Create NSW and Animal Logic name first Artists in Residence
Create NSW and Animal Logic Artist in Residence. L-R: Ben Quilty, Aemmon Sheehan, Jason Phu, Técha Noble and Zareh Nalbandian.
Técha Noble, Jason Phu and Aemmon Sheehan have been selected as the first NSW artists to participate in the Create NSW and Animal Logic Artist in Residence initiative, where they will develop their experience, explore new ideas and create new works incorporating learned screen techniques.
The three artists will be supported with grants of $10,000 from Create NSW to complete their respective three-month residencies, which begin this month and run through to June 2020.
Aemmon will start his residency first and aims to create short films and corresponding oil paintings critiquing contemporary Australian culture; Jason to develop animation storyboards exploring the spirits, demons and ghosts of Chinese culture; and Técha to design a costume prototype incorporating projected animation.
Incoming Head of Screen NSW Grainne Brunsdon commented, “This exciting initiative is designed to help artists expand their ambitions and scope of expression by learning new and innovative screen techniques that can be incorporated into their work.
“Each artist has a unique plan for what they want to achieve from their respective residencies, so we’re really excited to see the outcomes – and who better to inform this than the incredible team at one of the world’s leading animation studios,” she said.
As well as providing professional development opportunities, Animal Logic will host a group exhibition to showcase the works of the resident artists.
Animal Logic CEO and Co-Founder Zareh Nalbandian said, “It has long been our ambition to establish an artist in residence program at Animal Logic to create a deeper engagement between our artists and the wider NSW creative community. We’re excited to welcome Técha, Jason and Aemmon to our studio, and to have Ben Quilty’s inspiring mentorship and Create NSW’s invaluable support for the launch of this inaugural Animal Logic Artist In Residence program.
“The program will offer a unique environment for artists from different creative disciplines, and with an eclectic range of ideas and artistic techniques to come together. I’m very eager to see what they all create!”
Initiative ambassador Ben Quilty was present for the announcement of the three artists and will deliver talks to the Animal Logic community during the course of the residencies.
“I think this collaboration could be ground-breaking for Australian artists. Having the support of one of the most internationally recognised creative companies will open up endless possibilities, and in particular for these three artists, who have such dynamic practice already, to be given that extra boost could be really profound,” he said.
Create NSW & Animal Logic Artist in Residence Biographies 2019-20
Aemmon Sheehan (Newtown, Sydney)
Residency period: 16 September – December 2019
Aemmon Sheehan is an Australian-born artist of African American, European, Indonesian and South American decent. The core of his work deals directly with race, poverty, isolation, substance abuse, incarceration, criminality, violence, and privation. He is an interdisciplinary artist who uses the mediums of animation, film and painting to bear witness to some of the greater issues prevalent within contemporary Australian culture.
Program of activity:
Aemmon aims to use his residency to create three short films (around five minutes each) and three correlating oil paintings that critique contemporary Australian culture.
Jason Phu (Glebe, Sydney)
Residency period: February – April 2020
Jason Phu’s multidisciplinary practice brings together a wide range of references from traditional ink paintings and calligraphy to mass-produced objects, everyday vernacular to official records, personal narratives to historical events. Working across drawing, installation, painting and performance, Phu frequently uses humour as a device to explore experiences of cultural dislocation.
In 2018 he showed in the Dobell Drawing Biennale at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, The Burrangong Affray at the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and Primavera 2018 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Phu’s recent work Procession in the warming light/Procession in the rising darkness was commissioned by the Sydney Opera House with the support of ARROW Collective and performed as part of Antidote 2019. He is a double Archibald Prize finalist and was awarded the Sulman Prize in 2015.
Program of activity:
Jason will use his residency to develop animation storyboards that explore the spirits, demons and ghosts of Chinese culture. He has a particular interest in the literary work Journey To The West, also known through the TV adaption Monkey, and is specifically interested in seeing the processes that occur before the finished animated product, such as shading patterns, background design and skeletal animation.
Técha Noble (Redfern, Sydney)
Residency period: April – June 2020
Técha Noble is multidisciplinary artist who explores intersubjectivity and the body through performance, costumed spectacle, language and spatial installations. Her live performances and video installations present alternative realities that resist the rational where bodily hierarchies are extended from their natural locations, the animation of life is reimagined and gender is not fixed.
Recent commissions include a solo exhibition at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, Performance Space and Carriageworks’ Day for Night and Treatment live art event Melbourne. Técha is a founding member of the collective the Kingpins, who have exhibited and performed at Kunsthaus Zürich, MCA San Diego, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and Art Basel Miami, as well as at several Biennale exhibitions.
Técha is a creative consultant and textile garment designer with fashion house Romance Was Born, who worked on their premier Paris fashion week collection in 2018 alongside Jenny Kee. Additional design collaborations include textile design for Kanye West, art direction and album cover design for Sia, animation design for director Kris Moyes for a Franz Ferdinand film clip as well as set and costume design for Beth Ditto and Gossip’s European tour.
Program of activity:
Técha will use her residency to work on a specific costume prototype incorporating a projected animation within the structure of the design.
The working title for the work is Faustine, taken from a character in the novel The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares, which describes a fugitive who escapes to a deserted island to find it inhabited by ghostly projections.
Image: Create NSW and Animal Logic Artist in Residence. L-R: Ben Quilty, Aemmon Sheehan, Jason Phu, Técha Noble and Zareh Nalbandian.
Published: 10 September 2019