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From 30 April to 3 July, the Switch Gallery will be converted into several studio spaces. Six artists, nine-weeks of intense research and artistic creation.

EXHIBITIONS: STUDIOS SWITCH

30 Apr 2016 - 3 Jul 2016 | 10am - 5pm

From 30 April to 3 July 2016, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre’s Switch Gallery will be converted into several studio spaces to accommodating six artists. The nine-week tenure will include intense research and artistic creation. Studios Switch will also provide members of the public access to artists; revealing the countless ways in which creatives work and to provide artists with direct access to Liverpool’s communities.

After receiving responses from visual artists, curators, theatre producers, musicians, choreographers and writers locally, regionally and from interstate, the successful applicants were narrowed down to Ace the Amara, David Capra, Matt Chun, Caroline Garcia, Anna Kuroda and Claudia Nicholson.

Image credit: Installation shot of Switch Gallery, Paramor Prize: Art + Innovation 2015.
Photo courtesy of Ben Williams Photography.

WEEK 1 STUDIO SWITCH: AN INTRODUCTION

In 2016, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre introduces the inaugural Studios Switch program. The nine week tenure will see the Switch Gallery converted into an open-plan studio space for six artists to engage in intense research and artistic creation. The idea came from critical discussion amongst our creative staff about the effectiveness of studio practice, professional networking opportunities and enriched artist support. The inaugural 2016 Studios Switch program attracted over 50 entries from artists across Australia and internationally. It attracted diverse proposals from visual artists, curators, dance choreographers, writers, poets, musicians and theatre directors.

Studios Switch is a major initiative that is intended to be an innovative and flexible model of studio practice and exhibition programming. For the organisation, Studios Switch provides our communities with direct access to artists and a conventionally, private process of artistic creation. Studios Switch complements our exhibition program that maintains an inclusive vision for the centre and the region; encouraging excellence, accessibility and sustainable artist support.

For the selected artists, it provides direct access to our vibrant and diverse communities that we hope, will inform and inspire their practice. Studios Switch is not outcome focussed, but provides artists with a safe place for professional networking and support; to grow and nurture creative production, skills development and process.

The successful 2016 Studios Switch artists include:

  • Ace the Amara (music production)
  • David Capra (visual arts and curatorial)
  • Matt Chun (visual arts)
  • Caroline Garcia (visual arts and performance)
  • Anna Kuroda (dance, choreography and visual arts)
  • Claudia Nicholson (visual arts)

Over the coming weeks, each artist will be profiled on our social media pages and will conduct a public programming activity that is reflective of their practice. The Studio Switch artists have also been invited to select a work from the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre Collection to present in a collaborative exhibition titled, The Lounge.

Adam Porter 
Curator, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre

WEEK 2 with artist David Capra

Studios Switch featured artist in week 2 is Western Sydney local, David Capra.

David describes his work as intercession: practices that initiate healing and his socially engaged projects look to the public to contribute, direct and bring meaning to the work.

In his Studios Switch residency David will be working on a number of projects including a series of graphic based fabric works with Australian/USA artist Mary MacDougall; the development of Motion Pictures: A Festival of New Cinema with co-director Kate Blackmore in partnership with Powerhouse Youth Theatre; research for an upcoming project exploring the notion of fantasy at Campbelltown Arts Centre; and the creation of work with artists Justene Williams and Mikala Dwyer for Wonder at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, opening in June.

David Capra

WEEK 3 with artist and choreographer Anna Kuroda

Anna Kuroda is a dancer and choreographer, with a practice focused around reflection on the environment, and internal and external air flow surrounding the body to express sharpness, fragility and unique rhythm.

Anna’s work is particularly focused on questions that come up in my daily life and transforming those ideas into movement.

In 2010 Anna began collaborating with David Kirkpatrick (sound and multimedia artist) as Murasaki Penguin. Their work crosses cultures and the boundaries of dance, sound and video, with a focus on interactivity and live performance.

In her time at Studios Switch Anna will create a new installation/performance work flowing from Kanji calligraphy. For the installation she will open the space to the public and run calligraphy workshops and create an installation based on our conversation and workshop drawings.

The choreography for the performance will incorporate 4 basic rhythms of brush motion, ‘flow’, ‘stop’, ‘hook’ and ‘fade’. Also working with stroke path, shade, meaning and feeling, these elements will create an unexpected variety of movement and rhythm in her solo dance.

Anna Kuroda

WEEK 4 with artist Ace the Amara

Ace the Amara is a powerful conceptual music artist and modern-day warrior for social change, leading journeys through soundscapes of the soul and questions about our lived experience. Her work pushes the boundaries of conceptual music, composition, production and performance art, weaving together music, film and visuals, live performance, community engagement and culture. Ace the Amara’s storytelling work arises from a cross-section of Polynesian-Australian roots and modern technology, of connection and disconnection, of classical instruments and a contemporary environment, of the human senses and a constructed world. By creating visual and aural worlds that bring the individual and collective audience together, she is able to give voice to the political, social, environmental and cultural issues at the heart of her work.

During her tenure she will be exploring the new stories around cultural identity, in particular cross-cultural identities and those living away from land; examining the role or place of land in our current society, and what this means for the future.

Ace the Amara

WEEK 5 with artist Matt Chun

Matt Chun operates as a full-time artist from his open studio shopfront on the far south coast of regional NSW. His open studio much like Studios Switch provide direct, unlimited and unmediated access to his creative process, as well as acting as a platform for his emerging curatorial practice.

Matt’s work is mainly comprised of large-scale human portraits, ‘portraits’ of animal subjects and landscapes in gouache, pencil and mixed media. Play with notions of perspective with these subjects a unity is formed in his practice as an indivisible continuum.

Coming from a small, regional town, Chun during his time in Studios Switch is building a body of visual research and artwork in the culturally diverse environment of Liverpool – engaging with strong, multi-ethnic communities; making connections, forming relationships and initiating creative partnerships.

Matt Chun Studio Switch

Event Information

LocationSwtich Gallery

AgesAll ages

CostFREE


Phone02 8711 7123

Emailreception@casulapowerhouse.com

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