Creative Exchanges: 2006

Nobuhiro Ishihara (Japan) Artspace

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Nobuhiro Ishihara, visual artist and former curator at Tokyo Wonder Site in Japan, creates work relating to primitive mythology and aboriginal cultures. He has exhibited widely in Japan and New York and has been the recipient of the Ueno-no-mori Award (Ueno-no-mori Museum, Tokyo) and the Fillan award (Broadway Tokyo Gallery). At Sydney's Artspace, Ishihara participated in the 2006 group show It's a new day, a residency driven project spanning a three month period located in and around the Gunnery in Sydney. He also held an open studio that fostered numerous networks with local artists and curators.

Wen-Fu Yu (Taiwan) Salamanca Arts Centre & King Island Cultural Centre

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, the Taipei Cultural Bureau & Arts Tasmania

Taipei artist Wen-Fu Yu's work uses goose down feathers to represent landscapes that remind people of the sensitivity and beauty of nature in today's technologically advanced world.  Wen-Fu’s residency was divided between the Salamanca Arts Centre and the King Island Cultural centre, one of Arts Tasmania’s Wilderness Residencies.  He created two large-scale installation works at each site for the 2007 10 Days On The Island festival. His work on King Island was so well received that the local council have turned the site into a sculpture park.

Benython Oldfield (NSW) Shanghai VI Hoare Inc

Supported by The Australia-China Council for the Arts

Since leaving Charles Sturt University, literary arts manager Benython Oldfield has worked as a radio and TV producer at the ABC and commercial stations and and as a book publicist at Random House Australia. In China he worked across five different organisations researching the Chinese publishing industry to identify cultural exchange and publishing opportunities for Australian and Chinese authors. Since his residency Oldfield has founded the Zeitgeist Media Group to facilitate the publication and sales of Australian books in China and vice versa, advised Australian writers' festivals on Chinese writers and assisted Chinese writers, editors, and literary reviewers to come to Australia and learn about Australian publishing.

Erik Griswold (QLD) Sichuan Conservatory of Music

Supported by Arts Qld & the Australia Council for the Arts

Musician Erik Griswold fuses experimental, jazz and world music traditions to create works of striking originality. Active in improvised and notated musical traditions, Griswold performs as a soloist, in Clocked Out Duo and collaborates with musicians and multidisciplinary artists. He has composed new works for performers such as Margaret Leng Tan, Steven Schick, and Anthony Burr, exploring the possibilities of miniature music boxes, found object and percussion. Griswold holds a PhD from the University of California, San Diego and has previously studied Chinese traditional and folk music in Sichuan Province. Through his residency with the Sichuan Conservatory of Music he hopes to expand his knowledge and skills in Sichuan Opera percussion and Jinqian Ban and collaborate with composer Zou Xiangping on a new production for the Queensland Music Festival.

Robert Draffin (VIC) Shanghai International Performing Arts Research Centre

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Theatre director, writer, dramaturge and actor trainer Robert Draffin was invited by the esteemed theatre director Professor Gu Yian to be artist in residence at the Shanghai International Performing Arts Research Centre.  Draffin conducted a series of intensive acting workshops, created a performance of Antigone using a classical poetic text, and undertook a field study with Gu Yian.  He also reconnected with artists he had worked with previously. Draffin has since been invited to present one of his company’s works for the Shanghai International Experimental Theatre Festival in 2007 and run a workshop program in Hong Kong with On & On Theatre.

Susan Kukucka (QLD) Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation

Funded by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts Queensland

Susan Kukucka has worked as a festival manager, policy officer, researcher and arts writer and was a Senior Research Assistant at Griffith University's School of Arts, Media and Culture at the time of the residency. Her time in China expanded her knowledge of arts management practices in an international context. She explored the areas of arts research and practice, particularly within the performing arts, in rapidly changing China and established international networks, research and artistic collaborations. Kukucka attended and presented at the China Europe Performing Arts Symposium in Beijing and plans to collaborate with Chinese representatives through cultural research projects and symposiums as part of her role at Griffith University.

Steve Mayhew (SA) Hong Kong Fringe Club

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts SA

Steve Mayhew has worked widely across the spectrum in arts management and in the creation of new theatre works as a director, writer, designer, composer, dramaturge and creative producer. His time with the Hong Kong Fringe Club gave him a broader understanding of producing, programming and presenting works and an insight into Hong Kong’s current cultural discussions, preoccupations, artistic strengths and perceived weaknesses. During his residency Mayhew worked on two key events, the City Festival Press Launch and the Opening Night Launch, and post residency was guest curator of the Australia On Stage component of the 2008 Hong Kong City Festival.

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.

Andrish Saint-Clare (NT) I Made Sidia

Supported by the Australia-Indonesia Institute & Arts NT

Andrish Saint-Clare began his professional work as an actor and musician with Rex Cramphorne's Performance Syndicate, a seminal Australian theatre company working with performance styles from diverse cultures. In recent years, he has collaborated with practitioners in remote indigenous communities, which has resulted in major stage productions at festivals in Melbourne, Perth, Darwin and Makassar, Indonesia. Saint-Clare headed to Indonesia to collaborate with the Balinese dalang I Made Sidia. While there he explored traditional forms of Balinese performance and shadow puppetry, using contemporary concepts and production techniques.

Finley Smith (NT) Ubud Writers and Readers Festival

Supported by the Australia-Indonesia Institute & Arts NT

During her time at the Northern Territory Writers' Centre, Finley Smith co-devised, developed and managed WordStorm, the Northern Territory Writers' Festival.  She has a long association with Indonesia and returned to Bali to resume her collaboration with the Ubud Writers' and Readers’ Festival.  She helped to strengthen relationships between the literary communities of Australia and South East Asia, establishing new administrative systems for the festival and mentoring Balinese festival staff in festival management.  A key outcome was her instigation of the publication Asia Literary Review 2006 Ubud Festival Edition and her promotion of Indonesian and non-Indonesian writers. She has since been offered an ongoing position as Festival Manager.

Jan Cornall (NSW) Teater Utan Kayu

Supported by the Australia-Indonesia Institute & Arts NSW

Jan Cornall is a scriptwriter and performance artist who has written 10 plays and a feature film. Since 2004, Cornall has been travelling to Indonesia, teaching, writing and meeting with Indonesian writers. Her residency was hosted by Teater Utan Kayu, Jakarta where she held numerous workshops and presentations and participated in Perfurbance Performance Festival. Cornall also attended the Ubud Readers’ and Writers’ Festival, produced a CD of collaborative works with poet Sitok Srengenge, composed and sung by herself, as well as publishing a book of writing in English and Indonesian.

Andrea Kleist (VIC) Art Front

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Andrea Kleist combines a theoretical background with diverse art practice. Prior to managing the City of Melbourne's Public Art Program she was Exhibitions Manager at ACMI, Executive Officer, Visual Arts Program at the 1998 and 2000 Adelaide Festivals and has enjoyed a long standing relationship with the International Film Festival Berlin.  In Japan Kleist worked with Art Front Gallery's Artistic Director, Fram Kitagawa, toward the realisation of the 3rd Echigo-Tsumari Triennial.  The residency enabled her to gain insight into the conceptual development and actual staging of the Triennial, a large-scale international and multi-layered event in regional Japan.  Kleist assisted the organisers throughout the event, specifically in the areas of promotion and audience liaison.

Ben Morieson (VIC) Echigo-Tsumari Triennial

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts Victoria

Ben Morieson has exhibited and created on-site works and installations that seek to engage uninitiated audiences.  By using popular marketing tools, Morieson's work invites the viewer to question the integrity of the very medium through which he seeks to communicate.  He has exhibited in galleries throughout Australia and in Germany, Switzerland, England and China. In Japan, he created a site-specific work involving a giant canvas and remote controlled cars with the assistance of local school children at the Matsudai Snow Agrarian centre as part of the Echigo-Tsumari Triennial.

Christie Nieman (VIC) Nanzan University

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

After her 2003 play Call Me Komachi was a hit at Melbourne's fortyfivedownstairs, receiving wide acclaim, an extended sell-out season, and a Green Room Award Nomination for Most Innovative Drama, Christie Nieman ran away to Sydney to take up an Australian National Playwrights Centre writer-in-residence position. Nieman spent four months at Nanzan University researching kaidan, Japan's traditional ‘scary stories’ where she was able to access to their library and other nearby university libraries and archives. This research resulted in the further development of a playscript concerned with the themes of supernatural storytelling. The residency also allowed Nieman to soak up Japanese culture feeding in to her involvement in intercultural theatre company Lemon Tart.

Denis Beaubois (NSW) Youkobo Artspace

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts NSW

Mauritius-born Denis Beaubois’ practice includes performance, video and photography. He has performed with groups such as Post Arrivalist, and Gravity Feed. Beaubois was artist-in-residence at Artist Unlimited (Germany) and The University of New South Wales. His residency at Youkobo Artspace Japan resulted in the consolidation, creation and exhibition of three new works from the Terminal Vision project. Another major exhibition is planned in Japan in 2008 along with numerous other opportunities for future engagement with Japanese curators and artists.

Michael Fowler (VIC) Future University

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Michael Fowler is an exponent of contemporary electro-acoustic music and also explores audio design through installation.  As artist-in-residence at the Department of Media Architecture at Hakodate Mirai Daigaku, Future University he met and worked with a number of researchers, academics and students.  Fowler conducted research into Japanese garden design, gave three performances of live electronic music, and presented two guest lectures at the Center for Meaningful Learning.  He also designed and produced an eight-channel ambisonic sound installation, Acoustic Intersections and facilitated a multi-disciplinary investigative project called Avenues of Perception to be conducted between RMIT and FUN in 2007.

Paul Gazzola (WA) Future University

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts WA

Paul Gazzola’s interdisciplinary practice operates at the interface of art, architecture, performance, theory and curating.  Working within Future University, Gazzola undertook research into the areas of artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems and evolutionary robots and the mental and physical spaces that are anticipated and generated from these technologies.  He continued work on series of video concepts, premiering WALK at the university museum and at the Hakodate Winter Art Festival, as well as writing two articles on his investigations into Japanese spatial concepts.

Philip Samartzis (VIC) Musashino Art University

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Dr Philip Samartzis is coordinator and senior lecturer in Sound within the RMIT School of Art. He has organized three Immersion festivals focusing on the theory and practice of sound spatialisation, as well as Variable Resistance - a series of international sound art presentations for the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Podewil Arts Center, Berlin. During his time with Musashino Art University, Samartzis conducted research into Japanese sound art and experimental music and received invitations to perform, record and exhibit.  Key outcomes included invitations to curate sound art projects for four key organisations: Kawasaki City Museum, Inter Communication Centre, Shinohara Fine Art and Artecnico.

Glen Clarke (NSW) Valentine Willie Fine Art

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts& the Australian High Commission, Kuala Lumpur

Glen Clarke believes that the world is made of art materials and that any one element can become one of millions of DNA building blocks. During his residency hosted by Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Clarke produced a new body of work and researched contemporary issues in Malaysian art and Islamic aesthetics and culture.

Patricia Sykes (VIC)

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Poet and librettist Patricia Sykes spent her residency at Rimbun Dahan, Malaysia working on the libretto for a full-length opera, The Navigator, a collaborative work with composer Liza Lim. Sykes travelled through Malaysia and to Cambodia's Angkor Wat researching culture and society in order to enrich her libretto and develop the theatrical aspects of the opera. Sykes is the author of two poetry collections and has edited four books of poetry. Her work focuses strongly on the interactions between people and their contexts and her residency helped explore how a host culture nurtures itself, its people and the environment.

Rosanne Hawke (SA)

Supported by Arts SA

Rosanne Hawke is the author of 14 books for young people. She was an aid worker in Pakistan for seven years and many of her works reflect the culture of that land. During her residency, Hawke travelled extensively through the mountainous northern region of Pakistan to gain the cultural knowledge and insight necessary for completing a novel for young adults. This opportunity resulted in the drafting of two novels and inspiration for a further five projects including a picture book and novel based on Afghani and Pakistani folktales.

Alan Cruikshank (SA) Asia Contemporary

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts SA

At the time of the residency, Alan Cruickshank was Director of the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia and Editor of Contemporary Visual Art+ Broadsheet magazine. Cruickshank undertook a residency at Asia Contemporary in Singapore where he worked as media partner to the inaugural 2006 Singapore Biennale. Broadsheet magazine, edited by Cruickshank, was presented to South East Asian cultural associations and funding authorities as a model for a regional multi-lingual publication that embraces and engages regional cultures and current contemporary arts issues. This project took him to Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh City, and culminated in his participation in the Comparative Contemporaries Conference at The Substation arts centre, Singapore.

Cat Hope (WA) Theatreworks

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts WA

Cat Hope is an accomplished sound artist, performer, composer and songwriter whose interdisciplinary practice crosses over into video, performance and installation.  Hope was artist in residence at Theatreworks in Singapore where she developed and presented Voyeurages in conjunction with local artists.  Meeting with other musicians and artists, Hope hosted a film night, took part in a conference and made contacts with universities in Singapore.  Projects arising from her residency include a musical collaboration with performance artist Chris Xo, a project with artist/writer Dana Lam, and involvement in the next Future of Imagination Performance Art Festival.

Ian Haig (VIC) Ssamzie Space

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & The Australia-Korea Foundation

Ian Haig’s work includes installations, videos, animation, sculpture and drawing exploring subject matter that is at times perverse and provocative. His work has been exhibited in galleries and festivals worldwide and his animation and video work has screened in over 120 festivals internationally.  At Ssamzie Space, Seoul, Haig shot, edited and researched material for a new video and installation project which takes the form of a science fiction mondo documentary, exploring the language of new age mysticism, cults and alternative consciousness and their relationship to technologies of transformation.

Natalie Cursio (VIC) Theatre Company Nottle

Supported by Arts Victoria & The Australia-Korea Foundation

Natalie Cursio is an independent choreographer, creating live performance work but also exploring dance in the context of public space, film, photography and fashion. Cursio worked as assistant director on the company Not Yet It's Difficult's cross cultural, bilingual version of K, as part of the Seoul Performing Arts Festival. In Korea she worked with three diverse Korean performing arts companies: Theatre Nottle, Doo Dance Theatre and Dance Theatre CcadoO. Collaborating with the Artistic Directors, she created new dance works, performed with the companies, led workshops, gave talks on Australian dance, and filmed material for a dance video/documentary. Cursio was invited to choreograph a new short work entitled Anonymous for Dance Theatre CcadoO, which is now a part of the company's repertoire.

Megan Keating (TAS) Taipei International Artists Village

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts Tasmania

Megan Keating’s practice includes painting, installation and paper cutting. She has exhibited extensively throughout Australia and her work is held in the collections of Artbank, BHP Billiton and the Australian Embassy, Beijing. At the Taipei International Artists Village, Keating undertook a broad range of activities, extending her practice to include performance, collaboration and site-specific outdoor installation work. She participated in two major exhibitions, Loop and In Dreams Begin Responsibilities as well as two performances. Keating also gave workshops, artist talks and held an open studio.

Alex Davies (NSW) Chulalongkorn University

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & The Australia-Thailand Institute

Alex Davies’ art practice involves sound and time-based image production, spanning a diverse range of media including film, network, real-time audio-visual manipulations and responsive installations. He has produced and presented work both nationally and internationally including Heterodyne and Anchortronic Performance in Germany. At Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, Davies presented his work Pugilist Series 449 as part of the 2006 Platform series of exhibitions, performances and symposiums at the university’s Art Center. He also undertook spatial audio and photographic field recordings of Muay Thai that will form the basis of future work.

David Teh (NSW) Office of Contemporary Art and Culture

Supported by Arts NSW & the Australia-Thailand Institute

David Teh's work spans art history, literary, critical and cultural theory, with an emphasis on contemporary art, public art and new media art. He is a founder of Fibreculture, an online community for digital culture and politics. During his residency, Teh worked at the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture in Thailand, assisting with the curatorship and documentation of public contemporary art programs and meeting with artists, curators and arts managers in Thailand and Asia. He also staged workshops and exhibitions of Australian digital video art in the region. The residency widened his knowledge of the regional contemporary arts scene and inspired his own curatorial collaborations and exhibition projects.

Cuong Phu Le (NSW) Amrita Performing Arts

Supported by Arts NSW & the Australia Council for the Arts

At the time of his residency Cuong Phu Le worked as Asian-Australian Community Cultural Development Officer at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. Le spent the first month of his residency at the Amrita Performing Arts in Phnom Penh, participating in a workshop that exposed him to the many different traditional art forms in Cambodia. Le then spent two months with Blue Space Contemporary Arts Centre in Ho Chi Minh City working on the 14th International Performance Art Conference, setting up an exhibition by 7 Myanmar artists, undertaking research on fine art since 1975 in Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City and being interviewed by media about his past exhibition I Love Pho.

Hoa Pham (VIC) The Gioi Publishers

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts Victoria

Hoa Pham is the author of four books, including the novel Vixen which earned her a place in the Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Writers 2000 list. Taking a break from her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne, Pham’s residency in Hanoi gave her the opportunity to reconnect with her cultural and spiritual roots. Hosted by The Gioi publishing house, Pham met with Vietnamese publishers, translators and other writers. She was also able to research and write, publishing several articles, completing a collection of short stories and also a play, Silence which will be read at Melbourne’s La Mama theatre.

My Le Thi (NSW) Buon Ma Thuot

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

My Le Thi's work takes many different forms including mixed/multi-media, installation, painting, sculpture, sound, music and video. In Vietnam she reconnected with her community, learning and sometimes re-learning the culture, arts and music of the Central Highlands. From her experiences and documentation she plans to create a new body of work and develop ongoing projects based on receptive communication between Central Highlanders, the Vietnamese and Australians.