ballet, Dance North and Bangarra Dance Theatre where she was Assistant Artistic Director / Co-choreographer / Principle Dancer in 1994-1995. She is a graduate of he National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development scheme and has been on choreographic residencies with Hanoi, Taipei and Havana. In India Walong spent three months at AARTI (Academy for Arts Research, Training and Innovation) where she instigated a training program.
- John Meade (VIC)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts
John Meade studied sculpture at the Victorian College of the Arts and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology where he taught while he finished his Masters of Fine Art. He has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney since 1993 and has received strong critical comment in local and national publications. Meade’s sculptures are surrealistic and his sleek, dreamlike objects invoke ideas of a kitsch ‘sixties homeware design or futuristic models of bizarre furnishings. During his residency, Meade spent two months at Sanskriti Kendra in New Delhi.
- Jon Burtt (WA)
National Centre for Performing Arts
Supported by the Australia India Council and the Australia Council for the Arts
Jon Burtt is co-director of skadada, a Perth based multi-artform performance company that has performed throughout Australia and Asia. In 1999 Burtt co-directed and choreographed Electronic Big Top which combined aerial dance, acrobatics, live music, puppetry, computer animation and projections, receiving public and critical acclaim at the Sydney and Perth Festivals. Plainsong, a collaboration with Black Swan Theatre Company for the 2000 Perth International Arts Festival, received standing ovations and widespread critical acclaim. During his residency in India he worked with the National Centre for Performing Arts in Mumbai to further explore the potential of Indian movement forms and cross cultural collaboration.
- Lee Cataldi (SA)
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts South Australia
Lee Cataldi is an award-winning poet, academic and linguist. Her collection of poetry, Race Against Time won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for poetry. She has also published Walpiri Dreamings & Histories: Yimikirli which she co-edited and translated. During her residency Cataldi travelled and spoke extensively across India and utilizing her knowledge of translation, Aboriginal languages, poetry and literature.
- Robyn Backen (NSW)
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts
Robyn Backen is an interdisciplinary artist who makes sculptures and installation works which explore the metaphorical potential of selected materials. Whilst in India, Robyn research heavily, studying a range of subjects from sari cloth to architecture which contributed to projects in Bombay, Baroda, Ahmedabad and at Sanskriti Kendra.
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1997
- Charles Green & Lyndell Brown (VIC)
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts
Charles Green and Lyndell Brown have been working as a collaborative team since 1989. In India they were able to consolidate their research into cross-cultural, cross-historical and postcolonial issues, incorporating Indian objects, books and fabrics into their work. The residency also facilitated research on contemporary Indian artists for international art magazines and the two artists were able to meet and work with people from a wide cross-section of Indian cultural life; from broadcasters and famous Indian artists to craftspeople from the most isolated regions of the country. The timing of the residency coincided with the Indian Triennale and a conference in Mumbai called ‘Frameworks for Understanding Contemporary Art’.
- Gail Jones (WA)
University of Delhi
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts
Gail Jones is a much admired short story writer. Her first collection, The House of Breathing, won the WA Premier’s Award in 1993 and her second book, Fetish Lives, was joint winner with Robert Drewe’s The Drowner in 1998. Jones spent four months based at the University of Delhi, where she worked on a novel set in India.
- Jim Hughes
Darpana Academy of Performing Arts
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts
Artistic director Jim Hughes’ residency was hosted by the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad. During his residency Hughes shared his creative skills and methods to create a unique performance reflecting on the skills and creativity of the artists involved in the Academy.
- Lisa Young (VIC)
Jazz India
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts
During her residency, Lisa Young, a Masters Degree holder in Vocal Performance from the Victorian College of Arts and a jazz artist, had the opportunity to work intensively with Niranjan Jhaveri of Jazz India and other renowned Indian artists. She developed her skills in traditional Indian Vocal Percussion and her CD “Speak” was inspired by her time in India.
- Stuart Lynch (VIC)
Victorian College of the Arts
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and NSW Ministry for the Arts
Stuart Lynch was originally trained as a sculptor before commencing work in dance with Butoh dancer Min Tanaka and the Mai-Juku Performance Company in Japan. He has collaborated extensively with choreographer/dancer, Tess de Quincey in both Australia and Europe. Lynch also has broad teaching experience something which he drew upon during his residency in India. While in Calcutta Stuart developed the choreography Book with the dance students from the Calcutta Music Schools and ran open workshops with classical and contemporary professional dancers and actors. He also worked with the slum children of the Calcutta Social Project in pavement and open air schools and ran a number of sessions with the Indian Spastic Society.
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1996
- Rodney Spooner (SA)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia India Council
Rodney Spooner served for eight years Military service Australian Regular Army and in the British Army, Hong Kong before becoming a full time artist. During his residency at Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi, India created works for successful exhibition, Homespun at the Lalit Kala Fresco Gallery in New Delhi.
- Sally Chance (SA)
Darpana Performing Arts Academy
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australia-India Council & Arts SA
Sally Chance is a dancer/choreographer who at the time of her residency was Director of Restless Dance Company in South Australia. Chance worked with Darpana Performing Arts Academy in Ahmedabad, sharing her specialist skills and experience in working with people with a disability. During the residency she conducted workshops for people with physical and intellectual disabilities culminating in the performance Fragments and professional development workshops for special education teachers. She also devised a production for the 1996 Vikram Sarabhai International Arts Festival and worked closely with the Jagruti team of educationalists, actors and environmentalists who explore environmental issues through the arts.
- Tim Dargaville & Rosalie Hastwell (VIC)
Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts Research
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia-India Council
Tim Dargaville's career covers a diverse range of collaborative works as composer, pianist and percussionist. Rosalie Hastwell has worked extensively in the fields of performance, multicultural arts and cultural planning. Through their joint residency at Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts Research, Pondicherry, they identified a range of contacts with artists, organisations and NGOs interested in future art partnerships. Dargaville created a new work for percussion utilising a range of traditional and non-traditional instruments and rhythmic styles, developed with Adishakti’s actor/musicians. Hastwell developed a community program to engage local villagers in the company’s activities and ran a series of very successful art workshops for local village children.
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1995
- Deborah Ostrow (VIC)
Sanskriti Kendra
Supported by the Visual Arts Craft Board of the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia India Council
Deborah Ostrow spent four months in India, working at the SNDT Women's University and the Sir J.J. School of Art, both in Bombay before completing her residency at Sanskriti Kendra in New Delhi. She conducted slide-talks and lectures, on Australian contemporary art and her own work and curated an exhibition of Australian artists and one other Sanskriti resident from New York. Her own exhibition there was entitled comfort zone, an architectural installation of stretched transparent and decorative plastics.
- Kate Daw (VIC)
Maharaja Sayajirao University
Supported by the Visual Arts Craft Board of the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia India Council
Painter Kate Daw spent three months at Maharaja Sayajirao University.
- Louise Paramor (VIC)
Bharat Bhavan Multi-Arts Complex
Supported by the Visual Arts Craft Board of the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia India Council
Installation artist and sculptor Louise Paramor spent her three month residency at Bharat Bhavan Multi-Arts Complex, Bhopal. She has since been back to India where she curated an exhibition of Indian works on paper, Bilkool, which came to Melbourne in 1998 and toured to Western Australia in 1999 as part of the Festival of Perth.
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1994
- Judy Watson (QLD)
Bharat Bhavan Multi-Arts Complex
Supported by the Visual Arts Craft Board of the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia India Council
Painter and printmaker, Judy Watson spent four months at the Bharat Bhavan Multi-Arts Complex, Bhopal.