EDITORIAL 2008 UNDERLYING MUCH OF ASIALINK ARTS’ WORK IS ADVOCACY FOR BOTH OUR OWN PROGRAMS AND BROADER ISSUES OF SIGNIFICANCE BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND THE COUNTRIES OF ASIA. THIS ADVOCACY ROLE IS OFTEN HARD TO QUANTIFY, AND SOMETIMES, IN TIGHT ECONOMIC TIMES, HARD TO JUSTIFY. HOWEVER WE THINK IT IS IMPORTANT. We initiate forums and meetings in Australia and off-shore to discuss issues of interest to us and our region. Last year’s Annual Arts Forum was held in Brisbane; in 2008 it will be Melbourne, focused on Indonesia. This year also sees the second of two
forums on Australia-Japan visual arts practice for contemporary art museums with participation from key people in Japan and Australia. Program staff have spoken at public events in Darwin, Brisbane, Hobart, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Foshan, Mumbai, Jakarta and Seoul in the past year. Articles have been published in journals and catalogues in Australia and internationally. Each project in our exhibition program is always accompanied by full colour publications for dissemination internationally. The Japan program includes bilingual publications. This Newsletter is published and distributed through-
out Australia and the region. 2007 saw two major publications: 45,000 days in Asia, which covers the residency program to date and includes very useful figures and information on residents, hosts and general comment, and Neon Rising, on the Japan dance program. Both are available from our office. Other recent publications include Jalan-Jalan on the Indonesian internship program, Sun Gazing on the Japan program 2002–4 and Swimming with the Tide on the Indonesia Arts & Community program. — ALISON CARROLL, ARTS DIRECTOR, ASIALINK
INDONESIA–AUSTRALIA INTERNS & RESIDENCIES
ASIALINKARTS 20 08 APRIL/MAY
INDONESIA FOCUS EASTERN INDONESIA PARTNERSHIP, FORUM, RESIDENCIES AND INTERNSHIPS, EXHIBITION TOURING PLUS AUSTRALIA-JAPAN VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM VISUAL ARTS TOURING PROGRAM, ARTS RESIDENCIES 2008
EASTERN INDONESIA–NORTHERN TERRITORY PARTNERSHIP Our Eastern Indonesia – Northern Territory Partnership continues in 2008, concluding the program’s pilot stage of development. Last year the visual arts project brought Darwin artists Winsome Jobling and Leon Stainer to West Timor to introduce paper and printmaking techniques to an arts community in Baun, Amarasi. Another workshop was held in January this year to make additional images and produce a series of prints for exhibition during the Darwin Festival in August. The show includes a number of textiles made by the community as the motifs and imagery employed by local weavers form the basis of these new works.
The Darwin Festival, along with the Garma Festival, also provides an opportunity to experience the results of a musical collaboration between Melbourne producer and manager Tony Gray and Grant Nundhirribala, lead singer and songwriter of indigenous music and dance group Yilila, who have also been working with a weaving collaborative or sanggar, Sanggar Bliran Sina, based in Watublapi, Flores (see main photo). Gray and Nundhirribala will be releasing a CD of the recordings later this year. This program has core support from Arts NT and the Ford Foundation, Jakarta.
EYES TO ASIA VISUAL ARTS TOURING PROGRAM
WIWID SETYA BAMBANG WTIJAKSONO
INDONESIAN RESIDENCIES FOR AUSTRALIAN PRACTITIONERS Four Australians will be guests of Indonesian arts organisations in 2008. The Indonesian Visual Art Archive (IVAA – formerly the Cemeti Art Foundation) in Yogyakarta is hosting arts duo KEG DE SOUZA & ZANNY BEGG for 3 months from June, with visual artist DAVID THOMAS there from July. MELITTA FIRTH, Visual Arts Network Coordinator for Arts Northern Rivers, will develop networks in the Indonesian contemporary art scene and work on an exhibition about oceans, borders and islands while based at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space in Bandung. (See overleaf for more details)
NUNUK AMBARWATI
Four Indonesian arts managers are undertaking eight-week professional development internships in Australia this year through Asialink. In March, ABDUL HAKIM, Chairman, Director and scriptwriter of Singkole Theatre Community, is hosted by Footscray Community Arts Centre and Polyglot Puppet Theatre (with whom he attends ASSITEJ in May); and WIWID SETYA, Assistant Lecturer at Jakarta Institute of the Arts’ Faculty of Film & TV is hosted by the Programming Department of Sydney Film Festival, the Australian Film Television and Radio School’s Producing Department & Atlab. In August, NUNUK AMBARWATI, Program Manager at Yogja Gallery and BAMBANG WITJAKSONO, artist and Lecturer at the Indonesian Arts Institute travel to Darwin for their residencies, hosted by Nomad Art Productions and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, and Charles Darwin University respectively. This program, funded by the Ford Foundation and managed in partnership with Kelola, a non-government arts organisation based in Jakarta, has supported a total of 19 residencies over the past eight years. In addition to developing the skills and knowledge bases of individuals, the program offers opportunities for ongoing exchange and collaboration on future projects in both Australia and Indonesia.
ABDUL HAKIM
ARTS MANAGEMENT INTERNS 2008
ASIALINK ANNUAL ARTS FORUM: INDONESIA 2008 FRIDAY 18 JULY 9AM–5PM FREE ADMISSION CARRILLO GANTNER THEATRE SIDNEY MYER ASIA CENTRE THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE This year’s Asialink Arts Forum will focus on the arts and culture of Indonesia, highlighting what is hot, as well as giving background to why Indonesia has produced its wonderful, dramatic, soulful and humorous contemporary performance, visual arts and writing. Expert speakers include ARIEL HERYANTO, CAROLINE TURNER, DEWI ANGGRAENI, BARBARA HATLEY and AMRIH WIDODO. Linked to the 2008 promotion of Australian culture in Indonesia, the Forum’s intention is to increase awareness and understanding of the richness of Indonesia’s arts and culture with talks by people currently working in Indonesia, and Indonesians working here. Just as with Indonesia, it’s the people that count, and what goes on between interested and creative people where the real gold lies. PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY.
THREE MAJOR EXHIBITIONS TOURING IN ASIA Curated by David Broker, Director of Canberra Contemporary Art Space, STREETWORKS: INSIDE OUTSIDE YOKOHAMA includes the works of two leading Australian video artists, Shaun Gladwell and Craig Walsh, whose projects were a highlight at the last Yokohama Triennale of Contemporary Art. After its successful tour to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, Streetworks is on show at the National Gallery of Indonesia, central Jakarta, from 29 July before going to Jogja Gallery, in Yogyakarta, from 20 August. Streetworks is a focus event at the Australia International Cultural Council’s 2008 focus country program in Indonesia, an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. THE WORLD IN PAINTING, curated by Zara Stanhope,
Deputy Director and Senior Curator at Heide Museum of Modern Art, continues its successful tour through
Asia. Venues to date have included Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Manila and Hanoi with an overwhelming response at each venue. The world in painting includes the works of Gordon Bennett/John Citizen, Amanda Davies, Diena Georgetti, Raafat Ishak, James Morrison, Boxer Milner Tjampitjin, Nancy Naninurra Napanangka and Elizabeth Newman. The exhibition returns to Australia for exhibition at Heide, this July. A further tour through Australia continues into 2009, supported by NETS Victoria. BROOK ANDREW: EYE TO EYE a major Monash
University Museum of Art (MUMA) exhibition, tours Asia in 2008/09 after showing in Penrith and Perth. Curated by Geraldine Barlow, Curator/ Collections Manager at MUMA, this is the first large survey of the artist’s work, and questions the politics of difference and the implications of ‘the gaze’. The many layers of Brook Andrew’s artistic practice are showcased – through portraiture, taxidermy, and neon lettering, Andrew addresses the challenges of intercultural communication, positioning Australian history alongside other cultural narratives, making connections between local and global experiences. The Visual Arts Exhibitions Touring Program is supported by the Visual Arts & Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments and assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and through the generosity of various partners. The world in painting catalogue was generously supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation.
JAPAN VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM We are now in the middle of our three-year visual arts exchange program with Japan, focused on professional exchange especially in the museum sector. Dialogues are developing, networks consolidating, understanding increasing. There is a palpable ease of dialogue between curators in Australia and Japan today, quite different from the much more formal and distant (albeit very good) relationships of the past.
JAPAN VISUAL ARTS FORUM SUNDAY 15 JUNE 2–5PM CENTENARY AUDITORIUM ART GALLERY OF NSW SYDNEY FREE ADMISSION Images: ABOVE LEFT Craig Walsh Cross-reference, 35:27:02N/139:39: 36E 2005, Warehouse no.3 model, three channel DVD projection, 60 minutes. Courtesy the artist ABOVE RIGHT John Citizen Interior (Orange Chair) 8 Jan 2007, synthetic polymer paint on canvas 137 x 137 cm. Private collection, Brisbane. Courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery BELOW LEFT Brook Andrew I split your gaze (detail) 1997, duraclear mounted on acrylic, edition 3/10 135 x 127.3 x 0.6 cm. Courtesy the artist and Tolarno Galleries
Asialink’s program is focused in three areas: • Exhibitions of Australian art in Japan • Australian curators visiting Japan to work with colleagues there • Forums on issues common to the two countries. The Australia-Japan Foundation is the core supporter of the program, which is titled the Strategic Ties for the Arts Initiative (STAI), with the Australia Council the other central funder. As with all Asialink programs, there are many other partners lending their support. The program’s next exhibition in Japan is Trace Elements: Spirit and Memory in Japanese and Australian Photo-media, opening at Tokyo Opera City Gallery on 19 July. A special focus of STAI is collaborations between Sydney curators and organizations and their contemporary art colleagues in Japan. Arts NSW is providing special support for this Sydney Consortium, which includes visits by curators Bec Dean, Reuben Keehan, Sally Breen, Kon Gouriotis, John Kirkman and Lisa Havilah to various partner organisations in Japan, exhibitions in partnership with Artspace, Performance Space and the MCA, and the 2008 Japan Australia Visual Arts Forum at the Art Gallery of NSW on 15 June, being held under the umbrella of the Sydney Biennale’s public events program.
Your chance to hear leading members of the contemporary visual arts community in Japan, and Australians who have worked with Japan, talk about issues pertinent now: joint projects, biennales, the role of art museums, and issues for artists in working with and between the two countries. Speakers include FUMIHITO SUMITOMO of the Musuem of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, well-known curator HISAKO HARA, and TARO AMANO, Chief Curator at the Yokohama Museum of Art, as well as Artspace’s REUBEN KEEHAN and the AGNSW’s JACKIE MENZIES. Organised as part of Asialink’s Japan program, and in partnership with the Australia-Japan Foundation, the AGNSW and the Biennale of Sydney (which starts 3 days later).
NEON RISING
IMAGE Theresia Carolina, a vocalist of the Watublapi group, sings a song she composed and named Carolina during practice in Watublapi, Flores, Indonesia (see Eastern Indonesia Partnership). Photo: Arief Sunarya for The Australian
The Asialink Japan Dance Exchange is now documented in a handsome and large colour brochure (cover detail right), available from Asialink on request. It tells the story of the choreographic collaborations between Australia and Japan through this program over the last few years: Jo Lloyd and Shio Otani with Off Nibroll, Sue Healey and Co with Norikazu Maeda, Kate Denborough and Gerard Van Dyck with Shigemi Kitamura and Kyota Takahashi, Leigh Warren and Dancers with Uno Man and Company, and De Quincey Co and Ami Yoshida, Sachiko M.
POSTAGE PAID AUSTRALIA
Sidney Myer Asia Centre The University of Melbourne Victoria 3010 Australia Telephone 613 8344 4800 Facsimile 613 9347 1768 www.asialink.unimelb.edu.au
YUM CHA NEWS STAFF NEWS Asialink farewells Georgia Sedgwick and Penelope Aitken (see story), going on to pastures new. Georgia’s expertise with Indonesia has been a special asset to Asialink, particularly guiding the Eastern Indonesia partnership (see story) over the last few years. We welcome Jim Rimmer and Sarah Robins to the team. Jim has a background in performing arts, particularly in Melbourne, and Sarah in visual arts, working on a number of international projects including the Commonwealth Games. TOURING AUSTRALIA after a rewarding itinerary to Hanoi, Bangkok, Singapore, Beijing and Foshan, A Secret History of Blue and White is touring nationally with the support of Object Galleries. Launched at Object in Sydney on 18 January the tour continues until May 2009, taking in seven venues along the way. LITERATURE TOURING As announced in our last Newsletter, Asialink’s Literature Touring Program ended in mid-2007. We are delighted however that others have taken up the baton to continue on the work Asialink started: the major tour of authors to China in early 2008 stands out, funded by the AICC, as well as the inclusion of Chinese and Indian publishers in the Australia Council’s VIP invitees to Australia, and the request for Australia to have a major presence at the Taipei International Book Exhibition 2008. Asialink identified the potential of promoting our books in China (and Taiwan) and created many of the links that have lead to this fruitful relationship.
FAREWELL PENELOPE Asialink farewells Penelope Aitken after 13 years developing visual arts exchanges between Australia and Asia. For this long period, from our early days in a terrace house to our new splendid Sidney Myer Asia Centre home, “ask Penelope” has been a common refrain in our office, as well as around Australia and in Asia. Penelope’s exemplary work encouraging artists and partners, managing and promoting the program, and dealing with the myriad cultural and practical issues that arise when such encounters occur has been a remarkable part of Asialink’s history. Her knowledge and support of the issues of residencies internationally is exceptional. She is known with affection by all who have met her over her time here. Asialink thanks her for her contribution to this ongoing dialogue, and wishes her well in her next endeavours. JOHAN DIDIK HANDIANTO Indonesian arts management intern Johan Didik Handianto enjoyed a successful residency with Snuff Puppets in Melbourne from October – December 2007. Johan’s background is specifically in stage management and lighting design but he embraced all aspects of Snuff Puppets’ operations during his residency, including the opportunity to perform.
BRISBANE FORUM 2007 Asialink Annual Arts’ Annual Forum 2007 was held in Brisbane in July. Titled The Great Leap Forum, it included speakers from Korea, Singapore and from around Australia. Its recommendations, outlined on our website, focused on individual exchanges. A connected forum, supported by the Inter-Arts Office of the Australia Council and chaired by Andrew Donovan, was also organised to discuss future plans for hybrid-media programs between Australia and Asia. It included delegates from Korea, Singapore, Japan and Australia. SPACE POEM CHAIN Art Front Gallery, Tokyo, good friends of Asialink, are behind a beautiful project encouraging poets of all ages and nationalities to write about space (outer space that is, and a partner is the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA). Called the Space Poem Chain, we are pleased that Brisbane poet Samuel Wagan Watson has joined the group. His poem is number 17, which you can read on: http://iss.jaxa.jp/utiliz/renshi/main_poem_e.html. ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS Congratulations to past Visual Arts Advisory Committee members, Mari Funaki and David Williams, being presented with their Visual Arts Board Emeritus awards in March, by past committee member (and chair), now Chair of the VAB, Ted Snell.
Asialink The University of Melbourne An inititative of The Myer Foundation
ASIALINK ARTS RESIDENCIES 2009 VISUAL ARTS PERFORMING ARTS LITERATURE ARTS MANAGEMENT
Asialink Arts’ sponsors include: The Australia Council, Arts Victoria, Arts NSW, Arts Queensland, artsACT, Arts WA, Department of Arts & Museums NT, Arts SA, Arts Tasmania, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Images of Australia Branch, AustraliaChina Council, Australia-Indonesia Institute, Australia-India Council, Australia-Korea Foundation, AustraliaJapan Foundation, Australia-Thailand Institute, Australian High Commission in Malaysia, as well as the Taipei City Government, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia, the Ford Foundation, Japan Foundation, Malcolm Robertson Foundation and the City of Melbourne.
THE CLOSING DATE FOR ALL 2009 RESIDENCY APPLICATIONS IS FRIDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2008 UPDATED APPLICATION INFORMATION WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM JULY 2007 ENQUIRIES CAN BE DIRECTED TO arts@asialink.unimelb.edu.au FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, EMAIL UPDATES OR TO DOWNLOAD APPLICATION FORMS GO TO THE WEBSITE: www.asialink.unimelb.edu.au/our_work/arts
Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Northern Territory Government
Cultural Division Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia
ASIALINK ARTS RESIDENCIES
ARTS MANAGEMENT RESIDENCIES
> ARTS MANAGEMENT > VISUAL ARTS > PERFORMING ARTS > LITERATURE
20 08
KEIKO AOKI (VIC) HONG KONG In 2008, Keiko Aoki will be celebrating 10 years as Director of Global Japan Network, an organization dedicated to producing crosscultural arts projects by Australian and Asian artists. Aoki has worked in a wide array of media and with many different events including the Aichi World Expo (Japan) in 2005 and the Mix It Up program at the Arts Centre (Melbourne) in 2006. By further developing her contacts and arts programming skills with the Hong Kong Arts Festival and Hong Kong Fringe Club Aoki aims to develop collaborations and exchanges by performers and venues in Hong Kong and Australia. (SUPPORTED BY ARTS VICTORIA AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
JAYNE BOASE & CASEY VAN SEBILLE (SA) INDIA 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 Teamwork, an international production company that has roots in the performing arts and social action, they aim to engage in discussions on the communication of cultural identity, expand on design generation processes and then apply the outcomes in Australia. (SUPPORTED BY ARTS SA AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
LESLEY BUCKLEY (NSW) KOREA With 25 years in the arts, Lesley Buckley combines skills as a practising performing artist with professional experience in arts management, project development, event coordination and cultural planning. For the past decade, she has worked in local government and won the inaugural Brendan Hartnett Award, which recognizes distinguished effort in working with communities. Buckley will be based in Andong, a centre of Korean culture and folk traditions, and hosted by the local tourism foundation to assist in the production of the Andong Maskdance Festival, which is one of Korea’s premier arts events. She will use this opportunity to seed the inclusion of Australian and Pacific Island region content in future festival programs. (SUPPORTED BY ARTS NSW AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
VISUAL ARTS RESIDENCIES ZANNY BEGG & KEG DE SOUZA (NSW) INDONESIA Zanny Begg recently conducted an artistic study on gentrification in Hong Kong as part of an Australia-China Council Residency. She is currently completing her PhD in Art Theory and writes for a wide range of publications. Keg de Souza, a bookbinder and active member of the zine community, studied architecture and fine arts, and has pursued an on-going interest in the politics of space. Begg and de Souza work as a curatorial team and have a long-term collaborative work – The 2016: Archive Project. At the Indonesian Visual Art Archive in Yogyakarta they will create an archive of photographs, drawings and interviews exploring the gentrification of street vendors. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA INDONESIA INSTITUTE AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
JAYNE DYER (NSW) TAIWAN Jayne Dyer's practice is multi-disciplined with an installation focus. Extensive national and international exhibitions and awards include regular participation in curated exhibitions and projects in Asia; residencies in Hong Kong (Lingnan University), Beijing (Asialink), Paris (Art Gallery of NSW) and Italy (Monash University) and commissions for the 2006/7 Sydney Writers Festival. In 2005 she received an Australian Public Service Medal for contributions to the arts and education. At Taipei Artist Village Dyer will develop new work for the projects Treasured Possessions and I Wish – photographic and text essays addressing perception and identity through intersecting personal narratives from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China. (SUPPORTED BY ARTS NSW AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
ASH KEATING (VIC) KOREA Ash Keating is a multi-disciplinary visual artist who integrates environmental issues within his art strategies. These vary from process-based projects, public art, performance, video, painting and photography t0 installations. Recent projects include Parched (2007) in Melbourne and Pascua Lama (2006) in Santiago, Chile. “The focus of my residency at Ssamzie Space in Seoul will involve being attentive to relevant environmental and ecological issues including exploring the aftermath and effects of the Heibei Spirit spilling 10,000 tons of oil off South Korea’s west coast in late 2007. I aim for the artwork to be unique and to raise awareness politically and environmentally.” (SUPPORTED BY ARTS VICTORIA AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
GEORGINA DAVILL (SA) THAILAND After initially training as an actor Georgina Davill has worked in project coordination and management, training, facilitation, marketing and as a performer. She has worked with a range of cultural action troupes including Mindanao Cultural Theatre Network (Philippines), Yuyachkani Theatre (Peru), and Theatre Simple (USA). Davill is currently the Industry Development Program Officer for Carclew Youth Arts Centre, Adelaide. During her residency with the Makhampom Foundation, Davill’s focus will be on the management systems of their integrated strategy of theatre for community cultural development. This encompasses their Performance, Education Theatre, Community Theatre and International Programs, and the company’s newly established venues in Chiang Dao and Bangkok. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA-THAILAND INSTITUTE AND ARTS SA)
CAROLINE FARMER (VIC) SINGAPORE Caroline Farmer has worked in the contemporary visual arts, film and new media sectors for over 13 years as an artist, curator and arts manager. She is the Executive Director of Experimenta Media Arts, a Melbourne based organization that delivers an ambitious program of commissions and exhibitions of new media and digital art. Farmer will be based with Arts Network Asia, a diverse collective of people and organisations throughout the region with a commitment to collaboration across culture and across artistic practices. She will assist with the development of a transcultural, inter-disciplinary, long-term research and development program consisting of performances, screenings, conversations, laboratories, workshops, talks and engagement with local communities that will focus on Cambodia. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
MELITTA FIRTH (NSW) INDONESIA Melitta Firth is Visual Arts Network Coordinator for Arts Northern Rivers, in New South Wales, managing this initiative that supports professional artists in the region, and Exhibitions Coordinator at Lismore Regional Gallery. In addition to recent work curating group shows and travelling exhibitions. Firth’s international experience has included a curatorial internship at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. She will use her residency with Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, to further her networks in the Indonesian contemporary art scene, with plans to develop an exhibition that will explore Australian and Indonesian concepts and depictions of oceans, borders and islands for eventual touring in both countries. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA-INDONESIA INSTITUTE)
JUDE GUN (VIC) CAMBODIA Currently Program Producer at Arts House, Melbourne, Jude Gun began working in the arts managing the Melbourne Fringe Festival’s Independent Program, eventually freelancing as a producer and artist liaison. Gun’s interest in cultural sustainability has informed her previous work with the St Kilda Festival, St Kilda Film Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival and the 2006 Commonwealth Games Cultural Festival. The presentation of Weyreap’s Battle at the 2005 MIAF brought Gun into contact with Amrita Performing Arts, a company working towards the renewal and preservation of Cambodia’s cultural heritage. Gun will spend her residency assisting the company to explore opportunities for international and regional presentations and collaborations. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
MARCUS SCHUTENKO (VIC) MONGOLIA Having previously managed a theatre venue, freelanced as a performance manager and lighting designer, and produced and directed a feature film Marcus Schutenko is currently the Coordinator: Festivals and Events Grants Program at the Victorian Multicultural Commission. Schutenko will work with the Arts Council of Mongolia during that country’s biggest cultural festival, Naadam. He will work in consultation with the Artist Development Program Coordinator on the review of the 2008 Grants Competition and other aspects of the Artist Development Program. In addition Shutenko will work on cultural activities undertaken by ACM across the Festival period and assist with the evaluation of the programs after the Festival is complete. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
ALEX KERSHAW (NSW) THAILAND Alex Kershaw is a photographic and video artist examining the symbolism and ritual associated with people and their territories. His work addresses ideas of identity, memory and relation. In residency at Chulalongkorn University Kershaw will work closely with members of the Wat Mahathat monastery in Bangkok. He also plans to travel to Dan Sai in Northern Thailand for the Phi Ta Khon Festival, in order to research the festival’s rites and incantations and their relationship with theatrical interventions. Kershaw teaches at the Australian Catholic University and the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA-THAILAND INSTITUTE AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
SPIROS PANIGIRAKIS (VIC) SINGAPORE Spiros Panigirakis is a Melbourne-based visual artist whose art practice involves working with groups in both curatorial and collaborative capacities. Panigirakis is interested in how curatorial frameworks and presentational devices work in the visual arts. He recently explored these issues in two forthcoming publications – Enjoy’s (Wellington, NZ) Critical Publics and Fiona Macdonald’s publication Gratuitous Intent. He has presented projects at a range of artist-run initiatives including Loose projects, 1st Floor Artists and Writers Space and CLUBSprojects. Anecdotes about food captivate him and Panigirakis intends to use this energy in a project regarding hawker cuisines at p-10 in Singapore. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
KATE ROHDE (VIC) JAPAN Since graduating in 2001, Kate Rohde has held several solo exhibitions and has participated in numerous group shows. Her work is held in public and private collections across Australia. Rohde’s sculptures and installations are comprised of a wide range of craft and hardware material, including resins, fake fur, expanding foam and rice paper, loosely exploring themes surrounding humanity’s relationship to nature. During her residency at Tokyo Wonder Site in Japan, she plans to gather research material to inspire and influence a new body of work, particularly drawing on the use of kitsch in Japanese pop-culture. (SUPPORTED BY ARTS VICTORIA AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
TIM SILVER (NSW) MALAYSIA Tim Silver is a Sydney-based artist working across various media, primarily focused on sculptural casting and photography. His work is concerned with the perpetual state of entropy: the theory that all forms and systems are in a constant state of decay or change. This idea permeates both his objects and installations, themselves captured in this process of decomposition through free-falling photo-narratives. At Galeri Petronas in Kuala Lumpur, Silver will research and develop a new series of cast objects, utilising the processes of rubber production in Malaysia. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIAN HIGH COMMISSION KUALA LUMPUR AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
SODA_JERK: DAN & DOMINIQUE ANGELORO (NSW) INDIA 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 will research Bollywood cinema culture and modes of spectatorship. They will also collect DVD and print material for a new video remix work and a suite of photo-collages. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA-INDIA COUNCIL AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
DAVID THOMAS (QLD) INDONESIA David Thomas is an inter-disciplinary artist, with critical interests in photography, installation, sound, painting, video, performance and collaborative works. Hosted by the Indonesian Visual Art Archive, Yogyakarta, his residency will provide an opportunity to explore how the ‘self’ operates in a highly communal culture. Thomas was the co-founder and manager of CBD Gallery (Sydney) and has also curated exhibitions for the Art Gallery of NSW, the Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane) and Canberra Contemporary Art Space. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA
PERFORMING ARTS RESIDENCIES
LITERATURE RESIDENCIES
LUCAS ABELA (NSW) CHINA
BONNY CASSIDY (NSW) JAPAN
What’s been described as “a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe” is in fact the highly unique audio works of Lucas Abela, a maverick musician who has a fascination with playing sheets of broken glass. By pressing his face against the glass and employing a range of vocal techniques he creates a variety of noises that are simultaneously cacophonous and musical. Although principally a solo performer, Abela plans to use his time with Sub Jam Production in Beijing to form a band with local musicians, and record and release an album before touring the new act around Asia. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
Bonny Cassidy’s poetry has appeared in various journals and anthologies. As well as an editor and lecturer, she is chief researcher for The Red Room Company, and Chair of Sydney PEN Young Writers. Following her completion of a PhD on Australian poets Jennifer Rankin and Jennifer Maiden, she will be developing an experimental prose series while visiting institutions in Nagoya, Kyoto and Tokyo. Cassidy will document her own writing process and the Zen aesthetics that influenced Rankin’s poetics, explore how place and environment, poetry and painting, Asia and Australia, and writing and experience, overlap for a contemporary Australian poet. (SUPPORTED BY THE MALCOLM ROBERTSON FOUNDATION)
LUKE LICKFOLD (QLD) JAPAN Luke Lickfold is involved in a wide range of performance projects: performing live sound art, live/pre-composed sound for theatre and dance, and work on interactive multimedia projects. His residency with multi-media performance unit 66B/Cell, Tokyo, will allow him to further explore an immersive installation/performance format woven from elements of dance, visual projection, lighting, sound and custom speaker design. Lickfold was awarded a BFA in Sound Design/Music Production with Distinction from Queensland University of Technology, and also works as a DJ, producer and sound engineer. (SUPPORTED BY ARTS QUEENSLAND AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
LINDA JAIVIN (NSW) CHINA Linda Jaivin is the internationally best-selling author of five novels and two works of nonfiction, 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 Bookworm in Beijing she will work on a new novel set in China as well as projects touching on Chinese history, biography and the arts. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA-CHINA COUNCIL)
LINA LIMOSANI (SA) MALAYSIA
EMILY MAGUIRE (NSW) VIETNAM
Graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1999, Lina Limosani became a member of Garry Stewart’s Australian Dance Theatre from 2000–05. During this time she received the Emerging Artist Award from the Adelaide Critics Circle for her works in ADT’s in-house choreographic seasons. She has since maintained a performance career both in Australia and New Zealand, and gone on to create her own works independently. Limosani will endeavour to use her residency at Rimbun Dahan to explore and research her own choreographic practice whilst creating a new work, inspired by the forces of rapid modernisation and their juxtaposition with tradition in Malaysia. (SUPPORTED BY ARTS
Emily Maguire is the author of the novels The Gospel According to Luke (2006) and Taming the Beast (2004) with her first non-fiction book being published in 2008. Maguire’s articles and essays have been published widely including in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Griffith Review and The Age. While based at The Gioi Publishing House in Hanoi, Maguire will work on translations and also on a new novel set in several locations throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The as-yet unnamed novel will explore the problem of connectedness – how one retains an authentic sense of self while also becoming part of something bigger. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
SA AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
KIERIN MEEHAN (QLD) JAPAN TODD MACDONALD (VIC) KOREA As a director, producer and (primarily) as a performer Todd MacDonald has worked across a number of different media including theatre, film, television and dance. MacDonald is the co-founder of The Store Room Theatre Workshop and is a member of the company not yet it’s difficult (NYID). The residency will allow him to witness the genesis of original work, universal in character but borne from a rich mix of traditional arts and contemporary practice. MacDonald will be hosted by the Wuturi Players, a company dedicated to creating new forms of traditional theatre, and while there he hopes to gain an understanding of how they generate and structure their working process. (SUPPORTED BY
Kierin Meehan writes for children and young adults, and teaches Japanese language and culture in primary and secondary schools. She has published three novels, two of which were awarded Patricia Wrightson prizes in the NSW Premiers Literary Awards (2004 and 2006). Her fourth novel, Ten Rules for Detectives, is due out in 2008. While at Aichi Shukutoku University, Meehan hopes to complete research for and begin writing a young-adult mystery/suspense novel. She also plans to investigate the possibility of creating a games package designed for teaching Japanese language and culture in primary classrooms in Australia. (SUPPORTED BY ARTS QUEENSLAND AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
ALICE PUNG (VIC) CHINA
ARTS VICTORIA AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
DAVID PLEDGER (VIC) CHINA David Pledger works as a director, producer, designer, writer, choreographer and dramaturg in theatre, dance, opera, television and media arts. He has gained wide acclaim for building new artworks that combine physical languages, video, sound and special effects into an organic system in which media are elevated from their existing role and integrated into the structure and theme of the artwork. He is the founding artistic director of not yet it’s difficult (NYID). At Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, Pledger’s work on multimedia theatre and the development of international collaborations will be directed toward long-term exchange. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
Alice Pung is a writer, journalist and lawyer. Her book Unpolished Gem won the 2007 Newcomer of the Year Australian Book Industry Awards, and is studied as a secondary and tertiary education text in schools nationally. Pung is currently editing an anthology of stories about growing up of Asian background in Australia, and she also writes frequently for national journals and newspapers. During her residency at Peking University Pung aims to write about the migrant experience in a new country, and, in preparation for her next book, to research why her grandparents left China to start their adult working lives in Cambodia. (SUPPORTED BY ARTS VICTORIA, THE AUSTRALIA-CHINA COUNCIL AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
KEN SPILLMAN (WA) INDIA DEBORAH POLLARD (NSW) SINGAPORE Deborah Pollard is an artist, performer and director based in Sydney. Her work focuses on hybrid collaborations with arts and non-arts practitioners. Since 1993 she has created a number of installation and performance works in partnership with Indonesian artists. Pollard was the Artistic Director of Salamanca Theatre Company from 1997–2000 and interim Artistic Director of Urban Theatre Projects in 2006/07. Her residency at 72-13 TheatreWorks will allow opportunities for working with emerging and experienced practitioners, experimentation, creative dialogue and the seeding of new works. (SUPPORTED BY ARTS NSW AND THE
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 includes a detailed entry on his career. During his residency at Sanskriti Kendra, Spillman will complete No Boundaries, a ‘young adult’ novel set partly in New Delhi. He will also research the compilation of a cross-cultural anthology for use in schools. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA-INDIA COUNCIL AND THE WA DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE AND THE ARTS)
AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
JAMES STUART (NSW) CHINA AIMEE SMITH (WA) INDIA 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 hopes to continue her exploration and work in arts for social change. (SUPPORTED BY
James Stuart is a poet, editor and new media artist whose practice centres on interdisciplinary, language-based work. He has won a number of national awards and fellowships. Recent projects include the interactive online poem-world The Homeless Gods, with Karen Chen and Guillaume Potard, and The Material Poem (ed.), an e-anthology of text-based art and inter-media writing. During his residency at the Bookworm in Chengdu, he will explore Chinese mythology and its relationship to landscape and contemporary identity. He will also develop his ongoing engagement with writing for specific forms of media including page, screen, canvas, space, book, performance and more. (SUPPORTED BY ARTS NSW AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
THE AUSTRALIA-INDIA COUNCIL AND THE WA DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE AND THE ARTS)
CHRISTINE WILLIAMS (QLD) INDIA
JOEL STERN (QLD) JAPAN Joel Stern is one of Australia’s foremost sound artists and regularly performs and curates for Australian and international festivals. Stern co-founded OtherFilm, which has staged three major festivals (2004–07), lectures at Queensland University of Technology, writes for RealTime Magazine and hosts the weekly radio program, Audiopollen, on 4ZZZ. During his residency with multi-arts organisation Deterra Arts, in Fukuoka, he will participate in collaborative studio and public performance projects, interview leading Japanese avant-garde composers, and present the work of emerging Australian sound and visual performance artists to Japanese audiences in a touring survey exhibition. (SUPPORTED
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. With Masters and Doctoral degrees in Australian Studies and Writing, the University of Madras residency gives Williams the opportunity to further her research into identity and the sense of self in Australian and Hindu culture. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA-INDIA COUNCIL AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
BY ARTS QUEENSLAND AND THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
WANG ZHENG-TING (VIC) CHINA Wang Zheng-Ting is a composer and master performer of the sheng (Chinese mouth organ). He graduated from Shanghai Music Conservatory, received a PhD in Ethnomusicology at the University of Melbourne and is an honorary research associate at Monash University. He is the founding member and director of the Australian Chinese Music Ensemble and has been active in collaborations with non-Chinese musicians to create crosscultural music. Wang Zheng-Ting’s residency at Tianjin Conservatory will enable him to work with professors and master musicians, develop contacts with festivals, radio stations and arts agencies, and to lecture on Chinese migration musical culture in Australia. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
INDONESIA INSTITUTE AND ARTS QUEENSLAND)
MELODY WILLIS (NSW) CHINA Sydney-based artist Melody Willis works primarily in painting and drawing. Her work reconfigures elements of incidental architecture, suggesting new possibilities for seemingly incomplete, overlooked or discarded objects. Willis is also involved in a number of collaborative projects, including the art collective Imperial Slacks, and currently operates the independent arts venue "Sydney" with three other artists. Her residency at Platform China Contemporary Art Institute, Beijing, will offer an opportunity to exchange ideas with Chinese artists in the dynamic framework that this organisation fosters and to make new work in response to the rapid pace of urban transformation in Beijing. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL)
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ASIALINK ARTS RESIDENCIES 2009 APPLICATIONS FOR 2009 RESIDENCIES WILL CLOSE ON FRIDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2008 UPDATED APPLICATION INFORMATION WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM JULY 2008 ENQUIRIES CAN BE DIRECTED TO arts@asialink.unimelb.edu.au FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, EMAIL UPDATES OR TO DOWNLOAD APPLICATION FORMS GO TO THE WEBSITE: www.asialink.unimelb.edu.au/our_work/arts