Written by: (Melania) Jack, The Ironing Maidens.
In late October, Patty and I travelled to Yogyakarta for the Dialog Lensa artist residency at PSBK — a special partnership between PSBK and NorthSite Contemporary Arts, born out of participation in the Regional//Regional program through Asialink Arts. We arrived knowing this would be a big step for us, but we didn’t realise how transformative it would be. The residency stretched us, surprised us, and opened doors into new ways of composing that feel different from our previous work.
Over two months online, we met regularly with Curator Kurniadi Widodo (Yogyakarta); artist Vickram Sombu from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia; and Doni, Jeanie and Gita from PSBK, along with Ashleigh from NorthSite. These conversations centred around the photographs Vickram had taken in Lamelara — a small village shaped by deep traditions and a powerful relationship with the ocean. Vickram spoke about being welcomed into the community during a period of mourning for his recently departed mother, and how the village held him in a way that felt both grounding and generous.
The land in Lamelara is volcanic and cannot grow crops; the ocean is their garden, their sustenance, their teacher. Before going out to sea, they ask the land for permission — and if the answer is no, they don’t go.
I kept imagining what it would mean to live like that: standing at the edge of a supermarket and asking if you’re allowed to enter — and listening if the answer is no. This practice of seeking permission stayed with me during the residency.
When we first learned about the photographs and the cultural depth behind them, we hesitated. It felt so specific, so important — and we wondered if we were the right people to respond. But Doni and Jeanie reminded us that Dialog Lensa is, at its heart, a dialogue. Between images and sound. Between artists. Between cultures. The work lives in the relationships between these perspectives, in the gentle friction and the unexpected alignments.
Throughout our online phase, Patty and I improvised and composed music in response to the images. We experimented with texture and pacing, letting the photographs lead us. We learned that sperm whales communicate through rhythms and clicks, and that young whales take years to learn their ancestral songs. When we played whale recordings for Vickram, he immediately said they reminded him of the tale leo — the hand-twisted rope used on the village boats. The rope carries the presence of ancestors; the sound echoed that connection. These moments of resonance shaped how the music formed — slow currents, shifting textures, vocal lines that slipped in lightly as if arriving from somewhere else.
When we finally arrived in Yogyakarta for the two-week intensive, everything deepened. Being at PSBK together allowed us to step into the physical world of the project. We chose our space, imagined how the work might live inside it, and returned again and again to the intimacy in Vickram’s photographs. There is a closeness in the images — as if the camera disappears and you are simply sitting with the villagers: beside the ocean, in the boats, in the market, under the shade of trees. We wanted the audience to feel that, too.
We scaled the images to near life-size and began imagining a geography of screens — five in total — placing ocean images to one side and mountains to the other. Once we started building, there was no turning back.
The install was big: rigging and matching projectors, building screens, turning the open room into a black box. Time was tight and technology misbehaved in all the classic ways. There were moments when the whole team felt at breaking point, but someone would inevitably call out, “Oh, Technologica!” (a running joke from Vickram), and we’d fall into laughter and keep going.
Technically, this residency pushed us to work with and experiment with some new elements we had been moving toward. Patty mixed the sound in a six-speaker immersive space. I completed my first five-screen multi-channel projection.
The subject matter of the work pushed us to really dig deep into our vegan politics and posthuman explorations. While it was personally challenging for me to see the ocean animals being killed for food, I also saw how, for the Lamelerans, there is no difference between themselves and the whales. Sometimes the whale dies; sometimes some of their fisherpeople die. It is all connected. It is a deep and long relationship that stretches back as far as their people do.
Our soft opening, “The Grand Rehearsal,” was nerve-wracking. The first two shows had their cracks — even if only the artists noticed — so after each one we tweaked and refined, chasing alignment between sound, image, timing and intention. And then, on the final performance, everything clicked. The images aligned exactly as we intended. Patty pushed the sound up and the whole piece seemed to breathe and sing. It was electric. We all felt it — that rare, euphoric exhale that comes after pushing yourself to the edge of what you think you can do.
A residency invites this kind of transformation. It pulls you out of your familiar world and opens up space to risk, reinvent, try again. It reminds you that vulnerability is part of the work.
For me, Dialog Lensa was a reminder of why we make art at all: for connection, for dialogue, for the chance to sit with others — even across vast distances — and ask, together, for permission to enter the ocean.
(Melania) Jack, The Ironing Maidens.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
About PSBK
PSBK (Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja) is a place-based arts centre that champions the arts as a vital necessity for humanity and the advancement of culture. Established in 1978 to support a curriculum-driven residency program for Indonesian creative practitioners, PSBK continues the late Bagong Kussudiardja’s commitment to artistic innovation, creative learning, access to the arts, and pushing strategies in new directions. Since 2009, significant physical transformations have transpired to ensure high-quality, accessible spaces that nurture the relational development between the arts, artists, and communities through creative learning and art appreciation activities.
PSBK was founded with the DNA of education—both education in the arts and education through the arts. Recognising art as essential for humanity and cultural advancement, PSBK strives to ensure quality and accessibility to art venues as essential resource centres. It seeks to enhance human capacity by developing professional growth within the art ecosystem and beyond, and to foster the art appreciation process by consistently implementing annual programs that cultivate deeper relationships among art, artists, and audiences.
Valuing human connectivity, PSBK also strives to nurture cultural exchanges that nourish growth, shared objectives, and collective purpose. The organisation seeks collaborations with people who genuinely align with its mission and are open to mutual discovery, understanding, and inspiration.
About Dialog Lensa
Performing captivating visual narratives through lens-based technology.
Dialog Lensa is a performance platform that showcases photography-based works through multimedia projections.
Since its inception in 2020, this expressive space has brought together photographers and other creators, including musicians, choreographers, and video editors, fostering a cross-disciplinary creative process facilitated by PSBK.
This platform aims to connect visually driven and technology-based works with a diverse audience interested in both visual and performing arts.
Christmas Exhibition Callout
CHRISTMAS EXHIBITION CALLOUT
NorthSite Art Market – 30 x 30 Edition
Calling all Far North Queensland artists!
APPLY NOW to submit your ready to hang, small scale artwork in the upcoming NorthSite Art Market – 30 x 30 Edition.
Works in the exhibition will be displayed on our Foyer Wall and available to purchase from November 1st until 24th December — just in time for the perfect Xmas gift!
If you are a local practicing artist, don’t miss this exciting opportunity to exhibit with us!
Artwork criteria:
o 2D works on stretched canvas OR paper
o Ready to hang: Framed / box timber frame / wooden painting panel
o Framed dimensions 30 (h) x 30 (w) cm
o Priced at under RRP $500
o Frames prepared with D-hookss
Please email the NorthSite Store to request an entry form: shop@northsite.org.au
OR
Please download your entry form : NS Application Agreement
Deadline: 5pm Wednesday 23th October 2024
*Limited spaces available and acceptance into the exhibition is subject to the final approval by the Artistic Director. Any content deemed inappropriate, or offensive will not be included.
Get involved and let your art shine during the festive season!
Selina Kudo | Australian Photobook Awards
Ahead of the Photobook workshop this Saturday, Cairns-based Artist Selina Kudo has been shortlisted for the 2024 Australian & New Zealand Photobook Awards.
Facilitated by Photo Collective in partnership with Photo Australia the 2024 Australian & New Zealand Photobook Awards will be announced on the 23rd of March, 2024 at the Photobook Weekend as part of the PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography in Melbourne. All shortlisted photobooks will be on display including Selina’s Photobook ‘As I Was Searching [For Another]’.
Congratulations Selina!
MORE INFORMATION
Workshop in Cairns | Selina Kudo: Moments in Monochrome
Exhibition at NorthSite | Selina Kudo: Conversations with My Barista (Real or Imagined)
2024 Australian and New Zealand Photobook Awards
Photo Collective
As I Was Searching [For Another] | Bad News Books
![The Back and Front cover of a photobook with gold writing. On the front is the text 'Selina Kudo' and the back 'As I Was Searching [For Another]' and 'Bad News Books'](https://northsite.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/selina-kudo-photobook-800px.jpg)
Image courtesy the artist.
Upcoming Film and Workshop
It is the final month of our first exhibition season and to celebrate we have the feature documentary film screening ‘Geoff Dixon: Portraits of Us’ and a fantastic photobook workshop by exhibiting Artist Selina Kudo.
FILM SCREENING
Delve into the story of Cairns-based Artist Geoff Dixon in the feature documentary film ‘Geoff Dixon: Portraits of Us’. Geoff’s vibrant paintings and sculptures transport us into another time and place whilst reflecting on the impact of human life and technology on the natural world. The film will take you on an adventure of Geoff’s life grounded in love and friendship.
Director of Photography, Russell Milledge, was instrumental in establishing the studio and location footage with Geoff Dixon, Arone Meeks and Euan Macleod over the two years of research and film production on this feature documentary.
Book your tickets today and be transported into the intimate portrait of the life, love, and friendships of Artist Geoff Dixon.
Time and Date: 1PM — 3PM, Saturday 16th March
Venue: NorthSite at Bulmba-ja, 96 Abbott Street, Cairns City
Tickets: https://northsite.org.au/event/geoff-dixon-portraits-of-us/
PHOTOBOOK WORKSHOP
As part of Selina Kudo’s latest photography exhibition at NorthSite we invite you to experience her photobook workshop, ‘Moments in Monochrome’. In this two-part workshop, you’ll unlock the artistry within your everyday moments and be immersed in the world of storytelling through photography. Together, we’ll weave these unique narratives into a collective work—a mini photobook that combines the shared stories of our diverse perspectives.
Meet like-minded people and explore your creativity in this fantastic workshop.
Part 1: Saturday 16th March. 10am – 12pm
Part 2: Wednesday 27th March. 5.30pm – 7.30pm
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/moments-in-monochrome-crafting-stories-with-disposable-camera-diptychs-part-1
Film Screening Tickets | Geoff Dixon: Portraits of Us
Photobook Workshop Tickets | Moments in Monochrome
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Geoff Dixon. Photo: Cristina Bevilacqua
Image courtesy of Selina Kudo.
IWD | Pressing Topics
This International Women’s Day (IWD) we are celebrating the incredible powerhouse duo, The Ironing Maidens.
The Ironing Maidens, led by Cairns-based Artists Melania Jack and Patty Preece, is an experimental art duo turning domestic objects into electronic instruments to explore themes of gender, domestic labour and technology. In 2022, The Ironing Maidens presented their exhibition ‘Pressing Topics‘ in the NorthSite galleries at Bulmba-ja.
This multi-media installation of projection, sculpture, digital collage, video and sound was a low fi wonderland that smashed pink, Pop and the industrial into a new and playful aesthetic. The work disrupts the ideal proposition of the perfect housewife or the perfect domestic worker and aims to elevate and confront historical and ongoing contemporary issues of discrimination in the domestic labour force.
More recently, The Ironing Maidens have delivered the immersive and interactive performance experience ‘Hot & Heavy’: A speculative fabulation. A non-binary, de-capitalised, de-colonised, de-extinction future imagining.
Where to after NorthSite
Since presenting their exhibition ‘Pressing Topics‘ at NorthSite, The Ironing Maidens work has been presented at IWD Canada – Victoria Society of the Arts in 2023. Later this year they will be exhibiting at ISEA (International Symposium of Electronic Art) in Meanjin / Brisbane.
View the ‘Pressing Topics’ Exhibition at NorthSite
Visit The Ironing Maidens
Pressing Topics. An installation by The Ironing Maidens.
Mixed Grill event recap
Earlier this year, NorthSite hosted the one-night micro-festival event, Mixed Grill, produced by The 5Five collective.
Mixed Grill closed the collectives exhibition in Gallery 2, ’other’, and was a live performance-based extension of the thematic framework of this exhibition.
‘other’ curator and Mixed Grill creative producer Nicholas Mills, worked with the The 5Five collective and the NorthSite team, to produce a diverse ‘ensemble’ night of experimental performance, new music and sound art, queer cabaret and visual media, critical yarns and DJ culture.
The exhibiting ‘other artists’, Roderick Newbury, Tegan Koster, Doula, Fletcher Glover, and John De Satge, were joined on the night by performance artists Rebecca Youdell, Jay Wymarra, Paul Barron, Rob Eakin, Derryn Knuckey and File_Error, and Calling to Country by Djabugay cultural leader Dennis Hunter.
Mixed Grill is a moving feast: activated performance spaces were enabled throughout the venue at Bulmba-ja. Punters were initially greeted at the front door and encouraged to have their picture taken in the ‘other’ booth, thus becoming part of the work ‘other is you’. DJ Whichway met the audience in the foyer with a fine selection of groove, alongside the ‘other’ exhibition and delicious food by The Toasted Goat and drinks from the Hungry Pitcher.
‘other’ booth, Mixed Grill, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, 2024. Photo Gonza Ianza
DJ Whichway, Mixed Grill, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, 2024. Photo Gonza Ianza
The audience were then led into Gallery 1, and greeted with a bare, talk-panel format, Space.
Dennis Hunter Acknowledged Country before members of The 5Five collective engaged in the yarning panel, ‘In Other Words’, moderated by John De Satge, and exploring individual and universal perceptions, and experiences, of ‘other’.
Yarn Panel with Dennis Hunter, Mixed Grill, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, 2024. Photo Gonza Ianza
Following the panel discussion, interdisciplinary practitioner Rebecca Youdell and media artist File_Error performed a delicate sound, screen and movement performance in response to the exhibition.
Other Response with Rebecca Youdell+ File_Error, Mixed Grill, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, 2024. Photo Gonza Ianza
The audience were then directed to move to Studio B, where Dennis Hunter then guided them through ‘Calling to Country’ and true history, before John De Stage’s game-show style ‘MAJORITIES live’, welcomed three attendees to test their knowledge against the expert ‘flag-guy’ in a showdown of interactive Flag Game performance.
MAJORITIES live’ with John De Satge, Mixed Grill, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, 2024. Photo Gonza Ianza
The Mixed Grill program juxtaposes work and space that compliment and contrast: the audience were then led to the rear carpark of Bulmba-ja, for the outdoor performance/ installation piece ‘Exercise In Futility’.
Produced by Nicholas Mills, and performed by the 5Five artists, with sound by Fletcher Glover and BLK+SBBTH, this ‘roving parade’ utilised discarded gym equipment and the rolling shell of an XP Ford Falcon, to illustrate a compelling visual and conceptual image.
Exercise in Futility with The 5Five, Mixed Grill, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, 2024. Photo Gonza Ianza
It was then back into Studio B for a cabaret-styled double header: Jay Wymarra presented excerpts from his new show ‘AmaJayus’, which will premiere at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Tegan Koster then set the stage for a massive retro-synth exploration, presenting a quirky and upbeat live electro/screen showing of her new art-pop sound works, as part of her ongoing project ‘Shapes’.
AmaJayus – Jay Wymarra, Mixed Grill, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, 2024. Photo Gonza Ianza
Shapes – Tegan Koster, Mixed Grill, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, 2024. Photo Gonza Ianza
After a short break, the night moved into its final gear, with cult improvisation art/noise band ‘dero’, led by File_Error, and the funk/groove contrast of DJ Mr Tarago, cutting their own aural space, for a final sound and dance floor spin.
Dero – dero, Mixed Grill, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, 2024. Photo Gonza Ianza
DJ Mr Tarago, Mixed Grill, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, 2024. Photo Gonza Ianza
Words: Nicholas Mills
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Artlink: Yarning with Cairns First Nations Curators’ Collective
The latest issue of Artlink 43:3 features a conversation between three Cairns First Nations Curators; Aven Noah Jnr., Peggy Lane and Teho Ropeyarn. Facilitated by Hamish Sawyer the conversation delves into the curator’s insights and experiences.
Peggy Kasabad Lane is a proud Saibai Koedal Clan woman from the Guda Maluylgal Nation in Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait), and is the First Nations Curator at Cairns Regional Council. Aven Noah Jnr. is a proud Komet Tribesman from Mer (Murray Island), and is the Curator at NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns. Teho Ropeyarn is an artist and curator of the Angkamuthi and Yadhaykana clans from Injinoo, Cape York Peninsula, Badu, Moa and Murray Island. He is the Curatorial Associate at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair. Hamish Sawyer is a curator, writer and is the Artistic Director of NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns.*
Read the full conversation between Aven Noah Jnr., Peggy Lane and Teho Ropeyarn with NorthSite Artistic Director Hamish Sawyer in ArtLink issue 43:3.
*Source Artlink website: Click Here
Artisan’s emerging regional Queensland artist residency
Applications are closing soon for Artisan’s emerging regional Queensland artist residency.
This Brisbane-based residency offers you a career-changing opportunity to immerse yourself completely in your art – with all expenses covered for up to six weeks. Open to all craft and design practitioners. The program includes:
- Travel, accommodation, living costs and material expenses for up to 6 weeks
- Mentoring and career development
- Vocational training
- A curated exhibition at artisan
But don’t wait, apply now! Submissions close on 20 February 2024.
For full information and to apply, visit https://artisan.org.au/pages/artisan-residency-program-queensland-2024
Please note that the Artisan’s emerging regional Queensland artist residency is not associated with NorthSite Contemporary Arts and this is general information.
I am the jellyfish; I am not the jellyfish
Words: Douglas Rushkoff
By calling this collection of exhibitions “Future Nostalgia”, Charlotte Haywood and her collaborators playfully yet soulfully suggest that we might not realize what we’ve got til it’s gone.
In some cases, a natural, paradisal subject or landscape finds itself intruded with the sounds of civilization, as if in the anticipation of its own demise. In others, the human contribution is no less a part of the landscape as the rest of nature: an equal celebrant and plaintiff at the passage of time and inevitable loss. But these are just the obvious narratives, imposed by an observer’s brain desperate to interpret these emergent phenomena through the lens of a traditional story.
On a deeper level, however—on a more daring, dangerous, yet delightful level—Future Nostalgia forces us to transcend the paralyzing dialectic of climate change and the potential horrors of human impact on nature. Instead, we are reminded of the immensity of geologic time, the inevitable cycles of life, and the sweet, silly punctuation that human experience and intentionality interject into the greater swirl of nature.
These works invite us to consider our place among the leaves, shells, jellyfish, plants and seeds. Are we just part of the dance of matter and life, complexity and decay, entanglement and release? Must we accept our essential meaninglessness to achieve a rapproachment with the rest of life? Or do we bring purpose and forethought, design and desire into the mix? What makes wood into “chair,” and who besides a potential human sitter knows this has even happened?
Does our ability to observe and reflect upon the swirl guarantee us unique privilege among the many forms? In spite of our innumerable crimes against nature and pretty much every other living -or formerly living -species, don’t we hold a special place as thinking, observing, singing, and dancing human beings?
Does our need to confess and mourn absolve us of even some portion of our guilt? Or what about simple humor? Doesn’t our ability to identify and laugh, to be silly and clever, to recognize a bunny in woven straw or to re-invent the orchid as mycelia merit some recognition of specialness and selfhood?
How will we be remembered, and how will we remember ourselves? Will we be nostalgic for that moment in evolutionary history when we thought ourselves to be unique among earthlings? Or will we simply be nostalgic for our long lost ability to recognize ourselves in the patterns of nature? Will we remember what it was like to experience ourselves in solidarity with all living things? Or will we be obsessed with our former ability to imagine and believe in our own separateness?
Or given our current trajectory, must we do all that remembering and reminiscing right now, both pre-mourning and pre-celebrating a past we will not live long enough to look back on? Perhaps. But I prefer to take a different message from Future Nostalgia: While times are hard and our separation from the cycles of nature may appear to be irrevocable, we will one day retrieve the social, cultural, and spiritual mechanisms of our indigenous ancestors—finally reconciling our place within nature with our inherent alienation as self-aware beings.
Positive futurism, then, is a practice of looking ahead while also bringing forward the past into that imaginary. And while that would likely induce a sense of vertigo in the time traveller, the grounded human artist experiences it instead as more of an emotional mobius strip: a nostalgia for what has yet to be.
Douglas Rushkoff is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture and his advocacy of open-source solutions to social problems.
Rushkoff is most frequently regarded as a media theorist and is known for coining terms and concepts including viral media (or media virus), digital native, and social currency.
Rushkoff is currently Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at the City University of New York, Queens College. He has previously lectured at The New School University in Manhattan[5] and the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University‘s Tisch School of the Arts, where he created the Narrative Lab.[6] In 2012, Rushkoff was declared the sixth most influential thinker in the world by MIT Technology Review.
LINKS
Planetary Gestures travels to Melbourne
Planetary Gestures was exhibited at NorthSite Contemporary Arts earlier this year. Curated by Tess Maunder, the exhibition explores ideas surrounding ecological systems, ancient knowledge, celestial blueprints and tidal movements across the land, sea and sky known as Australasia, part of the wider Asia-Pacific and the ‘Great Ocean’. The exhibition includes work by artists Amrita Hepi, Susie Losch, Raqs Media Collective, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Jimmy John Thaiday and Trevor Yeung.
We’re thrilled to see Planetary Gestures touring to Walker Street Gallery and Arts Centre in Dandenong, Melbourne. The opening preview is this Saturday, 23 September from 2PM-4PM with the exhibition running until 3 November 2023.
Location: Walker Street Gallery and Arts Centre, Cnr Walker and Robinson streets, Dandenong
Opening Hours: Tues-Fri 12pm – 4pm
Exhibition runs from 26 SEPTEMBER 2023 until 3 NOVEMBER 2023