Social Practice Sharing and Gathering: event recap

Jun 23

We had such a successful and fun event this month with our Know Thy Neighbour (KTN) panel discussion and Introduction to Social Practice workshop that we want to share more!

If you are an artist or partner interested in applying for the KTN #4 program you can listen to the panel discussion here.

Apply for KTN #4

The panel was led by SPACED: KTN Program Manager, Rebecca Riggs-Bennett, with sharing from previous KTN artists: Poppy Van Oord Grainger, Mei Swan Lim, Matt Aitken and Chris Williams and proceeded by a workshop facilitated by Tanya Lee (pictured).

More on our presenting artists and their previous KTN projects:

Tanya Lee is a female Western Australian artist originally from a remote wheat belt town and now based in Broome. Tanya is currently focused on teaching and engaging communities, and her previous works operate across sculpture, performance and drawing. Her practice looks at everyday tasks to create humorous, absurd and even futile narratives that subvert the protocols and politics of every day social environments. Her work has been shown in galleries across Australia including the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne. Her recent performance work Landing has toured nationally and been presented at Dark Mofo Hobart, the Festival of Live Art in Melbourne and Bleach* Festival on the Gold Coast.

Tanya’s studies included a year as a visiting scholar at the École Nationale Supérieur d’Art de Dijon (ENSAD) in Dijon, France. Before completing her MA (Fine Art) at Curtin University in 2009.

Read more about Tanya’s project Community News (2015-16) in collaboration with Simone Johnston, part of Know Thy Neighbour #1 and supported by host partner The Perth Voice newspaper.

Ian Wilkes is a Noongar theatre-maker, dancer and performer. He is currently directing Blue for Black Swan State Theatre and has just completed Karla Bidi for Perth Festival. Ian is the co-writer and lead performer in Galup and co-writer and co-director of Galup VR Experience. He has performed numerous roles including in Yirra Yaakin's Hecate and Ochre’s Kwongan for Perth Festival, CO3’s The Line at State Theatre WA and Honey Spot at the Sydney Opera House. Ian won the Perth NAIDOC award for Artist of the Year 2021 and was Perth Festival’s Artistic Associate the following year, and directed the festival’s opening event Djoondal in 2023. Ian is also a founding facilitator of Culture 2.0, Yirra Yaakin's regional youth engagement program.

Poppy van Oorde-Grainger is an artist, filmmaker, producer and founding director of Same Drum. She has made work for London International Festival of Theatre, Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and Ars Electronica in Austria and previously won the Fremantle Print Award and Australia Council Kirk Robson Award. Poppy was Creative Producer for Community Arts Network's Ngaluk Waangkiny, Burdiya Mob and Goomalling Yarns and was Community Arts Manager for YMCA WA where she established and ran their statewide youth arts program over five years. Poppy regularly delivers large-scale arts and digital media projects with multiple partners and large teams of contractors.

Mei Swan Lim / Mei Saraswati is a 37 year old mum who works at Joondalup library. She stays in Wanneroo and belongs to the Bahá’i community. On-and-off, she's a visual and sound artist and singer/composer whose work centres on the environmental, emotional and spiritual importance of place, inter-cultural investigation and storytelling. Her work stories otherworldly experiences of the everyday, looking through a spiritual lens at our environment and emotional places we inhabit. She also occupies her time creating portals into her cultural past (and future) through paper cutting, weaving, making video art, field recording, sound collaging and singing. Her main artistic achievements include making life-long friends through the art and music communities and having the opportunity to work with the likes of Proximity Festival, Perth Festival, Yirra Yaakin, Art Gallery of WA, PICA and Eka.

Matt Aitken is a West Australian artist and educator working in social practice, video & dodgy graphic design. Drawing from his background in Cultural Anthropology and DIY music, Matt’s practice uses collaboration, friendship and humour to investigate local and national identity. He’s made work for International Art Space (IaS), Perth Festival, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) and the Museum of Water.

Chris Williams is an artist who lives and makes work on the lands of the Whudjuk Noongar people in Boorloo/ Perth. His work spans performance, live art, installation, intervention and CACD. Experimental, socially engaged and playful, his works often strive to engage a less art-exposed public through curious performative interventions in public spaces. Chris was an artist with pvi collective since its inception in 1998 until 2022, has a BA in English and Philosophy, with a focus on Performance (Murdoch University), and studied Visual Arts at Curtin University.

Read more about Chris’ project Field of the Unwanted (2018-2019) in collaboration with Green Brigade part of Know Thy Neighbour #2 and supported by host partners DADAA & St Patrick’s Community Support Centre.

Images: Social Practice Workshop by Tanya Lee. Photographer: Elizabeth Pedler.

Stay up to date by subscribing to SPACED’s monthly email newsletter, and following SPACED on Facebook and Instagram.

SPACED is supported by West Australian Government, through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries.