Lada Dedić

Bilqis Hijjas Open Residencies, Resident Artist 3 September 2019Australia, Australian, textiles, Visual artist

Lada Dedić is a maker from Australia; a slow art practitioner who utilises the intricate, almost surgical process of repetitive stitching which documents the passage of time while she explores themes of neuroanthropology, meditative contemplation and the interplay of science and art.

She is best known for her series titled Self Portrait; Artist’s Brain, a collection of hand-stitched images of her own brain. Lada will use her time as an Open Residency Artist at Rimbun Dahan to develop new work while contemplating gut/brain-biochemistry and its relationship with psycho-pathology, furthering her recent examination of neuro-anatomy.

Her ritualistic practice takes time, it is meditative, methodical and rhythmic which supports an ongoing investigation of the brain/mind conundrum through an act of discipline which requires the maker to remain in the moment while performing a feat of endurance where every stitch is purposeful and calculated. Also, she just really likes brains…

Check out her website and Instagram for more of her info and works. You can also read a journal article about Lada in The Lancet Neurology.

: Self Portrait; Artist’s Brain (Little Red) Stranded cotton on aida cloth, 2015, 300 x 290 mm. Stitching time: 43 hours

: Self Portrait; Artist’s Brain (Subtle Brain) Stranded cotton on linen, 2017, 410 x 340 mm. Stitching time 49 hours 55 minutes

: Self Portrait; Artist’s Brain (Pea Brain 4 Eva) Stranded cotton on aida cloth, 2016, 1250 x 790 mm. Stitching time: 170 hours

: Self Portrait; Artist’s Brain (I’m Melting) Stranded cotton on aida cloth, 2014, 480 x 390 mm. Stitching time: 144 hours and 55 minutes

: Self Portrait; Artist’s Brain (Envy Brain) Stranded cotton on aida cloth, 2017, 425 x 345 mm. Stitching time: 74 hours 35 minutes

Annalouise Paul

Bilqis Hijjas Asialink, Resident Artist 13 August 2019Australia, Australian, Choreographer, Dance, dancer

Annalouise Paul is a contemporary-flamenco choreographer and performer from Australia whose works explore identity and transformation through the intersection of contemporary and traditional forms.

Annalouise has been working in the field of intercultural dance in Australia and internationally for over thirty years. More recently she has developed choreographic tools to push dance hybridity. There is no established ‘method’ for creating cross-cultural movement or for practitioners to model from, so there has been slow but constant emergence of process and vocabulary, evolving out of a pool of processes for various works. ‘Hidden Rhythms’ is one process that employs traditional rhythms for shifting the dynamic of dance movement. ‘Dance DNA’ is the most recent method Annalouise has been investigating largely through workshops internationally and in Australia. She has held cross cultural workshops in Singapore, France, India, Melbourne and Sydney supported by World Dance Alliance, Create NSW and Critical Path.

Developing cross-cultural and hybrid processes with local dance artists at Rimbun Dahan, Annalouise will research and create material for new interdisciplinary works, Mother Tongue and Self Portrait exploring the existence of multiple cultural affinities, histories and languages in the single body.

Annalouise is the recipient of the Australian Arts in Asia Award in Dance. Creative Exchange at Rimbun Dahan is supported by Asialink Arts and the NSW Government through Create NSW.

You can view more of her works at her website.

: Forge (2016) choreographed and performed by Annalouise Paul. Photo by Heidrun Lohr

: Mother Tongue (2014), choreographed by Annalouise Paul. Photo by Shane Rozario.

: Salón Flamenco (2019) is a new platform for experimental flamenco curated and produced by Annalouise Paul. Photo by Binu Naikaraparambil

Sasi Victoire

Bilqis Hijjas Asialink, Resident Artist 22 March 2018Australia, Australian, Visual artist

Sasi Victoire arrived in Australia in 1970, to further her education. Little did she know that this period of her life would develop her personal choices away from safe, familiar paths and direct her to an exciting path through visual art. She discovered a passion for writing and worked to combine visual images with text for human rights issues. She developed her public speaking techniques to skillfully target her interest in women’s empowerment, delivered at workshops, conferences and seminars. As a writer she has contributed to many international and national and local art journals.

She developed with the assistance of the Q150 and a RADF grant, her children’s books, Moving House and Crockee’s Country, which explores and celebrates Cairn’s sense of place. They emerge against the fascinating tropical backdrop of familiar, yet unique spaces she now calls her home. She continues to challenge herself to find new ways to work to seek new opportunities the arts in her community. Although a trained printmaker, she explores a variety of art processes as means to highlight, develop and uncover concepts that she is passionate about. Living in a very peripheral art landscape, her self-generated projects have highlighted Cairns as a vibrant and diverse artistic hub.

To devote more time on her own practice, she took up an artist in residence at Chiang Mai University in 2013 where she has created her exhibition Watermark. As a curator, she is increasingly aware of the value of the collaborative process as a means to strategically broaden and refresh her art practice. Her project Tropics to Tropics to Malaysia last year is to provide benefits to Cairns through soft diplomacy. She recently collaborated with Jute Theatre, Cairns and developed an inter-medial project Alice in the Antipathies that challenged her across disciplines to new areas working with music designer, Tristan Barton, videographer, Glenn Saggers and now is ready for an intercultural production with Masakini Theatre, Malaysia, in March 2019 and thereafter in April to Jute Theatre, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

Sasi is our Resident Artist for three months supported by Asialink. She plans to connect and develop audiences for the coming performance in Malaysia during her residency. To find out more about her work, please visit her website.

: Flight 2016 Collograph: 21cm X19cm

: Alice Kawaad. 2017 Mixed media prints as storytelling installation box

: Alice/Asha 2016 Mixed media drawing;100cm x 65cm for costume/ screen print

: Red Queen costume sketch 2017, 100cm x 65cm

: Ganesh costume sketch 2017, 100cm x 65cm

: Belong 2016; Collograph: 21cm X19cm

Jennifer Tyers

admin Open Residencies, Resident Artist 28 January 2015Australian, Garden, Painter, Trees, Visual artist

Jennifer Tyers has been a resident artist at Rimbun Dahan for three months. She works with watercolour and paints landscapes. Sometimes she works in printmaking and book making. She has been based in Asia for several years, working on landscapes at the Singapore Botanic Gardens and was also an artist in resident at AIRY in Kofu, Japan, in 2014. She has an exhibition at Cast Gallery in Hobart, Tasmania in May.

At Rimbun Dahan Jennifer is painting the grounds with particular interest in the various plants and trees on Rimbun Dahan.

Lisa Anderson

admin Open Residencies, Resident Artist 23 April 2013Australian, Multimedia

Tiga Tiga, video and sculptural installation, Blue Mountains, Australia.

Dr Lisa Anderson works across a broad range of media creating images, films and prints that explore issues of weather and its consequences including the movement of peoples and animals, the shifts in legends and mythology specific to locations, and the effects of climate change in our global environment.

Recent exhibitions include Huldefolke, a photographic series in Skargarstrond, Iceland, working with the mythology and religious beliefs in the unseen or hidden folk, Beneath the Architecture of Beauty which comprised neon and photographs in London, and a sculptural intallation in Beijing, Clouds in the Beijing Breeze, which references childish joy with gifts and the abundance of stories with clouds of gold. Further sculptural work includes a temporary installation work Precious that uses 4,000 wine glasses to use a fairytale ambience to capture water and light in a forest beside the sea in Arhus in Denmark, andTiga Tiga, a video and sculptural installation at Scenic World in the Australian Blue Mountains and in Contested Landscape for Ten Days on the Island, Tasmania. Tiga Tiga will also form a part of the Lorne Sculpture Biennale in 2014.

Anderson exhibits regularly in Sydney, London and Beijing and is included in major private and public collections. Her residencies include Arctic adventures as artist on a Russian icebreaker, as well as exploring UNESCO sites in the Bay of Biscay and, more recently, the Antarctic aboard the MV Fram, travel in remote Australia, Central java, the UK and other sites with weather-specific stories as the stepping point for the works Dr Anderson creates with her company The Shiny Shiny World.

Anderson spent three months at Rimbun Dahan in 2013, creating 3D video pieces for installation in various locations using the unique gardens, water features and dancers of the area in the final work.

Julie Ryder

admin Asialink, Resident Artist 22 April 2013Australian, textiles

Artist’s statement:

Julie Ryder is a textile designer and artist who lives and works in Canberra. Initially trained in science, Ryder graduated from the Melbourne College of Textiles in 1990, and completed a Master of Arts (Visual Arts) degree at ANU, School of Art in 2004. In 2005, Julie was awarded the inaugural ANAT Synapse New Media Artist in Residence at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. She has been the recipient of many awards and grants, most notably the Gold Medal at the 1997 International Textile Design Competition in Taegu, Korea, the 2004 CAPO Singapore Airlines Award, a 2006 Australia Council VAB New Work Grant, and several grants from artsACT. She has undertaken several artist residencies, including Hill End, Iceland and Bundanon and is a 2013 Asialink Visual Arts Resident at Rimbun Dahan.

During her 3-month stay at Rimbun Dahan Julie will be completing work for an upcoming solo exhibition later this year, and will be starting new work using the plants growing here as dye sources for both paper and textiles. She will also explore traditional textile and fibre techniques to inform future work.

She has exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally, and is represented in the collections of the NGA; NGV; Powerhouse Museum; AGSA; BRAG; Textile Museum, Tilberg, Netherlands; Tamworth City Gallery, CSIRO, and many other public and private collections worldwide.

See Julie’s blog of experiences at Rimbun Dahan on her website: www.julieryder.com.au

: Me, Here and You, There, detail, 2011 Rose petals, wooden forks, rose thorns, hemp, embroidery

: Josiah, detail, 2008 hand cut leaf dots collage on tapa cloth, pricking

Lina Limosani

admin Asialink, Performances, Resident Artist 23 May 2012Australian, Choreographer

Australian dancer and choreographer Lina Limosani undertook an Asialink residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2008, during which time she developed and presented the full-length contemporary dance work A Delicate Situation. Lina returned in 2012 for a short redevelopment of the work, with Australian dancer Carol Wellman-Kelly.

About the Artist

Lina Limosani graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1999 and became a member of the Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) from 2000-2005. In 2003 she was awarded the Emerging Artist award by the Adelaide Critics Circle for her works in ADT’s in-house choreographic seasons of Ignition. In 2004 Lina was nominated for a Green Room Award for her performance in The Age of Unbeauty at the Melbourne Festival. She also featured in Anton’s dance film When You’re Alone, which was a finalist in the 2004 Reel Dance International Dance on Screen Awards.

After leaving ADT Lina worked with artists including Narelle Benjamin, Lucy Guerin and Gideon Obarzanek. She has since maintained a performance career both in Australia and New Zealand, and gone on to create her own works independently. Lina’s works are known for their fast, aggressive movement style, as well as their humour, and use of speech and theatre.

Below: Suhaili Micheline rehearsing for the redevelopment of ‘A Delicate Situation’ in the studio at Rimbun Dahan.

Residency in 2012

Australian choreographer Lina Limosani has returned to Rimbun Dahan on a short redevelopment of the work A Delicate Situation, which she created at Rimbun Dahan in 2008.

Accompanied by Australian dancer Carol Wellman-Kelly, and reconnecting with Malaysian dance Suhaili Micheline Ahmad Kamil who was involved in the original work, Lina reformed A Delicate Situation to confront different cultural approaches to death, dying and the afterlife.

The original work investigated Malaysian superstition through the story of the pontianak, a female vampire ghost believed to have died at childbirth. The redeveloped version is also set in Malaysia, but is the story of a Western woman’s struggle to come to terms with death surrounded by a culture saturated in legend, myth and superstition.

“What I found compelling [with the pontianak] is the seemingly universal necessity for humans to personify death,” says Lina. “This tendency became central to A Delicate Situation and it was through the character of Death that I invite the viewer to be deeply drawn into the work. Death, its personification in the lore surrounding it, and the fear that accompanies it remain fundamental in A Delicate Situation.”

The finished work will premier in the inSPACE program at the Adelaide Festival Centre in August 2012. Lina Limosani and Carol Wellman-Kelly’s residencies at Rimbun Dahan in May 2012 are supported by Arts SA.

Below: Lina Limosani, Carol Wellman-Kelly and Suhaili Micheline learning the classical Malay dance tari inai from Malaysian dancer Hasmizan Abdul Hamid from ASWARA.

Residency in 2008

Lina was resident at Rimbun Dahan from September to December 2008, with the support of a performing arts grant from Asialink. During her stay, she created a new contemporary dance work for performance in December 2008. She collaborated with physical theatre artist Al Seed and costume designer Eve Lambert who were resident at Rimbun Dahan for short periods.

Lina Limosani worked with four accomplished local dancers — Elaine Pedley, Suhaili Ahmad Kamil, Low Shee Hoe and Rathimalar Govindarajoo — to create A Delicate Situation, a full-length performance with a strong visual and emotional impact, which was performed at Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre in December 2008.

Rebecca Stevens

admin Asialink, Resident Artist 26 April 2012Australian, Botanical, Tasmania

Bec Stevens undertook a three month residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2012, in association with Asialink. Bec is a Hobart-based visual artist whose work is underpinned by studies in Architecture and Horticulture. She graduated from the University of Tasmania’s: School of Art in 2003 and School of Architecture and Design in 1999.

Her practice is site-responsive and inter-disciplinary, using a range of mediums as tools to respond to the social and historical nuances of constructed environments. More specifically she is interested in, and responds to public spaces that are left-over, in-between states or unplanned, often resulting in works that reflect on processes of development or entropy.

Bec frequently uses plant material within works, and during her time at Rimbun Dahan she intends to respond directly to the garden of indigenous Southeast Asian species. She is interested in the garden as an island of biodiversity in the context of the surrounding area of Kuala Lumpur, particularly in light of the rare and endangered species it holds; and in the social customs and specific relationships to botanic species. Alongside this she is interested in the rates of change, growth and decay in the region, in terms of the inherent maintenance required for living in a place that sits in close proximity to the equator, and she intends to use this as impetus for developing work.

Bec Stevens recent projects and exhibitions include: ‘STOP. REST. PLAY.’ (2011) commissioned as an activity of the CWA CBD Branch; ‘Lookout’ at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (2010) and ‘Canopy’ (2008) commissioned for the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. She has received funding from Arts Tasmania for numerous projects and in 2009 was the recipient of a New Work Grant through the Australia Council for the Arts. In 2010 she completed a Studio Residency at Contemporary Art Spaces Tasmania and she is currently the recipient of the Curatorial Mentorship through Contemporary Art Spaces Tasmania. She is an active member of the CWA CBD Branch, see www.cwa-cbdbranch.com.

Melanie Fulton

admin Hotel Penaga, Resident Artist 23 September 2011Australian, Painter, watercolour

Melanie Fulton was in residence at Hotel Penaga in Georgetown, Penang, from September to November 2011, in a joint residency with her partner John Foubister. Some of the work which Melanie created during her residency was exhibited in the joint exhibition ‘Cultivating the Garden’.

Bio

Melanie graduated from the South Australian School of Art in the late 1980’s. Since then she has maintained her art practice while also working in visual arts related areas. These have included Artist-in-Schools programs, numerous Community Arts programs and Diversional Therapy in Aged Care. Since 2005 Melanie has Coordinated the Tutti Visual Arts and Design Program, a professional program for Artists with Disabilities. Tutti Inc. is a leading Multi-Arts Disability and Community organization in South Australia.

Melanie’s own work has included the themes of “Home” and the duality of sanctuary and prison; Fairytale and Myth; “Exotic” cultures through the decorative arts and associated natural motifs. Currently Melanie is exploring plant and tree motifs with multiple view-points. Melanie works in a variety of mediums, with a special interest in watercolour painting.

Melanie has exhibited in private and civic galleries since graduation and has work in private collections in Australia, Britain, Sweden and Belgium.

Rob McHaffie

admin Asialink, Resident Artist 26 April 2011Australian, drawing, Painter

Pave Paradise and Put Up A Pavilion. 2011, oil on board, 31 x 23cm. Contributed to the fundraising event Art for Nature 2011.

Australian artist Rob McHaffie undertook a 3-month Asialink residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2011.

“Each day at Rimbun Dahan I am making a drawing that responds to a verse in the Tao te Ching, Lao Tsu’s book of wisdom. The Tao could be said to be the way of nature and is a guide for people to live in harmony with the universe. Drawing inspiration form Malaysia’s fantastic but depleting wildlife and the spirituality of people living here I hope to find some interesting imagery and stories that will illuminate where we are heading and the possibility of living sustainable peaceful lives.”

Biography

Rob McHaffie is a Melbourne based artist, having graduated from Victorian College of the Arts drawing department in 2002.The images in McHaffie’s paintings are often derived from shapes formed from roughly assembled and seemingly mismatched objects. Rather than paint from life, McHaffie chooses what could be described as the poor man’s life model, sculpting characters from modeling compound and adding scraps of fabric, discarded clothes and bric-a-brac to create imagined portraits and tableaus. This method contributes to an unusual mixture of pathos and amusement in the paintings. The scenes depicted might simply be laughable, if it were not for the fact that the artist has captured within each scene (and echoed within each title) certain life truths.

Rob’s daily practice consists of diary and journal work, and collecting found and personal imagery to form the basis of his drawing, painting and sculpture. Rob participated in exhibitions and residencies in Australia, New Zealand, France, and the USA and is represented by Darren Knight Gallery in Sydney, and Brett McDowell Gallery in Dunedin.

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