One Hand Cannot Clap Alone [2024]

curated group show
10-17th April 2024, Comber St Studios, Gadigal country
Supported by Kudos Gallery Offsite, part of UNSW Arc Creative

Between the 10-17th April at Comber St Studios, I collaborated with 18 artists and my assistant curator Courtney Bowd to curate a group show titled ‘One Hand Cannot Clap Alone’. The show touched on subjects related to the field of collective and collaborative practices featuring artists whose practices are attentive to familial networks, ancestral memory and collective making that actively counter the notion of the auteur or solo maker. The show explored personal legacies, heirlooms, and familial mythologies, the artists in the exhibition utilise film, textiles, sound, sculpture and jewellery to push through mixed feelings of joy, grief, love and hope.

Photo courtesy of Liam Black [10 April 2024] Pictured: Alexandra Reily, Georgia Wiggins, Joachim Li

“One Hand Cannot Clap Alone” was framed within the idea of an Estonian ‘talgud’ and Indonesian ‘gotong-royong’; a gathering, a sharing of burdens, a responsibility, a dedication and a veneration to a continuum of interconnected experiences and overlapping timelines inviting viewers to consider who and what connects our past to our future/s. Dissolving boundaries between artist and muse to form a common labour of love, in this interdependent symphony we witness a convergence of past, present, and the dreams of a future yet to arrive. For an artist - like the clapping hand - requires a counterpart, be it a muse, a collaborator, or the collective whispers of generations past. Together they create a resonance far more profound than solitary applause.

Photo courtesy of Levent Can Kaya [10 April 2024]

Photo courtesy of Liam Black [10 April 2024]

Photo courtesy of Liam Black [10 April 2024]. Pictured: Campbell Smith, Hannah Rose Carroll Harris

Grounding this show was the exploration and provocation of ethics surrounding non-exploitative communal labour and a call towards opacity in the arts when approaching topics of grief and lamentation. Furthermore, a question is presented to the audience: how can we move beyond the footnote when acknowledging those who help us get here.

The show was curated by myself with assistance from Courtney Bowd and featured both archival and contemporary work from emerging and established artists connected to Warrane/Sydney and to the University of New South Wales.If you would like to read the exhibition booklet, you can read it on Issuu here: https://issuu.com/ohcca

Photo courtesy of Liam Black [10 April 2024]. Pictured: Courtney Bowd, Lachlan Bell

A Tree That We Assemble [2024]

Posca chalk marker on glass
Collaborators: Everyone
Facilitators: Marleena Oudomvilay, Lachlan Bell

“‘A Tree That We Assemble' was an ephemeral work that blurred lines between visitor and participant. A shared artwork created over the duration of the exhibition, it spanned the window space of Comber Street Studios affording attendees to draw out their own chosen "family" trees in chalk marker.

An intertwined, informal artwork, it provided a window outwards and inwards. Three prompts were provided to participants to begin their tree.

First, write your name.
Then, imagine:

A person you admire.
A person you love.
A person you want to meet/would have liked to have met.

Search the window. Can you find their names?
If not, add them. In either case, draw a line connecting their names to yours.” - Marleena & Lachlan

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Marleena Oudomvilay (she/her) is a Lao-Australian comic artist and illustrator based in Western Sydney on Cabrogal Land, Dharug Country. She hasn’t made much fine art in the past few years, but has dabbled in participatory art and is always down to collaborate with friends. Other things she likes includes: romance manga, LOST (the show) and TTRPGs

Passing through and along [2024], Leila Frijat

Framed A3 cyanotypes, single-channel digital video (57s), dimensions variable

Collaborator: Eman Al Khawaldeh
Additional Thanks: Gorman and Ainslie Arts Centre, Kirsten Biven, Hugh Withycombe, Canberra Makerspace - Make, Hack, Void

“‘Passing through and along’ is a hand-animated video that explores the malleability of stories. The animation was generated by developing an audio-reactive program, where an audio recording of my mothers voice modulates the speed and shape of an amorphous form. This form was then translated into a 640-frame animation, with the sensitivity of the cyanotype process resulting in variability in each frame.

The audio draws upon a conversation between my mother and I, where she drew her life with a single line and we read our futures in the sediments of coffee grounds. As this story is passed through different mediums,the story itself begins to change as the original audio falls out of sync with the final animation. It prompts viewers to contemplate how stories morph as they are passed along and reinterpreted by different people in the future, drawing new meanings and lessons.” - Leila

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Leila’s practice is mostly led by curiosity, whether that is experimenting with new mediums and methods, impossible-to-answer questions, or the desire to make a specific object for no other reason than for it to simply exist. She is drawn to examining how the translation of data/ stories/experience from one medium to another to examine our shortcomings in communicating intangible experience.

Leila works across a variety of mediums, recently gravitating towards illustrations, cyanotype photography, interactive installations, and creative coding. She currently resides and practices on Gadigal Country.

something_to_be_understood_ when_older [2022-2025], Megan Tan

document in foolscap folder, single-channel sound (30m), 35.5 x 24.1 cm

Collaborators: Jennifer Fong, Alex Liao, Dominic Yau, Tiffany Yue Goh, Leon Truong & Madam Leong

“Megan, being monolingual with no knowledge of Chinese language, has decided to learn Cantonese—her mother’s first language. She has tasked Madam Leong with answering some questions in Cantonese. The resulting exchange was recorded as an audio file.

Megan will not be attempting to interpret the Cantonese components of the recording until after the 5th December 2025 (Megan’s 30th birthday), when she speculatively will have sufficient grasp of the language. Five Australian-born friends of the artist with Cantonese backgrounds have listened to the audio file and attempted to interpret it. These contributions have been compiled and printed by a third party.

Their contents are open to all but must be kept secret from the artist.” - Megan

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Megan Tan (she/her/they/them) is a conceptual artist, painter and writer of Chinese descent based in Naarm (Melbourne) on Woi Wurrung land of the Kulin Nation. Megan’s current conceptual preoccupations are: the Protestant Reformation, learning Cantonese with no prior Chinese language skills, Blue has no word in most ancient languages, the White Australia policy, Still-life painting as an expression of gazing, Shincheonji, family-run small businesses, eschatology, rattan and Mum.

Road to Nowhere: Travelog Maps [2023-ongoing], Hannah McKellar

Embroidered cotton thread on linen, ink and watercolour on Fabriano watercolour paper, dimensions variable
Collaborator: Ian McKellar

“In the face of advancing technology and the waning of traditional skills, Ian and Hannah McKellar, a Father-Daughter duo, pose the question: What is lost when these skills fade away?

Their ongoing project, 'Road to Nowhere: Travelog Maps', explores the diminishing materiality and decline of crafts. Ian, a former cartographic draftsman, once meticulously drew maps by hand for publications like Travelog and Gregory’s. Despite the trade's technological transformation and physical maps giving way to digital, the duo breathes new life into them through drawing and embroidery. This process revitalises not only the maps but also fosters connections. 'Road to Nowhere: Travelog Maps' encapsulates the essence of loss and the enduring power of human connection, emphasising the importance of collaboration and preserving traditional skills amid an ever-changing world.” - Hannah

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Hannah McKellar (she/her) is a textile-based artist, living and working on Gadigal/Wangal land. Predominantly producing hand-embroidered soft sculptures, McKellar’s process is often intuitive and immediate; her practice acts as a therapeutic exercise promoting mindfulness, and connecting the mind-body-spirit. The process itself is much more important than the aesthetic outcome of McKellar’s works. Commonly unaware of what the final result will be, her completed artworks naturally tend to resemble topographic maps, landforms or bodies of water, and act as a type of memorial, or portal, to a feeling, place or period in time. Recently, Hannah has been collaborating with her father Ian McKellar, to explore the diminishing materiality and decline of crafts; breathing new life into Travelog Maps through drawing and embroidery.

Joiko, Ketramas (Spinning) & Maasikamuusika (Strawberry Music) [2024], Perekolmik (Family Trio)

choral performance on opening night, (15m)
Collaborators: Kieran Scott, Siiri lismaa, Ella Scott

Photo courtesy of Liam Black [10 April 2024]

“The following songs were performed on 10th April at the opening of ‘One Hand Cannot Clap Alone’:

‘Joiko’ is a Karelian shepherd’s call that was part of Lõke’s repertoire for many years, so it has an air of nostalgia about it for ‘Perekolmik’ and is a call to their fond memories of singing together in the past.

In ‘Ketramas’, a mother spins yarn from wool, her daughter notices this process of creation and expresses a desire to learn. Her father then buys her a spindle to facilitate this sharing of knowledge between generations.

‘Maasikamuusika’ tells the story of dreaming about picking strawberries in the forest in summer only to wake up to the realisation that it is winter and snowing outside. There is a sense of optimism and hope as the singing strawberry music is heard murmuring underneath the snow, reflecting the promise of a bright future. ‘Perekolmik’ have wanted to sing this together for 15 years but have never had the opportunity to do so, now realising this past dream.” - Perekolmik

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Siiri and Kieran have led the local Sydney-Estonian ensemble ‘Lõke (The Flame)’ for over 20 years and started bringing their daughter, Ella, along to their rehearsals when she was one year old. Singing together remains a part of the daily rhythms of life for the Iismaa-Scott family, however, this is the first time performing as a trio in public and under the name of ‘Perekolmik’. The trio live together on Gadigal and Bidjigal Country, Eastgardens.

Fins, Fangs and Feathers [2023], Tamara Elkins

Single-channel digital video (17m 26s), textile costumes on mannequins, dimensions variable

“Fins Fangs and Feathers is a three-channel video in which the artist performs gestures from family photographs of herself, her mother and grandmother. Filmed in slow motion the same choreography of gestures is performed wearing a differing costume in each channel. Each costume references a stage of life; maiden, mother or crone. The gestures from these photos are unconsciously performed and come out of ritualised behaviour.

Rituals, much like spells, come from an intention paired with action, often performed until the original intention is forgotten or obscured. In re-enacting the gestures from her matrilineal line the artist is both reinforcing her identity within a family history and time travelling to a past, present and future version of herself.” - Tamara

The Joke [2023], Tamara Elkins

Single-channel digital video on carpet (1m 15s), 150 x 150 cm
Collaborator: Sheila Whitfield

“‘The Joke’ is a video portrait of the artist set atop a leaf shaped carpet. In the video the artist is lip-syncing to a recording of her grandmother. The words are advice for using humour to relieve the seriousness of life, said in such a way that they themselves become the humour. There is an uncanniness as the voice clearly belongs to an older person and as the artist mimics the voice, her face also morphs into the facial patterns of her grandmother. The work is an incantation, a spell cast to step into a future version of yourself.

The placement of this video on a leaf shaped carpet is a reference to her grandmother’s passion for gardening, with the colour matching that of her hallway carpet. The work has also become a memorial, with the artist's grandmother passing away 6 months after the works creation, at the age of 100.”

Audio Transcript

“When you get a nice joke
it relieves all the nastiness of the world
And there’s not many people have a nice joke.
Doesn’t have to be funny
Just… Something that you might say
Life is very serious…
And…
Every now and again
You must have something
that you can have…
a joke about.” - Sheila

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Tamara Elkins creates self-portraits about the various ways we are formed and transformed over a lifetime. Drawn to the mediums of textiles, video and performance she is cataloguing her experience of psychological and emotional change.

Her most recent body of work ‘Cunning Women (The Joke and Fins, Fangs and Feathers)’ takes inspiration from her matrilineal line, finding hidden ways we inherit, build and pass on resilience. The artist re-interprets ritualistic aspects of her grandmother’s, mother’s and own life as forms of spell casting. Spells in their most basic form are intention paired with action, so in performing these ritualistic behaviours, the artist invokes ancestral knowledge to reinforce their sense of self and place within familial histories and stories. Tamara is based on Gadigal Country in Dulwich Hill.

The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order [2023], Karlina Mitchell

Woven ibe from voivoi (Pandanus caricosus), photo rag and kula, 50 x 100 cm
Collaborators: Nakiti & Aunty

“Some memories are just feelings or knowings. I remember lying on an ibe (a Fijian woven mat) as a child, under a mango tree, my grandmother fanning my face. My mother always laughing, my aunty’s hands kneading dough. Their laughter, their singing and the woven histories shared on the ibe. These memories and my current life are interwoven here, represented by a photo of the place I call home, Ngurra (Country) of the Dharug and Gundungurra peoples.” - Karlina

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Karlina Mitchell (she/her) is a visual artist based on the Ngurra (Country) of the Dharug and Gundungurra peoples. Karlina was born in Fiji and her vanua is from Vunivaivai Village, Nausori. Karlina’s practice, through lens and sculpture, looks at the impact multiple cultural identities can have on the formation of self and understanding of belonging.

Patterns for gentleness [2024] & Sewingbadgeifreceivedbyemail.mp4 [2024], Mei Lin Meyers

Baking paper, printed A5 zines, calico, stuffing, digital video (2m 54s), iPad

Collaborator: Gwendoline Meyers

“‘Patterns for gentleness’ is an ongoing zine-based project with an ear towards the foldable/pocket-sized sewing pattern. The pattern expands inwards and outwards, changes shape, and is a recipe for warmth. This work is an invitation towards craftiness and play - to sew a piece of ginger, to gift, to hold and to be held. Grandma and I collaborated in following and drawing the contours of ginger, giggling along the way. The video work, ‘Sewingbadgeifreceivedbyemail.mp4’, documents this collaboration which was very ‘school holidays’ in its joyfulness.” - Mei Lin

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Mei Lin Meyers (they/she) is an emerging artist based on Gadigal and Bidjigal Land. Working across textiles, ceramics, and writing, their work engages with fuzzy-edged family lineages, asexual desires, and the tenderness in non-linear kinships. As a form of queer storytelling and imagining, their practice attends to the often unexpected and joyful connections between things; e.g. the flake-like dance of kite-shaped aliens – the singing of a 4 pcs 70’s band - and the knuckles on a hand of ginger.

Vanaemale külla / Going Home [2020], Aksel Haagensen

Single-channel digital video (10m 35s)
Collaborator: Vella Pihlak

“My grandmother was 8 years old when she escaped Estonia in 1944. She now lives in Australia. I was born in Australia and moved to Estonia when I was 8 years old.I recently visited my grandmother as well as the country of my birth, which is simultaneously home and foreign to both me and my grandmother.

Although it can be assumed that my grandmother and I are in polar opposite roles in the film - the elder born in Estonia, who moved to Australia, and the younger born in Australia, who moved to Estonia - I think we are rather similar. Both Australian expatriates, both artists, both quiet and unassuming.
The historical context and the catastrophes of the present remain in the background, but it's still very much a case of 'we' and 'we'. A film about a grandson who went home to visit his grandmother.” - Aksel

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Aksel Haagensen (he/him) is an Australian-Estonian artist working across illustration, documentary and installation. Aksel obtained a Bachelor’s degree in installation and sculpture and a Master’s degree in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Recently, he has been interested in how we think about loss, longing and extinction in the natural world.

Since 2015, Aksel has been working and documenting his grandmother’s refugee story and thereby learning about his own identity through interviews across various video art projects with his grandmother Vella and other relatives. Aksel currently lives in Tallinn, Estonia and participated remotely in the exhibition.

Untitled (Senta Silla: Banksia, Koala, Kookaburra) [c. 1980], Vella Pihlak

Screen-printed cotton yardage and constructed garments, birch trunk suspended by paracord Kihnu südamepaelad (lovebraids), 300 x 170 cm
Collaborators: Lachlan Bell, Mai Lehtsalu, Malle Lehtsalu, Megan Hanson

“These screen-printed textiles were designed by Vella in 1980 in her home studio in Turramurra. Sold under her pseudonym “Senta Silla” to distinguish her textiles design work from her personal artistic practice, the prints reflect the influence of Finnish textiles, clothing, and home furnishings company Marimekko. There were three sets of fabrics, each in three different colour combinations - “Kookaburra” (light grey and dark grey; pink and mustard grey; mustard grey and blue), “Banksia” (white and dark blue; pink, orange and yellow; blue, dark green and light green) and “Koala” (light grey, dark grey, white and orange; light grey, green, yellow and white; light grey, dark grey, purple and white).

These garments featured on the Kevad (Spring) cover of the 1991 edition of Triinu Magazine, a quarterly Estonian women’s magazine which rotated editorial duties between the United States, Canada, Sweden and Estonia.

In 2020, Vella’s grandson Aksel Haagensen visited Sydney and collected yardage of this fabric to exhibit back in Estonia at Tartu Art House in 2021, and later expanded upon it in a series titled “Patterns by Grandmother and Grandchild” exhibited at Pärnu Artists House in 2022. The stylised kookaburras and banksias had arrived 78 years after the frantic escape, back to Estonia in their original form where they accompanied Aksel’s reproductions of the patterns of his childhood.” - Lachlan, curator

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Vella Pihlak (b. 1935, Häädemeeste, Estonia) lived an idyllic childhood in Southern Estonia before the war years and occupation by foreign powers. The family escaped to Sweden in 1944, where they lived for four years. In 1948 the family relocated to Australia. After high school Vella studied design at National Art School in Sydney, graduated in 1958 and worked at Edmund J. Dykes Design Office, working with clients such as Qantas Airways for their graphic design, office interiors and plane interiors. After marrying, Vella travelled across Europe and worked for Sven Kai-Larsen Design Office in Stockholm as a designer.

In 1969 her husband’s work took the family to Fiji, where Vella started painting and where she discovered her love of monotype prints. Vella has continued working in this technique since moving back to Sydney in 1975, living on Tarramerragal Land, Dharug Country.

Besides monotype she also does wood block printing, and in the 1980s launched into a more commercial venture of fabric design. Operating under the name ‘Senta Silla’ she was influenced by Finnish textile studio Marimekko and Australian flora and fauna.Vella’s monotypes and woodblock prints reflect her deep connection to Estonian culture inspired by folk art and artefacts. She feels an urge to carry on this tradition of her forebears.

Healing Warraroon Reserve [2023], Olivia Reily

Various eucalyptus (maamoul moulds), local clays, dimensions variable

Collaborators: Aunty Amanda Reynolds, Aunty Mary Goslett, Uncle Noel Butler, Alex Veddovi-McCaughan, Karam Hussein, Bridget Kennedy, Luke Torrevillas, Emma Peters, Charles Peters, Violet Peters, Annabelle Lewer-Fletcher, Thomas Whelan, Ani Reily, Louise Reily, Julia Sniatynskyj, Alexandra Reily, Patrick Reily, Bridey Martin, Jessica Kim, Brianna Gadeley, Lachlan Bell, Kirsten Felice, Georgia Wiggins, Marcus John, Kim Kofod, Kristen Langlois, Marc Cottee, Karen Weiss. This is not a comprehensive list but an acknowledgement of the people who helped Heal Warraroon. Whether through their input, guidance, support, collaboration or direct care and attendance at the gathering. I am deeply thankful for their care and time.

“Dadirri - Indigenous concept translating to ‘deep listening with respect’. ‘Healing Warraroon Reserve’ is site-specific to bushland in Lane Cove Council where a section of trees have deliberately been poisoned.

Made out of reclaimed native timber, these press-moulds were activated during a gathering to heal the site through craft and ritual on the 19th November, 2023. The motifs reference the creatures and plants in the area. Local clays that absorb toxins from contaminants and are nutrient rich were used to create multiples of ephemeral talismans. These were placed around the pathway near the trees, symbolising the interconnectedness of all living things. The act of repetition of forming and then placing each talisman on the ground acknowledges the wrongdoing that occurred when the trees were poisoned, encouraging reciprocity between caring for land and caring for self.

In gratitude I would especially like to acknowledge Aunty Mary Goslett for teaching me about Dadirri and Aunty Amanda Reynolds who both provided guidance to this project.” - Olivia

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Olivia Reily (she/her) is an artist and designer with an illustration and craft based practice. In her work Olivia explores the art of storytelling often inspired by nature and the power to heal through craft and ritual. Inspired by her surroundings on Cammeraygal Country in Lane Cove, she shares her love of craft knowledge to others through teaching both children and adults art classes. Olivia has run workshops at Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden and is currently completing a Bachelor of Design specialising in Textiles and Object Design and recently received the Highly Commended Frost* Design Prize for her work ‘Healing Warraroon Reserve’.

Nordic Sling [1970~84-2024], Lachlan Bell

Naturally dyed sheeps wool, fallen eucalyptus branches from Warraroon Reserve, beeswax, salvaged calsil brick from the Brick Pit, cross-stitched pillow covers, printed instructions on how to make a whipcord braid

Collaborators: Olivia Reily, Mai Lehtsalu, Malle Lehtsalu, Tiina Lehtsalu, Inda Treiberg, Maie Barrow
Installers: Courtney Bowd, Isoldé Elias, Tamara Elkins, Danica Micallef, Marleena Oudomvilay

“'Nordic Sling' provided a resting space for visitors centred around a Nordic whipcord braid. On each of the brick seats rested four cross-stitched cushion covers by Mai Lehtsalu,Tina Lehtsalu, andd Inda Treiberg. Over the duration of the show, a slinging braid grew and lengthened over time, in aconstant state of making and unmaking.” - Lachlan

Küü-ii - the Estonian Australian bi-monthly magazine [1980-88], Olev Muska

Acrylic on canvas, 78 x 103.5cm
Printed magazines and scanned reproductions, dimensions variable

Küü-ii Collaborators: Juhan Lübek, Lembit Suur, Ingrid Slamer, Doria Kay Tensing, Michael Payne, Jaak Peedo, Anni Meister, Arno Muska, Mick Tartu, Eva Ranniko, Taimi Lübek, Peeter Martinson

Magazine Lender & Scanned Reproductions: Mai Bell, Lachlan Bell

“Painted for the art exhibition at ESTO'88 Melbourne, the 5th Estonian World Festival and the first at which a sizable cohort from Soviet Estonia attended. The name 'Küü-ii' is an Estonianisation of the Dharug shout 'coo-ee'.

‘Küü-ii’ was a bi-lingual bi-monthly magazine published from 1980 to 1983 and created as a response to the comparatively narrow scope of the Australian weekly Estonian newspaper 'Meie Kodu' ('Our Home') that was established in 1949 by and for WWII refugees and their families and ceased publication in 2019. Premised on a sense of fun and irreverence, accessibility and contemporary cultural relevance, Küü-ii featured three levels of Estonian language tuition, lots of visuals and cartoons, current trends in both Soviet and emigré Estonian culture, recipes and more. In the spirit of multiculturalism of the time, it was an attempt to reach out to the wider Australian community.

The colourful covers were silk-screen printed separately and were often seen drying, pegged to a long line that stretched from the front door to the rear through a terrace home in Wigram Rd, Glebe. This painting depicts the logo, all volumes of the magazine and the editorial board.” - Olev

All scanned copies of the publication can be accessed here.

Kiri-uu - Estonian singers [1986-2020], Olev Muska

Acrylic on canvas, 78 x 103.5 cm
CDs, Vinyl covers, publications and ephemera

Kiri-uu Collaborators: Chris Jaques, Ene Juurma, Anni Meister, Ilmar Midri, Juhan Palm-Peipman, Mick Tartu, Gunnel Karlsson, Ingrid Silvéus, Ingrid Slamer, Lembit Suur, Vivien Valk, Russell Pilling, Olev Salasoo, Graham Harvey, Arno Muska, Victor Verhelst, Nana Esi, Fergus Clark, Ziggy Devriendt, Christopher Bonato, Robert Nikolajev, Natalie Mets and Ats Luik, Frotee, Veljo Tormis

“Painted for the art exhibition at ESTO'88 Melbourne, the 5th Estonian World Festival and the first at which a sizable cohort from Soviet Estonia attended. The artwork depicts the logo and the original line-up of the group at their debut performance in 1986. Kiri-uu was a small choir formed in 1986 in Sydney by second generation expatriates Anni Meister and Olev Muska to explore modern Estonian folk song, particularly through the work of the giant of Estonian choral composition, Veljo Tormis.

‘Kiri-uu’ is a sound word that imitates a creaking wooden swing in the wind: 'creak-whoosh'. The word ‘Kiri-uu’ originates from Veljo’s arrangement of a lament in the form of a traditional Estonian swing song ‘The swing yearns for gifts’, for which the maestro - unable to find a suitable word from folklore and after much effort - uncharacteristically invented his own refrain. In far off Australia, such a choice of word for a band name seemed entirely accidental, yet it was this word that Veljo believed actually chose the group: from amongst the rich collection of notation with which the esteemed composer had endowed them and upon which they commenced creating their own folk song variations, chanced the very word ‘Kiri-uu’.

What started out locally as merely mucking about progressed, through many creative iterations, into an ultimate distillation as a sophisticated vocal / electronic package. When Kiri-uu successfully held their debut tour of Soviet Estonia in 1989, the project was complete. 36 years on, the rare 1988 debut LP has become a sought after recording internationally.” - Olev

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Olev Muska (he/him) is an Australian-born composer and artist of Estonian and Russian heritage residing on Awabakal Country (Wangi Wangi). His practice draws little distinction between artforms and rejects typecasting, with a career spanning music composition, graphic design, publishing, public art, short film, and poetry. Committed to community cultural development alongside commercial work, he pioneered Estonian folktronica with 'Tuljak' (1980), 'Old Estonian Waltzes' (1985), the 'Kiri-uu' choir, and other projects. Between 1974 and 1990, Olev was part of a creative movement among young second-generation Sydney Estonian Australians of the Cold War era engaged in what could best be described as a creative rite of passage.

What started out as merely mucking about progressed into a magical concord of hearts, minds and energy resulting in a rich diversity of exploration and outcomes, often irreverent, that encompassed events, performances, film-making, magazines and music albums.
Websites:
https://www.olevmuska.com.au/
http://www.olev.com.au/
http://www.kiri-uu.com/

In Loving Memory - 10 Pound [2019], Megan Morrall

Lost-wax cast rings in brass and phosphor bronze mounted on wood, (3x) 8 x 13.5 cm
Printed reproduction of family photo album on paper, 21 x 29.7 cm

“This work portrays my perception of my Grandfather's life in three stages. I did not know him well, but when he passed, I was compelled to discover what I could through the remnants left behind. My grandfather was a coal miner in South Yorkshire in the 1960’s, with a wife and three children. During this time, the Australian and British governments introduced the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme in 1945, with the migrants coming to be known as the Ten Pound Poms. Through this scheme and with the generosity of a pen-pal named Stan, my grandfather was able to migrate the family of five from the UK to Australia in 1966.

The burnt cork set in brass portrays the beginning of my familial knowledge, Grandad working as a coal miner in rough conditions due to necessity. Until the end of his life he suffered with emphysema. The bird represents the family flying across to Australia, one of the earliest flights to do so. Even now my father hand-feeds the magpies & kookaburras that visit his courtyard in Sydney. Finally, the gum-nuts represent the mirroring of siblings in Australia. My father, one of three siblings, has now fathered three of his own Australian children.” - Megan

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Megan Morrall (she/her) is an emerging artist, bench jeweller and goldsmith based on Cadigal land. Megan uses her material practice to come to terms with personal grief, reflecting on family history and connection.

Bhool / Bhool [2023], Aarushi Zarthoshtimanesh

Single-channel digital video (5m 16), embroidery on solvytextile, muslin cloth
Collaborators: Family members

“Bhool (भलू) is a Sanskrit word, a homonym embodying two meanings at once. It translates to ‘forget’ and ‘mistake’. The body and content of this piece, seeks to actualise the plurality in meaning through the atemporal medium of the stitched solvy, i.e. an embroidery backing that washes away when soaked in water. The two vessels rooting the film and language of meaning to the ground, create an activated space of erasing and melting yet asserting and making prominent. The embroidery pieces are repeatedly dipped in water and the stitched word BHOOL remains - fragile and threadbare. Within this constructed, culturally fluid landscape, soundscape and multi-hyphenate embodiment, this piece seeks to locate and dislocate the viewer from a certain time or place.

The repetition in tracing the white garment worn in the video – a sudreh (a ritual undergarment worn to protect and shield the wearer from evil) - and the presence of a milky vessel – both are in context to the Parsi / Zoroastrian culture and the story of assimilation related to them being granted refuge in India after fleeing persecution in Persia. A religion / culture that is slowly dying out and drastically reducing in numbers – the re-tracing is to not forget – the mistakes, the history, the legacy of identities that belong within this reality.” - Aarushi

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Aarushi Zarthoshtimanesh (she/her, b. 2000) is a passionate artist, student, writer, and mango lover. She identifies as an Indian-born queer woman, raised in the hustle and bustle of the city of Mumbai, India. Her ancestors originally lived and fled from Iran, attempting to escape the early Mughal invasions, finding themselves displaced on the shores of western India. Aarushi’s practice now thrives on Bidjigal and Gadigal land, where through the poetics of painting, installation, performance and moving image she wishes to materialise and spatialise the felt reality of displacement and re-examine what shapes and forms our social identities – beyond borders and binaries. Aarushi is currently residing in Mumbai, India and participated remotely in this exhibition.

The most beautiful story ever told, will never end, if you listen [2024], Kata Szász-Komlós

Chalk, paint on found plastic woven board, 115 cm x 56 cm
Collaborators: longing, listening, story, walking

“Memory is an untrustworthy ally. And yet, for those of us who grew up oceans away from our homelands, it is often a slippery, amorphous and wholly important act in sustaining a sense of self. Recent familial grief and loss has invited a new perspective. Perhaps one cannot trace ancestral knowledge simply from asking probing questions of our origins, especially if the answers are beyond our grasp. Maybe what we don’t know, the thing that eludes us, can be made anew, woven from abstracts, stories, experiments of thought, a felt sense. Like a dream who’s visions fade but the feeling remains well into the day and alters us; Everything is in constant communication, whether we can comprehend it or not. The act of walking brings me closer to this.

On the road, my usual neighbourhood jaunts, I find a tall board made of a woven plastic material stretched across a frame like a canvas. When you peer in close you see the countless intersections of thread pulled together to create a substrate. I wait and listen until the intersections show a story waiting to be told, wrangled forth in paint; of unseen guardians reading our story into existence.” - Kata

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Kata Szász-Komlós (they/them) is a Hungarian immigrant artist who grew up living and creating on unceded Gadigal/Wangal Lands. Their practice incorporates Printmaking, Paint, Poetry, Song, Video and Sculpture; any medium that best aids the translation of meaning.

Kata's work deals with the stories that shape us, how familial mythologies situate us in the world and determine our relationship to the world around us. Personal folklore & Story play an integral role in their artistic expression, tracing ancestral identity through inherited visual codes, collecting and collating fragments from porous memory to embrace a trace identity. Allowing intuition to be a guiding force, Kata uses walking as a practice towards reclaiming attention, found objects, substrates and materials. Each work is a playful or poignant communion with the world around them. Harnessing modes of chance and eternal change to communicate a deep hope for humanity. Settling for nothing less than personal transformation through visual alchemy.

Ema haual (Mother's Grave [2023], Lachlan Bell

Laser-etched plywood, Galvanised metal swing sign, 74 x 74 x 64 cm
Collaborators: Ester Hunt, Embi Hunt, Mati Hunt. Pikne Kama, Felix Parker, Lachlan Chang, Linus Aisatullin, Mai Lehtsalu, Malle Lehtsalu, Marie Sepp

“This work tells the story of two orphans visiting the church graveyard on Midsummer, who ask their parents to rise and guide them — but they cannot as their bodies have transformed into the land and flowers above. This section of the ‘Ema haual’ regilaul is taken from a 1937 recording in Kolga-Jaani, Estonia. The lyrics have been laser-etched onto pine, resembling a construction site and archeological dig site. This work continues to be reassembled and deconstructed, initially exhibited at Rookwood Necropolis, it will never fully arrive at its final form.” - Lachlan

Translation (by Kait Tamm)

“Oh, we two orphan children,
you fatherless, me motherless,
on St. John's day let's go to church,
a mourning kerchief at our waist,
we will wipe each other's eyes,
we will stroke each other's heads.

You will go to your father's grave,
I will go to my mother's grave:
‘Wake up, dear mama,
get up and comb my hair!’

‘I cannot wake up, daughter, my young one,
the grass grows over the soil,
the meadow hays on the grave,
violets over my eyes,
globe flowers over my brow’” - Marie Sepp

to never really truly know, to never really truly see the face of what we bury [2023], Monica Trieu

Glazed ceramics and watercolour on marble tables borrowed from Aunty, dimensions variable

“Oracle bone divination (jiǎgǔ in Hanyu pinyin), an ancient Chinese fortune-telling method of looking for divine guidance and answers, is performed in communication to elders and ancestors through the use of pyromancy and the shoulder blades of oxen or plastrons of turtles. This work expresses a series of short reflections left in the wake of the passing of a loved one. The work quietly contemplates ideas of the afterlife and reincarnation in Buddhism, an answer unknown of, and the grievances held in the memories of past relationships.” - Monica

Translation (by Monica Trieu)

Are you a bird in a tree?
Did you receive my gifts well?
Is there an end to the fortune we whisper?
Regret
Do you remember me in death?
Do you know the shape of these answers?

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Monica Trieu (she/her) is an Australian-born emerging artist of Teochew-Vietnamese descent, residing and practising on unceded Dharug and Gadigal land. Her practice engages with ethnic traditions, concepts, and language structures, to break down and remedy the connections between westernised upbringings, and losses of cultural and racial ties. She is interested in storytelling, and memorialising migrant narratives of childhood and the everyday, extending the function of her work to allow for mutual learning between individuals.

Collaborative Zine-Making Workshop [14 April 2024], Michail Mathioudakis

Pencil, pen, paper, collage, dimensions variable
Collaborators: Marleena Oudomvilay, Mei Lin Meyers, Nicole Cadelina, Athina Mathioudakis, William Shi

“On the 14th April 2024, Michail Mathioudakis facilitated a hands-on zine-making workshop where each participantswould collaborate on each others prompts. Exploring the importance of communal storytelling, the workshop taught how to make an 8-page fold zine. The workshop provided a safe space where participants were be encouraged to share their work, stories and collaborate openly and non-judgmentally. A selection of the final zines were displayed as part of the 'Recommended Readings' library and were reproduced in the accompanying exhibition booklet.” - Lachlan

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Michail Mathioudakis (he/him) - aka Marcia Manhunter - is a queer visual artist whose zine-making practice draws stylistically from horror, filth & pop culture - often using the otherworldly to tell personal stories. Michail is the organiser of Dungeons & Drag Queens Zine, a collaboration zine that explores the intersection of queerness and nerd culture.

Improvised, meandering, time-altering, embodying, String Club

live improvised performance (30m) on opening night, 10 April 2024
Collaborators: Astrid Bell, David Suyasa, Kata Szász-Komlós

Photo courtesy of Liam Black [10 April 2024]

“Grounded by an ethos of improvisational friendship andserendipity, String Club began on Gadigal & Wangal Country as an exercise in group learning through friendship, play and a deep love of strings. Improvised steps and mis-steps across strewn instruments or whatever is within reach. Members Kata Szász, David Suyasa and Astrid Bell meet asweekly as they can in a living room, but it could happen in any room of any house. The club becomes something new ineach iteration; support, slowness, lap steels, strings, humming loops, simple bass, repetitions, fondness, one offs, love and flukes.

Everyone is a member of String Club.” - String Club

Additional Credits

Thank you to the following individuals for their support and assistance:

Mai Bell
Abigail Montgomery
Levent Can Kaya
Isoldé Elias
Jane Harris
Kudos Committee
Rory Moy
Carmen Schieb
Malle Lehtsalu
Lucy Le Masurier
nova Milne
Pari Ari
Celine Cheung
Rainer Ciar
Danica Micallef
Sydney Jarrett

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