Creative Exchanges: 2015

Hsu Yen-Ting (Taiwan)Fremantle Arts Centre

Supported by The Department of Culture and The Arts, WA & The Australia-China Council

Hsu Yenting investigates the connection between sound, life, environment and ethno-culture. She has a Master of Arts Management from the Taipei National University of the Arts, presented at TEDx WenLuoTing in 2013 and undertook a residency with the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris in 2014. She adopts materials from field recordings to create audio documentaries, soundscapes, and sound design for dance. In Fremantle Yenting will continue to work on her Sound Novel project, in which she explores sound as narration and the cultural effects on the perception of sound.

Loo Zihan (Singapore)Victorian College of the Arts

Supported by Creative Victoria

Loo Zihan is a performance and moving-image artist and educator based in Singapore. Zihan holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Nanyang Technological University and a Master of Fine Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Zihan's moving-image works have screened at various international film festivals. His co-directorial feature Solos was selected for competition in the American Film Institute Festival (Los Angeles) and Deauville Asian Film Festival (France) and was awarded the Nuovo Sguardi Award at the 23rd Turin GLBT Film Festival (Italy). In Melbourne Zihan will connect with the local Lindy Hop swing dance community, and collaborate with VCA students on a new relational installation performance piece.

SEO Hae-Young (Korea) Artspace and BigCi

Supported by the Australia-Korea Foundation

Sue Broadway (Cambodia) Epic Arts

Supported by Creative Victoria

Sue Broadway is a director, choreographer and teacher of circus and physical theatre. She is currently Artistic Director of Melbourne's Westside Circus and Creative Consultant for the Moon Lantern Festival in Adelaide. Previous work has included choreography of Airborne for the Australian Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, and aerial direction for Kingdom of Dreams in New Delhi in 2012. Her residency in Cambodia will be with Epic Arts, a performance centre for artists with mixed abilities. While there she will mentor emerging artists and work with professional troupe, Epic Encounters, on a new work for touring in 2015.

Adam Narnst (QLD) Shanghai Writers' Association

Supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation

Adam Narnst is a writer, teacher, performer and former cage fighter. He has been published nationally and internationally in The Griffith Review, Wet Ink and Antique Children and Best Australian Stories 2014. He has taught at schools and universities in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Shanghai and has performed and spoken on panels at the Ubud and Brisbane Writers Festivals and Steve Bisley's An Afternoon of Stories. He has been heavily involved with writing groups in Queensland for almost a decade. His first novel is currently under consideration with Allen & Unwin. At Shanghai Writers' Association Adam will complete his second novel and work with local writers on a series of workshops and readings.

Cristina Tridente (SA) China Council For The Promotion Of International Trade

Supported by Arts SA

Cristina Tridente is director of fashion label couture+love+madness and coordinator of Adelaide Fashion Festival. She has won a number of competitions in Australia and was the first Australian designer invited to show her collection in Qingdao. Four years of travelling to China to source textiles has resulted in a strong desire to learn more of the Asian aesthetic and to collaborate with designers from China. Hosted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Cristina will collaborate with a local designer to explore Australian and Chinese creative processes and aesthetics.

Nicholas Verso (VIC) Three Shadows Photography Art Centre

Supported by The Australia-China Council

Nicholas Verso is a writer, filmmaker, director and editor who has worked in film and television. His short film The Last Time I Saw Richard won several awards, including Best Short Film at the 2014 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards. Nicholas explores dark themes in his work in the hope of uncovering something beautiful lurking within the shadows and bringing it to light. At Three Shadows Photography Art Centre Nicholas will develop, write and storyboard a new fantasy feature film script. He will also research robotics in creating design prototypes for the film.

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.

Dan Mackinlay (WA) Common Room Networks Foundation

Supported by the Department of Culture and the Arts, WA

Dan MacKinlay is a musician specialising in the integration of modern and traditional musical forms into new hybrids. Trained traditionally in piano, mathematics and machine learning, Dan integrates these skills into a collaborative practice centred on building automatic electronic systems to interact with traditional instrument players in live performance. He has a record of working with musicians from diverse backgrounds in Europe, Australia and South East Asia, and will return to Indonesia in 2015 to work with Common Room Networks Foundation on their own unique fusion of modern and traditional forms.

Jake Mulligan (TAS) Cemeti Art House

Supported by the New Colombo Plan, Melbourne Global Mobility

Jake Mulligan is an aspiring writer and journalist from Tasmania. Before undertaking study at the University of Melbourne, he completed a diploma in Screen Studies at Academy of the Arts Inveresk. His writing interests include travel journalism, politics, film criticism and fiction. This year Jake had his first fiction piece published in the LGBTIQ Alex Zine Project. He also has a strong interest in South East Asia and is confident that his internship at Cemeti Art House will build on his professional development skills. He hopes that the pilot internship program will foster further collaborative practices between Australia and Indonesia, by connecting with fellow art-lovers through critical discussion and the implementation of projects.

Louise Choi (VIC) Cemeti Art House

Supported by the New Colombo Plan, Melbourne Global Mobility

Louise is an Art History and Media and Communications student at the University of Melbourne. Having spent her life split between Australia and Hong Kong, she has been drawn to art practices that engage in cross-cultural storytelling. Her interests often return to the memories and emotional minutia that connect people to places.  She has worked for Time Out HK, a charity called KELY Support Group and at RTIST Gallery in Prahran. Louise mostly writes around themes of in-betweenness and empathy, dark humour and heartbreak, and the absurdity of trauma. At Cemeti Art House, she is hoping to work with oral histories and to find platforms beyond the written word to create and explore concepts like emotional architecture and "delirious humour.

Sally Smart (VIC) Black Goat Studios & Entang Wiharso

Supported by Creative Victoria

Sally Smart has exhibited widely nationally and internationally and is represented in galleries and collections throughout Australia and internationally. She is currently an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. Sally will undertake a residency with renowned Indonesian artist Entang Wiharso at his Black Goat Studios in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, culminating in a joint exhibition at the National Museum of Jakarta in 2015.

Dylan Sheridan & Laura Hindmarsh (TAS) Kyoto Art Centre

Supported by Arts Tasmania

Dylan Sheridan is a composer and sound artist whose works have been performed in concert halls, festivals, art galleries and living rooms in Australia, the USA and Europe. Laura Hindmarsh is a visual artist who uses processes and systems of layering as an ongoing inquiry into the nature of perception and representation. Dylan and Laura combine their varied backgrounds to create immersive installations that challenge traditional viewing conventions. At Kyoto Art Centre they will explore the Jo Ha Kyu structuring and aesthetics of lighting in Noh theatre and early Japanese cinema, whilst exploring similarities between the gothic tradition in Japan and Tasmania.

Snuff Puppets (VIC) Australia House

Supported by The Australia-Japan Foundation & The Australian Embassy, Tokyo

Snuff Puppets is Australia's leading giant puppet experimental theatre company. Founded in 1992, their work transcends language barriers, connects with diverse audiences, and engineers puppet audience collisions that leave all parties breathless. Snuff Puppets combine elements of puppetry, live music, visual and physical theatre to create art that is accessible and challenging, visually spectacular and politically incisive. Cultural and artistic explorers, Snuff Puppets have spent most of the last two decades touring outdoor large- scale productions, Cultural Community Development Programs and their unique giant puppet street acts nationally and internationally throughout Asia, Europe and South America. At Australia House Snuff Puppets will run an intensive collaborative workshop with the local community, developing a performative work to be presented as part of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale.

Omar Musa (NSW) Hotel Penaga & Rimbun Dahan

Supported by Arts NSW

Omar Musa is a Malaysian-Australian rapper and poet from Queanbeyan. He is the former winner of the Australian Poetry Slam and the Indian Ocean Poetry Slam. Omar has released three hip hop albums and two poetry books. His work frequently explores his Malaysian-Australian cultural heritage. His first novel, Here Come the Dogs, was published by Penguin Australia in August 2014. Omar will split his residency between Hotel Penaga and Rimbun Dahan to work on his new novel, which combines Malay myths and ghost stories with hard-edged observations of politics, gender, history and religion.

Suzanne Howard (QLD) Cherrycake Studios

Supported by Arts Queensland

Suzanne Howard is an interdisciplinary artist who explores the construction of identity and cross cultural discourse through performance, sculptural intervention and video. Since 2008, she has concentrated on a collaborative practice – producing, scripting, directing and editing large scale video works for well-known Australia artists such as Vernon Ah Kee, Richard Bell and David M Thomas, which have screened widely in Australia and overseas, including at the 2009 Venice Biennale and the 2013 Moscow Biennale. Suzanne is a partner in the electronic music collaboration Weekend Immendorf with artist David M Thomas. At Cherrycake Studios Suzanne will develop new large-scale video installations exploring place, architecture and cultural traditions.

Ange Leech & Giovanni Lorusso (VWA) Arte Moris

Supported by The Department of Culture and the Arts, WA

Visual artist Ange Leech's work stems from a dedicated study of human forms and expressions in creating performative objects such as puppets and masks. Giovanni Lorusso is a cinematographer and filmmaker who utilises his background in theoretic art, philosophy and photography to explore and experiment with different areas of visual representation. His work has been screened around Europe, South America, Australia and Asia. At Arte Moris in Dili, Ange and Giovanni will collaborate with the arts centre on a series of stop-motion film workshops. This will result in a new work to be presented at Arte Moris Festival 2015.

Lina Andonovska (VIC) Many Hands International

Supported by Creative Victoria

Born in Macedonia and arriving in Australia as a refugee from the Yugoslav crisis in 1990, Lina Andonovska is now considered one of Australia's most exciting flautists, leading a diverse career as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral player. Lina has been awarded the prestigious Freedman Fellowship, played with Australia's major orchestras including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, has worked with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and held a Fellowship with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, performing and recording under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy. At not-for-profit organisation Many Hands International Lina will collaborate with local composer Simeo Baretto. The resulting work will be the first classical music composition to include Timorese instruments in the Western classical style.

Angela O'Donnell (NT) IKSV Istanbul Theatre Festival

Supported by Arts NT

Previously the Performing Arts Touring Manager for Artback NT: Arts Development and Touring, Angela O'Donnell's background spans education, community cultural development, project management and multimedia. With experience working and living in remote Aboriginal communities and alongside diverse groups within Australia, Angela has a demonstrated commitment to cross-cultural understanding. Angela currently sits on a number of national performing arts committees and in 2014 she undertook a Churchill Fellowship focused on sustainability for isolated artists. She was recently appointed Senior Arts Broker at Supported by Arts NT. Angela will work with ISKV Istanbul Theatre Festival in producing Australian projects for the Year of Australia in Turkey Festival 2015.

Phillip Adams (VIC) The State Opera and Ballet

Supported by Creative Victoria

Acclaimed Artistic Director of BalletLab Phillip Adams is celebrated nationally and internationally for his contemporary dance performance. Phillip worked with Akbank Sanat, a leading contemporary art centre in Beyoglu. Phillip conducted workshops with four local Turkish dancers that resulted in a public showing as part of DFAT’s Australia in Turkey Festival.

Annabelle Collett (SA) New Space Arts Foundation

Supported by Arts SA

Annabelle Collett has worked as a professional artist, designer and craftsperson for over 30 years, in a constant exploration that has engaged her in a variety of disciplines, applications and collaborations. Annabelle makes sculptural elements using primarily fabric, as well as plastics, mosaic, metal, fibres and found objects. She explores the abstract coverings of both the body and the environment we live in, conveying them as resonators of social history, gender attitude and personal commentary. While at New Space Arts Foundation Annabelle will explore site-specific items in developing sculptural works that explore attitude, sexuality and identity.

Doni Maulistya (Indonesia) Artback NT, Australia & Cemeti Art House, Indonesia

Supported by The Australian Government through The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program, An initiative of The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade & Arts NT

Doni Maulistya started his artistic journey as a photography-based artist and now works across art form. He has worked with Papermoon Puppet Theatre and Migrating Troop Theatre in Yogyakarta, and has undertaken residencies and exhibited in Indonesia and Singapore. He is interested in history, tradition, and dialectic dimensions between the old and the new. At Cemeti Art House and Artback NT, Doni will explore the relationship between visual and performing arts by connecting with local artists.

Karla Dickens (NSW) Artback NT, Australia & Cemeti Art House, Indonesia

Supported by The Australian Government through The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program, An initiative of The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade & Arts NT

Karla Dickens is a Wiradjuri woman. Her works are in the collections of museums, regional galleries, and private collections, nationally and internationally. Karla's work is informed by personal experience, gender politics and sexual preference, motherhood, a deep spiritualism and the difficulty of being an outsider in a culture as it reinvents itself and strives to survive. Karla's totem, the eagle, and Indonesia's cultural symbol, the Garuda, will be the starting point for her work during the residency at Cemeti Art House and Artback NT.