Immersion: Conversations from the Swamp Residencies

Artist profiles

Ann Niddrie-
Ann is a multi-disciplinary artist who has for the most part of her career used the camera as her tool to create. With a degree in Environmental Science, Ann has a passion for exploring where art and science intersect; creating art and experiential projects that encourage behaviour change. From outdoor public art exhibitions to intimate, contemplative works, Ann innovates and inspires.
Following her period at the helm of MTNS MADE, Ann has returned to her own creative practice – exploring new materials and immersing herself in the natural world - creating artworks to reveal the inner strength and unique nature of the subject, and provide new perspectives for her audiences.

Bryden Williams-
Bryden is a conceptual artist working with extended photographic techniques and ephemeral art to explore the interplay between technology and nature. His work is often site-engaged and tends to speculate on water and other natural elements by exploring the aesthetic and social-cultural properties of rivers, landscapes and infrastructures. Bryden uses a multi-disciplinary approach to find new ways of understanding the effects of technology on perceived ‘natural’ environments in the context of increasingly extreme
weather and climate change.

Caroline Giniunas-
Blue Mountains based artist who loves nature who has a Degree in Biology and studied a fine arts. She loves the aims of drawing attention to the citizen scientists, of who there are many gathering vital data in a time of climate change. She hopes that her contribution brings to the public attention, that very many people care for the environment. She loves to paint and draw nature, and classifies herself as a “magic realist”.

Dr Cheryle Yin Lo-
Cheryle graduated from Sydney College of the Arts in photography and printmaking and continue to explore working in mixed media, digital art , solar plate etching and more recently nature journalling . My work for this exhibition explores the intertwining of people and the natural environment and its inseparability.

Chia Moan-
Chia is a visual artist with a diverse practice who has exhibited widely, including exhibitions at Hackney Museum, London E8, The Performance Space and the Blue Mountains Portrait Exhibition. BA Political Science and Fine Arts, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC where she also studied drawing with B.C. Binning and screenprinting with Tony Onley. Communications manager with the CSIRO, Division of Applied Physics and a lecturer at UTS. Senior Journalist, Newspaper Guild of America and is a Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher.

Emma Magenta-
Emma is an Australian artist, writer and filmmaker and began drawing and writing her observations of the inner and outer worlds down on paper book bags and pinning them to the wall at Berkelouw Books, Paddington where she worked for 10 years. She was offered an international book deal at the front desk and has illustrated, written and published 7 books, and an award winning animation and live action film. Emma is inherently inspired by nature, mythology and the world view of the child and primarily draws with her opposite hand to bypass the left brain, to achieve a naive style. Moving into painting is a deeper exploration into the power of symbolism, colour and
text to evoke simultaneously, the feeling body and the mind of the viewer around matters of consciousness, spirit, nature and memory.

Fiona Vaughan-
Fiona studied Fine-art, B/W film photography with Gordon Undy at Point Light Gallery, Surry Hills. Now practicing digital photography and exploring alternative photographic processes. She has exhibited in several group exhibitions at the Blue Mountains Heritage Centre and also at Point Light Gallery. Her photographs were included in the ABC Pool ‘Flight and Flow’ Federation Square video broadcast in Melbourne (2011) and in award finalist exhibitions, including the Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture and the Hazelhurst Art On Paper Award.

Freedom Wilson-
Freedom is a visual artist and printmaker investigating plant communities and bush habitats; evolution, recent changes and threats. Her prints visualise landscapes as plantscapes, studying ecological relationships at a micro scale integral for expansive areas of natural wilderness to thrive.

Jon Flood-
Jon Flood is an artist and musician living and working on Dharug and Gundungurra country. Jon Investigates spaces through captured sound, utilising field recording in conjunction wit composition to create work that sits somewhere between audio journal and sound collage.

Justin Morrissey-
Justin has been involved in theatre, film and music industries for over ten years. He has produced, performed and managed numerous theatre and dance productions and been involved in the planning and production of major festivals, such as Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi, New South Wales, Australia.Justin is a keen environmental activist, passionate horticulturalist, gardener and permaculturalist and has an interest in social politics, land management and Indigenous affairs.

Kate Reid-
Kate has been working extensively as a Musician, Circus Artist, Director, Producer and Event Manager since 1994 and amongst other professional roles, is currently the creator and owner of The Candy Stripe Circus, one of Australia’s most unique Circus Arts and Event Company’s.

Rani Brown-
Rani is an established documentary and film maker specialising in environmental and social justice work. In 2000 she established Frogmoth Films creating award winning works including Knitting Nannas and Courage for the Long Haul. Works have screened and won awards at numerous Australian and international film festivals. Knitting Nannas is featured in the Australian Film and Sound Archives.

Scott Marr-
A practicing artist for 15 years now and my work has of course changed a lot over this time. The first few years were spent obsessively trying to master realism, from photorealism to surrealism. One thing that has remained fairly constant is my subject matter; my work is usually about the intricacies of nature and our place in it.

Wendy Tsai-
Wendy is a Katoomba artist whose work is informed by everyday encounters with the people and place in which she lives. Her practice is led by drawing, but is developed through research, digital manipulation, painting, video, and mixed media. Wendy's work engages with social and environmental issues from urban incursion to local history, with a special interest in Garguree and the Kedumba River, Katoomba. Wendy brings a diversity of approaches to her work, depending on a process of observation, attention and response. Her guiding interest is the intersection of human experience and the natural world. Her work is held in public collections in the Blue Mountains Cultural
Centre Gallery, in Tasmania where she lived for many years, and in the Kedumba Drawing Award Collection.