Creative Exchanges: 1997

Greg Pryor (WA) The Beijing Art Academy

Supported by the Visual Arts Craft Board of the Australia Council for the Arts

Painter Greg Pryor spent three months at The Beijing Art Academy.

Lenny Kovner (NSW) Shanghai Theatre Academy

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the NSW Ministry for the Arts

Lenny Kovner is an actor/writer/director whose residency at the Shanghai Theatre Academy enabled him to work with students on the Mandarin translation of the Australian play No Worries by David Holman. The play received two public performances, with capacity audiences comprising Academy staff, foreign guests and Consular officials from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Vietnam.

Alison Bennett (VIC) Hong Kong Museum Of Art

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Victoria

At the time of her residency Alison Bennett was with Craft Victoria. She spent three months at the Hong Kong Museum Of Art.

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

At the time of her residency Geraldine Tyson was with 24 Hour Art in the Northern Territory. She spent three months at the Hong Kong Fringe Festival.

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’.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Adam Rish (NSW) Insitut Kesenian Jakarta

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia Indonesia Institute

Adam Rish has held 28 one-man exhibitions around Australia over the past 25 years.  His interest is in cross cultural collaboration as ""world art"" (like ""world music"") to affirm indigenous culture, regional diversity and the possibility of productive inter-cultural relations. During his residency Rish was based at the Insitut Kesenian Jakarta.  There he produced a series of linocuts about Jakarta ""Taksidrivers"" based on Wayang Kulit characters. He  lectured at IKJ and also ITB in Bandung on his textile collaborations in Turkey and Sumba and about Australian contemporary art.

Supported by Arts Victoria and the Australia Indonesia Institute

Clare Mendes is the author of three novels. Drift won the 1995 Angus & Robertson Fiction Prize for first fiction and was followed by A Race Across Burning Soil in 1997 and Streets and Curtain Raiser in 1998 published by Flamingo. In 1997 Clare spent four months at the Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta. There she researched material for a novel set in Indonesia.

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Queensland based choreographer/performer, Indija Mahjoeddin spent three months at the Aski Padang Panjang and Randai Folk Theatre Troupe.

Jodi Glass (SA) Setagaya Public Theatre

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts South Australia

Formerly of production company Reckless Moments, Jodi Glass spent three months at the Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo.

Supported by Arts Victoria and the Japan Cultural Program, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

At the time of her residency at Tamagawa University Tokyo, Paddy O’Reilly was working on her first novel set in Japan. Paddy has translated Japanese plays and worked with theatre groups in Japan. She has published many stories in Australian journals and anthologies and her stories of Japan have been published in Meanjin.

Anne Neil (WA) Rimbun Dahan

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Rimbun Dahan

Anne Neil is a Perth based artist who works in the fields of sculpture, design and public art. Together with her partner Steve Tepper, Neil travelled to Malaysia to undertake a residency based at Rimbun Dahan. During this time Neil produced several series of ephemeral works that she exhibited there and as a collaborative team, Neil and Tepper made significant contacts with Malaysian architects resulting in a commission to produce lights and signage for a new golf course and residential development. In 1999 Neil participated in the critically acclaimed exhibition and residency project, Sekali Lagi: Australian artists revisit Malaysia with seven other past residents.

Supported by the Hijjas Foundation, Malaysia

Jan Owen has had four books of poetry published, including Night Rainbows. During her residency in Malaysia Owen worked on a manuscript of South East Asian poems.

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Sue Ingleton is a highly respected and well known performer and writer. She has worked in community theatre, cabaret, mainstream and fringe theatre in most parts of Australia and internationally. Ingleton has written over a dozen scripts including Mythtery and Strip Jack Naked and her play The Passion & Its Deep Connection With Lemon Delicious Pudding has been published by Currency Press. During her residency, Ingleton spent 8 weeks in Malaysia working with KualiWorks, a women’s theatre, television and media company in Kuala Lumpur. She ran workshops with women aged from 20 to in their 60’s to develop a series of one-woman shows. She also performed her own show Slice Of Her Life at the Australian High Commission Theatre.

Jim Cathcart (WA) Cultural Center of the Philippines

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Victoria

Jim Cathcart spent his residency based with the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Cheryle Yin-Lo (NSW) Theatreworks

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the NSW Ministry for the Arts

At the time of her residency, Cheryle Yin-Lo was Multicultural Audience Development Specialist with the Museum and Galleries Foundation of NSW. Yin-Lo has lived in Peru and in Bangladesh from 1989-1992 where she co-founded Drik Picture Library for Third World photographers. In 1994 she founded the Asian Womens Artists Group and organised the exhibition, Fragments of Origin.  During her residency Yin-Lo went to Singapore to work with Theatreworks.

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Victoria

At the time of his residency Fotis Kapetopoulos was the Executive Officer of Multicultural Arts Victoria. He has a Graduate Diploma in Tourism from Monash University National Centre for Australia Studies and was a Research Fellow at the center of Folklife Programs & Cultural Studies, Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. Kapetopoulos’ residency in Singapore with the National Arts Council and the Festival of Asian Performing Arts was as much a ‘mission’ as a residency due to the heat felt in the region by Pauline Hanson’s reported comments in the region’s press. A major outcome of his residency was that Kapetopoulos spearheaded a historic Memorandum of Understanding between Arts Victoria and the National Arts Council of Singapore.

Roger Rynd (NSW) Seoul Arts Centre

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the NSW Ministry for the Arts

At the time of his residency at the Seoul Arts Centre in 1997, Roger Rynd was the artistic director of REM Theatre which specialised in working in cross-cultural and cross-artform methods. Rynd’s residency in Korea was with the Seoul Arts Centre where he worked with the Sadari Theatre, Korea’s pre-eminent company producing work for young people. Together they created Chingdomari which received the 1997 ASSITEJ award for Best Play, Best Male Actor, Best Design for Korea and the 1998 Seoul Audience Award for Best Play. The play is in repertoire in Korea and it is hoped that Sadari and REM may bring the production to Australia. Rynd’s experience during the residency enabled him to move to Korea to take up the position of Artistic Director, LATT Children’s Theatre in Seoul.

Supported by the Visual Arts & Craft Board of the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia Korea Foundation

Painter Wilma Tabacco, spent four months at Kookmin University.

Cazerine Barry National Institute of the Arts

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Cazerine Barry is a dancer/choreographer who combines contemporary dance with multimedia and aerial work. Barry worked with the Dance Department of the National Institute of the Arts, Taipei taking dance and video workshops and also created a promotional video of the School. She was Australia’s representative in the Little Asia Dance Network in 1999 which involved Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Japan and Taiwan.

Jenny Watson (QLD)

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Jenny Watson is a high profile Australian artist with a substantial exhibiting reputation overseas, especially in Europe. In 1986 Watson represented Australia and was a gold medalist at the Indian Triennale and in 1993 she was Australia’s sole representative at the Venice Biennale. Her interest in Vietnam was due to a desire on her part to experience a contrasting culture to her own as well as to create work in isolation from her familiar art world. During her time in Vietnam Jenny completed a large body of paintings on local fabrics that she researched and purchased in the local markets. She also travelled to the country on field trips to source materials and to paint water buffaloes.

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Sasha Soldatow, a fiction and non-fiction writer from NSW, has published six books, including Jump Cuts: An Autobiography with Christos Tsiolkas. During his residency he spent four months at the Vietnam Writers' Association, Hanoi.

Mike Canfield (NSW) Vietnamese National Theatre Company, Vietname & Disabled Association Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the NSW Ministry for the Arts

At the time of his residency Mike Canfield was the Artistic Director, Australian Theatre of the Deaf, and while in Vietnam with his sign interpreter Pam Spicer, worked with the Vietnamese National Theatre Company in Hanoi, on a non-verbal production of The Request Of Spring by Le Quy Duong. He also conducted workshops in the area of visual theatre for the Ho Chi Minh Theatre and Film School, culminating in a presentation which was attended by the Australian Consul General. The second half of Canfield’s residency was spent in Hong Kong working with teachers of the Deaf, social workers and theatre artists, organised by the Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong.