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Suzon Fuks is a multidisciplinary artivist whose award-winning work examines the impact of technology on humanity and the environment, water issues, and the experiences of women and people seeking asylum. Born in Brussels, she trained in performing arts and completed a Master’s in Visual Arts at La Cambre (1979–1984). She moved to Australia in 1996, serving as Artistic Director of the multi-arts organisation Igneous from 1997 to 2024. Since the early 2000s, Suzon has been internationally recognised as a pioneer of networked performance, creating online works that foreground interaction, hybridity and participation. Awarded a three-year Australia Council Fellowship (2009–2012), she conceived Waterwheel, an art–science platform dedicated to water, which connected more than 1,500 artists, scientists, activists, teachers and young people across 34 countries and 81 locations. In 2021, she co-created ‘Before The First’ with Annie Abrahams and Helen Varley Jamieson, retracing early histories of internet performance. Since 2019, Suzon has developed a major body of work using locally sourced electronic waste. This includes artist books reflecting on the shift from analogue to digital, wearable pieces, miniature and large-scale installations, performances and videos. ‘e-Galaxy’, her most extensive project in this field, builds on two decades of site-responsive practice and innovative audience participation. Her works using upcycled electronics have been presented widely, including ‘Be Like Body–Obsolete #4’ (four international festivals), ‘Assemble’ at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial, ‘Archeo-Galaxy’ for Magdalena Montpellier, ‘e-Galaxy video #1′ at ISEA 2024, and in 2025 the ‘e-Galaxy’ installation and video #2 at the State Library of Queensland, the Digital Art Space (Munich), Le Lieu Multiple–Espace Mendès (Poitiers), and Rurart (Rouillé). Suzon Fuks has also been awarded a Copeland Fellowship at the Five Colleges (Massachusetts), a Fellowship at the Australian Choreographic Centre, and an Asialink Residency in India. |
Jamie Cole
0Jamie Cole is an Australian urban-pop and pop-surrealist artist based in Far North Queensland. His practice blends bold graphic linework, saturated colour, camp humour and cultural critique to explore queer identity and the strange contradictions of contemporary Australia. Drawing from pop iconography, retro advertising, animation and the lush visual language of the tropics, Cole creates vibrant works that fuse personal narrative with sharp social observation.
His work interrogates visibility, resilience and reinvention, situating queer experience within the geographical, psychological and political landscapes that shape it. Using acrylic, aerosol, collage and mixed media, Cole examines evolving cultural narratives with a distinctive blend of wit and emotional depth.
Cole has exhibited widely across Queensland, NSW and the ACT, and has been selected as a finalist in national art prizes including the Percival Portrait Prize, the National Contemporary Art Prize and the Fisher’s Ghost Art Awards. His pieces range from celebratory and playful to sharply satirical, positioning him as an artist who uses colour, symbolism and irony to open powerful conversations about identity, power and the future.
Hannah Murray
Hannah Murray is a Cairns-based contemporary artist and arts educator. She has completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts (2002) from James Cook University, and a Graduate Diploma in Education (2003), The University of Melbourne. Hannah works in a range of media including painting, drawing, printmaking as well as product and fabric design. Her tropical vanitas and floating worlds are deliberately idyllic, almost cliché representations and attempt to capture the beautiful yet often hostile duality of living in the hot, humid, and volatile tropics. On the surface, the work appears strangely seductive and evokes wry notions of beauty or utopia. However, beneath the surface, the work also aims to provide a bittersweet reminder of the fleeting and fragile nature of all worldly delights, and themes of loss and melancholy are ever-present.
Jenar Kidjing
Jenar Kidjing, is the stage name of Farindo Reska Jenar, born on May 27, 1991, in Wonogiri, Central Java, Indonesia. As a self-taught composer and musician with over 12 years of experience, he has developed a specialization in creating original scores and musical programs for diverse artistic disciplines, including theatre, dance, and film. His commitment to the arts is exemplified by his role as the Music Director at Komunitas Sakatoya.
Beyond his directorial duties, Jenar is an active force in the contemporary music scene, notably as the founder of his personal Gamelan Rock Band project, Kidjing and The Black Mamba. He is also a sought-after collaborator, working with various interdisciplinary artists and performers. His programming expertise has been instrumental in organizing major cultural events, including Relasi Bunyi by Komunitas Sakatoya, the Ecosystem Apocalypse Festival by BringIn Foundation, and the Yogyakarta Cultural Festival by the Yogyakarta Cultural Department.
His career is marked by notable achievements, including the prestigious Best Music Director award at the Yogyakarta Theatre Festival 2016. He has documented his powerful live performances through the publication of two albums: DARAS in 2018 and VULCRUM in 2020.
Ulet Ifansasti
Ulet Ifansasti is a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer, with interest in social, environmental and cultural issues. He was born in Papua and currently based in Yogyakarta-Indonesia.
Ulet joined international photo agency Getty Images in 2008 and has been a regular contributor and stringer since. As a freelance photographer Ulet covers a variety of assignments for editorial and commercial clients and remains committed to exploring personal projects. In 2014 and 2015 he was selected as one of photographer of the year by The Guardian.
His works have been published in many leading publications including : UNICEF / Save The Children / GREENPEACE International / National Geographic / GEO Magazine / The New York Times / The International Herald Tribune / The Wall Street Journal / STERN / Der Spiegel / The Guardian / TIME / USA Today / LIFE / National Geographic Traveler / World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) / DestinAsian.
Tetsuya Tabata
Tetsuya Tabata is a Japanese-born visual artist with expertise in visual projection, projection mapping techniques, and set design. He has many years of experience creating innovative and immersive elements in the world of visual and performing arts.
As co-founder of the media performance unit 66b/cell, he was a pioneer in Tokyo’s vibrant VJ scene, transitioning from graphics and game design to projecting computer-generated imagery onto large-scale kinetic sculptures. His global portfolio includes set design, animation, and projection mapping for performances and installations at prestigious events such as Ars Electronica, The Japan Virtual Reality Society, Sydney Powerhouse, Brisbane Festival, and numerous venues across New York City, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Tetsuya has been an artist-in-residence as part of the Untethered Project at Tanks Arts Centre, focusing on sculpture and projection mapping. He recently collaborated with NAISDA College on the visual design and projections for the ATI dance production at Carriageworks, Sydney. He has also created a series of projection works for the Cairns Festival’s Light Moves event at Lake Placid.
His past roles include producer and art director, creating visual content and stage productions for live events, and producing and directing large-scale events for upscale clients such as Louis Vuitton, Piaget, and Audi. Tetsuya is also an avid jewellery maker, crafting small-scale pieces that blend wearable art with miniature sculpture — creating tiny, intricate works of art.
Mariana Verdaasdonk
Dr. Maria Adriana (Mariana) Verdaasdonk is an interdisciplinary artist with over 25 years of experience spanning continents and cultures. Born in the Netherlands and raised in Melbourne, she spent 25 formative years in Japan, which has deeply influenced her approach to life and art. Since relocating to Cairns in 2020, Mariana has been integrating her diverse experiences into unique creative expressions.
Mariana’s expertise encompasses multimedia installation, performance art, and communication strategies developed through roles in the arts, education, mental health, and commercial enterprises in Australia and Japan. As a licensed teacher and practitioner of Japanese floral art (Ikebana), Mariana blends this tradition with a contemporary aesthetic, creating a “tropical zen” approach to floral design.
Her portfolio includes costume design, sculpture, and immersive performance installations showcased globally — from Ars Electronica and Sydney Powerhouse to venues in New York City, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Her proficiency in event management, storyboarding, and performance has contributed to projects for prestigious clients including Louis Vuitton, Nokia, and Piaget, reflecting her commitment to delivering bespoke, high-quality experiences.
Kim Rayner
Kim Rayner is a Contemporary Australian painter whose work is rooted in a deep sensivity to place and the unseen threads that connect land, light, and spirit. Her practice is intuitve and contemplative, often beginning with time spent walking, observing, and listening to the landscape.
With a background in Fine Art, and a Bachelor of Fine Art from the National Art School, Sydney, Australia, she brings a personal and poetic approach to painting, focusing on the experience of immersion rather than representation. Her work invites the viewer into quiet spaces—where form and light emerge, rhythm unfolds, and a sense of presence can be felt.
She has exhibited in New South Wales and Queensland in both solo and group exhibitions, and her paintings are held in private collections throughout Australia. Her work is also featured in public and commercial settings.
Matilda Nona
Matilda Nona fuses her printmaking processess of relief printing and mono printings, with a traditional approach to ink making using fermenting mango juice, ochre, and charcoal from her Torres Strait homeland.
Ms Nona’s art practice observes maternal ceremonies using imagery drawn from land and sea, and has culminated in a new exhibition.
“I’m a Argun woman from Badu Island in the Maluligal sea country. My totem is the Thupmul (stingray) and the Koedal (crocodile). My wind is the Sagerr Gub (North Easterly).
I was drawn to printmaking through my father who was a wood carver which lead me to carving on vinyl. I started working with natural pigments and plant extracts, as means to reduce costs of getting commercial materials from mainland – this then lead me to create with natural pigments. I had a crazy idea if only I could turn ochres and plant extracts into my own signature inks and it would be significant to me, my people and my homeland. It would be like having a piece of Badu in your home.
Melody Woodnutt
Melody Woodnutt is a descendant of the pirate Blackjack Woodnutt, and has rambled around the world before landing in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia in 2018. She grew up in Innisfail and the Northern Beaches of Cairns/Gimuy and spent eight of her formative artistic years living in a remote Icelandic village by the sea.
Woodnutt works primarily within the expanded field of 16mm analogue moving image film. Artworks take form as large scale immersive installations, expanded cinema, short 16mm films, or printed photographic film stills. Melody’s films are often made from an alchemical feminist position as default (alongside bio-art’s concept of “witches in labs”).
Of late, her work has largely centred itself around ships, boats, and the vast complexities and unknowns of our world – such as the depths of the sea, cosmos, unknown liminal spaces, and Foucault’s ‘heterotopias’ (other spaces). With a deep pull towards unknowable realms such as the sea, cosmos, or spectral worlds, alongside explorations of intimacy and poetics the consequent artworks become abstracted glimpses of the unknown: a veil to a ‘thing-in-itself’. Comparable to a poem’s ability to obscure and reveal while holding myriad meanings, the same approach is taken in her work.
She is currently an active member of Artist Film Workshop – an artist-run film lab for 8mm and 16mm moving image based in Melbourne. Her works have been shown with NGV+Melbourne Design Week, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, PICA (Oregon, USA), Westminster Law School (UK), Atlantic Centre for the Arts (USA), and a variety of film festivals or venues in the USA, UK, Canada, Iceland, Europe, and Morocco. She has been supported with grants from Arts Queensland, Youth Arts Queensland, VCA Foundation, Menningarráð Norðurlands Vestra (Iceland), Vaxtarsamnigur Norðurlands Vestra (Iceland), Rannis Innovation+Research Triennial Funding (Iceland), Canada Council for the Arts, and Kulturkontakt Nord (Baltic/Nordic EU).