Event Type: Free

Davina Wright

Davina Wright is a site-specific artist currently living in nipaluna/Hobart. 

She makes site specific, nonlinear and immersive theatre that looks at loneliness, suburbia, violence and feminism. She wrote and directed This is Grayson; a performance for audience 8+ with her collective Gold Satino. It received four Green Room Award Nominations in the Contemporary and Experimental Performance panel and received the awards for Innovation in Site Responsive Performance and Performance for Young Audiences.

Risa Muramatsu Ray

Risa began her dancing career at an early age,  studying both classical and modern ballet and receiving numerous awards at the national competition level. In 2006 she entered the Japan Women’s College of Physical Education, home to some of Japan’s rhythmic sports  gymnastics olympic medal winners, where she majored in contemporary dance and poured her creative energies into choreography, stage production and dramatic composition while performing as a contemporary dancer in Tokyo.  

Complimenting her work in the contemporary sphere, Risa has also  

performed regularly at numerous music festivals and many of Tokyo’s  most famous clubs, as well as contributing her skills in event production  and choreography to many artists both in Japan and on the international stage. Now Risa is based in Tasmania and she is enjoying creating her  works inspired by Tasmanian nature.

Adie Delaney 

Adie began her circus career at NICA in 2004. After graduating she left Australia to Europe to join the UK’s largest touring contemporary circus company NoFitState. Over 8 years she performed swinging and flying trapeze, hula hoops, fire, acrobatics, trampolining, roller skating etc. Adie also spent two years with Cie Oncore’s flying trapeze show ‘Une Drole de Maison’ flexing her clowning muscles, and among other various events performed a season with La Clique at Edinburgh Fringe.

Andy Vagg

Andy Vagg is an artist, designer, writer, poet and performer. His practice explores the qualities and limitations of contemporary existence, and how the choices we make inherently effect, respond to, and delineate social evolution. Using post-consumer objects and materials, he creates work in social contexts, to activate spaces to form literal and metaphorical platforms for the development of ideas to encourage positive social change. His performances explore the role of religion, liturgy and ritual in a contemporary secular context, and how they can help us navigate the ongoing ecological and psychosocial changes caused by industrialisation, globalisation and consumerism. Andy has created work in public and private spaces in Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, Launceston and Hobart. He has collaborated with community in colleges, high schools, primary schools, community centres, and child and family centres.

www.andyvagg.com

Troy Melville

Troy has worked on an extensive range of film and art projects over 20 years. His projects have involved working for and in collaboration with many different organisations and has often involved working with at risk youth, First Nations and CALD groups. Recent art projects include Paul Boam – A Creative Life, a film for his retrospective exhibition at Moonah Arts Centre. The Partnershipping Project, a national touring exhibition where Troy worked remotely with 19 artists to edit short bio films and Regenerate where New Town primary students created a series of short films about connectivity.

Yumemi Hiraki

Yumemi Hiraki is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Nipaluna. Her practice delves into the interactions between memory, nostalgia, history and connection to place, while re-examining the relationship to her Japanese heritage. Viewing herself as a resident of cultural gaps, her works evokes a familiar yet foreign sense of longing, belonging and holding on, while hinting at life’s inevitable continuity and ephemerality. 

Yumemi is originally from Hiroshima, Japan. She completed her BFA(Sculpture and Spatial Practice) at the Victorian College of the Arts and has been an active Arts Worker while exhibiting and developing her practice in both Naarm and Nipaluna. Yumemi has a growing interest in community-based arts, mentorship and education, and currently also works as a Youth Arts Officer at the Youth Arts and Recreation Centre.

Julie Waddington

A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Julie has been directing and producing theatre for over 20 years during which she has worked for many organisation including St Martin’s Youth Arts, La Mama, MTC, Melbourne Fringe, Tasmanian Theatre Company, Ten Days and Tasmania Performs. From 2007 to 2010 she was the Artistic Director of Riverland Youth Theatre in South Australia. Julie is currently a specialist drama teacher and independent director and producer. Her latest work, The Motherload, a creative documentary performance made through engagement with over 500 mothers across Tasmania and Australia recently premiered at Junction Arts Festival.

Takani Clark

Takani Clark is a professional dabbler and multidisciplinary creative from lutruwita, exploring and engaging with mediums of filmmaking, visual art and performance. As a First Nations woman, raised within the staunch palawa community, Takani feels a deep responsibility to protect and document the island and its cultural identity and diversity, both environmentally and socially. As a storyteller she strives to use her creative voice to deepen our understanding of each other, the natural world and ourselves. Takani believes that diversity is an integral part of her creative practice, striving to collaborate with people from different artistic practices, any background and all walks of life.

Neko Kelly

Neko Kelly is a New Zealand born emerging video artist with experience in editing and animation. His work involves a range of content; from stop-frame stories screened in Mona Foma, to LGBTQI+ educational resources for Tasmanian schools. Neko has a keen interest in telling stories that inspire empathy and compassion for marginalised communities.

Adonay Tsegezeab
I’m Adonay Tsegezeab, 23 years old, working with Troy Melville as mentoree on Utopia now for winter light as well as with Tastafe STUDENTS AGAINST RACISM group to make this happen. It’s been amazing working on this project and to be part of it. 

Indigo Garcia is a 16-year-old visual artist working and creating in Nipaluna/Hobart. Swimming through pattern and form, ink stains her identity as she works to represent culture and individuality. Exploring the extent in which she can portray and incorporate all works of organic life, examining the runs of skin, the paths on land. Working with mentor Andy Vagg and the youth of Goodwood, the development and embodiment of their instillation helps to further the representation of utopia and the developing world.

Sheree Martin (Utopia Now Coordinator)
Embracing and trusting in the unravelling uncertainties of creativity is integral to the artistic practice and way of life for New Zealander and Tasmanian Artist, Sheree Martin. Sheree is a passionate nurturer and advocate for ‘art as a process’ and the value that engaging in this open explorative process brings to enhancing our mental health and wellbeing. Sheree shares the joy of this process through her uniquely designed and facilitated ARTplayful experiences within The Little Red Art Shed for young children and families, with her creative arts and wellbeing clients and community projects.

@shereemartin_artist

@thelittleredartshed

Halima Bhatti

Halima Bhatti is a 26 yrs old, locally based contemporary Arabic calligraphy artist from Lahore, Pakistan. Her artworks reflect deep connections and sacred knowledge with every stroke and letter. Taking the opportunity to be a part of the Winter light festival, UTOPIA project, as a mentee with the artist “Yumeimi Hiraki”, from Youth Arts and Re-creation center (Hobart city) Halima aims to express the element of peace, diversity and connectedness through her teams youth based theatre work reflecting upon the vision of Utopia, and thereby connect and influence the mainstream community.

Lucas Rilyey-Lyne
My name is Lucas and I’m 16 years old and my mentor artist is Julie Waddington. I am working with a group from my school which is Campania District School. We are working to create an improvised cross art-form performance installation using physical ensemble theatre, drawing and creative writing. I hope my love for the preforming arts will only grow from this experience. 

Ailbhe Maria Szypura
My name is Ailbhe and I am 14 years old. My mentor is Risa Ray and we are doing a movement based performance with around 10 kids about what they envision their future to look like. 

Our group is located in Cygnet. I’m hoping that this mentee role will teach me how to work with kids and groups, and how to collaborate with others. I have been having a really great time doing this.

Bailey Mifsud

My name is Bailey and I’m 15. I’m working with my mentor artist Adie Delaney and a few of my peers from The Circus Studio in Kingston. We will be putting together a short performance involving ground based circus skills and other elements of movement; around what we as a group perceive to be the theme of Utopia Now! I’m really looking forward to improving my circus and collaboration skills with this project. 

Ari Soo
Ari Soo is a young stand-up comedian, who is occasionally funny and hates people who speak in third person. He recently was flown to Melbourne to perform in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival as part of the Class Clowns National Grand Final – most likely his greatest achievement. 

Malachi
My name is Malachi and I’m 16. I have a passion for sound engineering. I help at school mixing and setting up for the school rock band and have my own home studio where I record and mix songs. I’m hoping to extend my knowledge in sound engineering and working with the people around me so that everyone can have the best experience of Utopia Now! 

Kieran Mulvany
Kieran Mulvany is a homegrown Tassie artist who has been writing and recording music their bedroom since the beginning of time itself. With stories of robots, nights with friends and self reflection there is something for everyone in Kieran’s folio. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2suxg5ymscPaZUKzNsZb2v? si=wsPt_YSHQ6i6LapOdXRI-w Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kieranmulvanymusic/ 

‘Live Art’
Hello, we are Lucas, Josh, Anna, Mia and Belle. We are students from Campania District School. We will be performing a live art experience via a group painting on a large canvas, exploring what utopia is to us personally and how they are different from one another. We hope to show that everyones personal idea of Utopia is different and very diverse, as we all are. 

Sophie Henderson 

Sophie Henderson is a eager performer who has always grabbed any opportunity to perform wether that is singing or acting or both at the same time. She has been in quite a few musicals throughout her life her most recent being in Guys and Dolls with the Old Nick Theatre Company and The Little Mermaid at Southern Christian College where she starred as Ursula. Sophie hopes you enjoy her performance as part of the Utopia Now Youth Performance Stage! 

Ross Coulter

Ross Coulter is a visual artist with a BFA (Hons) and MFA (Research) from the Victoria College of the Arts. He has exhibited both locally and internationally at a number of gallery spaces. As the recipient of the 2010-2011 George Mora Fellowship at the State Library of Victoria he undertook a project that involved the release of 10,000 paper planes into the Domed Reading Room of the State Library of Victoria. His photographic series titled “Audience” (2013-2016) was exhibited at the NGV in 2017. In 2018 Ross developed and presented a photographic series titled “Corporate Portraits” that was presented at the Warburton Arts Centre. His recent artworks have been an exploration of photographic portraiture, performance and community participation. Ross has received numerous awards, artist residences and grants.

Dr Meredith Turnbull

Meredith’s practice focuses on the world of things as the form-creating basis of culture. She is interested in making and material, and the experiential and temporal register of forms. Her practice engages various disciplines and approaches to making, writing and curating. Her artworks engage diverse scales, art historical traditions and genres – and manifest in connections between the body and; sculpture, images, decorative objects and jewellery.

Recent projects include Closer, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University, 2018 and SHE TURNS at c3 Contemporary Art Space, Hardbody Sculpture at Daine Singer and Softbody Sculpture at Pieces of Eight in 2017. Turnbull has held solo exhibitions at Station, MADA Gallery, Pieces of Eight, Bus Projects, The Other Side, West Space, the Centre for Contemporary Photography, TCB and The Narrows. She has exhibited in group exhibitions at galleries including the Heide Museum of Modern Art, the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University, the National Gallery of Victoria, Craft Victoria, Jam Factory, Adelaide, Melbourne Art Fair, the VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery and the George Paton Gallery. Recent curated projects include Material Exchange at c3 Projects (2017), Form and Flex (2015) and Rock Solid (2011), Pieces of Eight, Melbourne, A Condition of Change, Sarah Scout Presents, Melbourne (2011), Risk Potential, Die Ecke, Santiago (2010) and Once More with Feeling, VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne (2009).

Meredith Turnbull completed a Bachelor of Art (Honours) in Art History at LaTrobe University in 2000, a Bachelor of Fine Art (Gold and Silversmithing) at RMIT University in 2005 and a PhD at Monash University in the field of Sculpture and Spatial Practice in 2016. In 2016 Turnbull was co-editor (with Shelley McSpedden) of un Magazine issue 10.1. From 2006 to 2010 Turnbull was Gallery Manager and Curator of the VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery. She was editor of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art’s online magazine ACCAMag from 2004 to 2005 where she also worked as a Project Manager and Assistant to the Artistic Director. Meredith has lecturered in Art History at RMIT University specialising in Contemporary Art and C20th Craft and Design. She currently Coordinator of Bachelor of Fine Art First Year in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Monash University.

Meredith Turnbull is represented by Daine Singer, Melbourne

Roma Turnbull-Coulter

Born in 2014, Roma Turnbull-Coulter is an emerging artist living on Boon Wurrung country. Her art practice includes painting, drawing, photography, video, performance and sculpture. Roma is in Grade 1, (when not being home-schooled due to COVID restrictions). Roma’s first exhibition was in 2016 when she was invited to collaborate with her mother Dr. Meredith Turnbull in the group exhibition Mum at the Stockroom in Kyneton, curated by Claire Needham. Roma has exhibited with her parents in the annual c3 fundraiser, Faux Studio, in 2016. In 2018 and 2019 she exhibited with her contemporaries from Monash Caulfield Childcare Centre at Monash University Museum of Art for her Childcare End of Year exhibition. Mathew Ware, director of Muse du Strip, invited Roma and her father Ross Coulter in 2019 to create an exhibition for his gallery which was titled Roma + Ross.

Yumemi Hiraki 

Yumemi Hiraki is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Nipaluna. Her practice delves into the interactions between memory, nostalgia, history and connection to place, while re-examining the relationship to her Japanese heritage. Viewing herself as a resident of cultural gaps, her works evokes a familiar yet foreign sense of longing, belonging and holding on, while hinting at life’s inevitable continuity and ephemerality. 

Yumemi is originally from Hiroshima, Japan. She completed her BFA(Sculpture and Spatial Practice) at the Victorian College of the Arts and has been an active Arts Worker while exhibiting and developing her practice in both Naarm and Nipaluna. Yumemi has a growing interest in community-based arts, mentorship and education, and currently also works as a Youth Arts Officer at the Youth Arts and Recreation Centre. 

Wendy Yu
Artist

Wendy Yu is an interdisciplinary artist actively practising in the fields of dance and urban media placemaking. She is a Masters graduate in Interaction Design and Electronic Arts at the University of Sydney and intends to further her research on creative interfaces between dance and city spaces through further research.

Her works of urban media placemaking have seen installation in Atlanta USA, the Powerhouse Museum Sydney, Carriageworks, the Inner West City Council, Woollahra City Council, numerous  arts festivals in Sydney, Melbourne, Poland, St. Petersburg, Beijing, Berlin, including Beijing Tech Arts Festival 2021, where she also gave a lecture on dance and computational design.

Wendy has also given lectures of dance and computational and interface design in Berlin as part of Stammtisch Arts Festival, Melbourne as part of Lucy Guerin and Temperance Hall, Sydney as part of Ausdance Australia and March Dance Festival.

Wendy Yu has undergone residencies with the Municipality of Woollahra, the Inner West City Council, Ausdance dance artist in residence residency program, March dance residency program, Bundanon residency program, Centre for Projection art residency etc. where she conducted theoretical research dance’s position in urban media art.

Bethany Reece (she/her)
Dancer

Bethany is a contemporary dance artist born in lutruwita/Tasmania. She began her training in 2016 at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). In 2018 Bethany was awarded the Palisade award for ‘most outstanding graduate’. Throughout her studies Bethany travelled to Taiwan as an exchange student with the Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA) in 2017, and the following year toured the works The Resistance and Panthea by Brooke Leeder and Natalie Allen. In the same year Bethany staged her first choreographic work, This Transitory Weight. In 2019 Bethany was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (Dance) with First Class Honours from WAAPA and was a member of LINK Dance Company under the directorship of Michael Whaites. In her time with LINK she performed in works choreographed by Niv Marinberg, Scott Elstermann, Raewyn Hill, and Michael Whaites, and toured both nationally and internationally.

In 2020 Bethany became a developing artist with Co:3 Australia, and worked as an understudy for the production of Leviathan, a collaborative work with Circa performing both Leviathan and Stephanie Lake’s Colossus in Perth Festival 2020. Bethany has since returned to build her practice in lutruwita/Tasmania. Bethany received a Regional Arts Fellowship in 2020 to develop a new work that is in continued development. In 2021 Bethany was a collaborative choreographer on DRILL’s Leviathan, and dance artist with Second Echo Ensemble in the development of Charlie Smith’s Outside Boy. Bethany also worked as a performing artist in the Faro Experience at MONA in 2021, and as a casual lecturer delivering the unit Movement For Performers at the University of Tasmania. In 2022 Bethany performed in Rachel Ogle’s And The Earth Will Swallow Them Whole in the Perth Festival to great critical acclaim. Bethany is invested in work that is community centred, inclusive and has a social justice focus. Bethany believes dance has the ability to inspire a sense of belonging, and she is passionate about sharing this experience with dancers and nondancers alike.

Kyall Shanks
Dancer

Kyall is a Naarm/Melbourne based contemporary dance artist. His career has focused on finding a balance between performance, choreography and teaching work, and he is passionate about using the skills from these areas to increase the accessibility of dance through youth and community work. Since receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts Dance from the Victorian College of the Arts he has danced for Tasdance, Antony Hamilton Projects, Chunky Move, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Opera Australia, The Delta Project and Liquidskin Dance Company. In 2017-2018 Kyall undertook an 8 month international residency program with DanceBox in Kobe, Japan, and then spent 3 months in Sweden as a member of ilYoung 2018. Through various programs and projects Kyall has engaged with community youth groups and schools as a teacher and choreographer, examples of this being the Arts Centre Melbourne/Matthew Bourne ‘Lord Of The Flies’ project, the 2019 Dance Massive work ‘Simulcast’ and Stephanie Lake’s 2020 mass community work/film ‘Multiply’. He works as Artistic Director to preprofessional youth dance company Yellow Wheel and through teaching work has represented the Victorian College of the Arts, Chunky Move, Ausdance Victoria, Arts Centre Melbourne, DRILL, Transit Dance and The Space Dance and Arts Centre.

Emma Porteus
Panel facilitator: ‘Dance in Urban Media Art’

Emma holds a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts (Honours). She believes deeply in the positive power of art to transform individuals and communities positively. Emma has over 15 years’ experience working as a performance-maker and producer of dance, community, and festival projects throughout Australia and internationally, including with Vrystaat Festival (South Africa), ANTI Festival (Finland), Sydney Festival (NSW), Dancehouse, FOLA, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Next Wave (Vic), Tracks (NT), Dark Mofo, Mona Foma, Tasdance, Ten Days on the Island, Festival of Voices, Junction Arts Festival, and Tasmania Performs (Tas). In her current role as Executive Producer of Situate Art in Festivals, she is really interested in performance and art-making models that connect people and places. She helps artists create and produce tourable live, visual art, and festival events that can be delivered in any community, in any country, to produce rich experiences that speak directly to the place, the people, and communities who help create it. 

Adam Wheeler
Panel facilitator: ‘Dance in Urban Media Art’

Adam is a Tasmanian born, Stompin and Victorian College of the Arts Alumni. Adam has performed for Chunky Move, Jo Lloyd, Circa Nica, 2NDTOE and Opera Australia and has made work for Lucy Guerin Inc (Pieces for Small Spaces), Stompin, QL2, Steps Youth Dance Company, fLing Physical Theatre, Tasdance and Chunky Move. As an Artistic Director, founded Yellow Wheel and 2NDTOE. Led AYDF in 2014 and 2017, The Space School of Performance Arts, Short+Sweet Dance and is currently the Artistic Director of Tasdance. Adam is curious about interdisciplinary making, providing pathways for artists to develop practice, and getting the community moving – all from his regional home of lutruwita/Tasmania.

John McCormick

John McCormick is a technology based artist with a major interest in movement. John is a lecturer and researcher at the Centre for Transformative Media Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology where he investigates artistic practice in mixed reality environments, robotics, artificial intelligence and human movement. John has collaborated on works worldwide, including at ISEA, SIGGRAPH, Melbourne Festival, SIGGRAPH Asia, Ars Electronica Futurelab and Art Science Museum Singapore.

Adam Nash

Adam Nash is an artist, composer, programmer, performer and writer working in virtual environments and generative platforms. His work has been presented all over the world, including SIGGRAPH, ISEA, ZERO1SJ, the National Portrait Gallery and Venice Biennale. He is Associate Professor (Virtual Interior) in the Interior Design discipline, School of Architecture and Urban Design, RMIT University.