Artists
Annette Downs
Briony Kidd
Sinsa Mansell
Shasta Stevic
John Vella
Date/ Time: 5.30 pm 26 May 2022
Location: Contemporary Art Tasmania
The Bendable posable action artist (b.p.a.a) series brings artists from all career stages together at CAT to talk about their practice, present new work or work in development, pose provisional ideas for art projects and engage in a dialogue with their peers. This is the last event in the month-long b.p.a.a series and comprises presentations by Briony Kidd, Annette Downs & Sinsa Mansell, Shasta Stevic and John Vella.
This occasion involves introductions to practice, art work in the gallery and a public conversation.
b.p.a.a program – 26.05.22
Briony Kidd – introduction to practice
Shasta Stevic – introduction to work in the gallery
John Vella – introduction to work in the gallery
BREAK
Annette Down and Sinsa Mansell – public conversation on practice and mentoring
REFRESHMENTS
Bendable posable action artist is presented through CAT’s education and development program Constellations (formally MACHINE). Discursive and collegial in its approach, the series provides a context for sharing ideas and fostering connection between artists.
Participant Bios
Annette Downs has worked as a university lecturer, performer and ABC TV presenter. For 7 years she was the Artistic Director of Terrapin launching their national and international touring programs. Annette is a Churchill Fellow, a Telstra Tasmanian Businesswoman of the Year, a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Tasmanian Australian of the Year finalist. In 2006 Annette established Performing Lines TAS, developing the work of Tasmanian Independent artists and growing their markets. She delights in taking artists beyond what they thought possible through mentorships, producing and touring work. Her work was acknowledged with the 2019 National Facilitator’s Prize at the prestigious Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards.
Briony Kidd is a film and theatre maker, a film festival director, and a freelance writer based in nipaluna/Hobart. She founded the Stranger With My Face International Film Festival based in Hobart with Rebecca Thomson in 2012. Briony is also the editor of a new critical platform called Memory Palace. Established to provide opportunities to both new and established writers, its aim is to catalogue Tasmanian culture of the moment, as well as looking back to work that is ripe for rediscovery. It’s about slowing down the response. And remembering not to forget.
Sinsa Mansell is a proud trawoolaway women from larapuna, the Northern region of Tasmania. She is an Associate Producer with Performing Lines Tasmania and a producer, co-founder, and choreographer with the successful pakana kanaplila, a traditional/contemporary Tasmanian Aboriginal dance troupe. Working State-wide, nationally, and internationally, Sinsa has been working at the forefront to reclaim ancient cultural traditions through a range of mediums, mainly specialising in the performing arts sector. She has sat on the Ministerial Advisory Council for State Growth, Tasmania and advised for: Moonah Arts Centre, Ten Days on the Island, WaPa, YANALANGAMI LUTRUWITA program and the First Nations Advisory for Australia’s Performing Arts Marek. Sinsa’s playground is vast, from preforming arts to judging the National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAS).
Shasta Stevic is an emerging artist and curator. Her art practice is focused on installation, video and performance art, particularly in relation to themes such as the myth of ‘progress’, so-called technological and scientific advancement, and the worrying divide between humans and ‘nature’. In 2016 Shasta attended the LungA School, an experimental art school on the East Coast of Iceland; in 2018 she participated in an artist residency and mid-winter festival in Northern Iceland; and in 2019 she took part in a curatorial program in Serbia called What Could/Should Curating Do? She is currently gallery manager and curator at Gallerie SeventyOne in nipaluna/Hobart, which exhibits the work of emerging Tasmanian artists.
John Vella has exhibited across diverse international and Australian contexts including: the Stockholm Independent Art Fair, Sweden; Glasgow International Arts Festival, UK; Mdina Biennale, Malta; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; The Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award, Melbourne; the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), Hobart; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart and Contemporary Art Tasmania. John has delivered five major public art commissions and has guest lectured at Australian and European tertiary institutions. He currently teaches at the School of Creative Arts and Media, University of Tasmania, Hobart. Later this year John will present new work at Sydney Contemporary-Carriageworks in collaboration with Michael Bugelli Gallery.