Shopfront Arts Co-op is proud to introduce you to our 2019-20 ArtsLab artists-in-residence: Bill Chau, Tall Jan aka Brendan Donnellan, Charlotte Salusinszky, Lana Filies & Lily Hensby, and Luke Standish.
Bill Chau
Based in the South Sydney region, Bill Chau is a young artist/designer who creates powerful and visceral experiences through unconventional art practices and spatial designs. Currently studying a Bachelor’s of Design at UNSW, Bill’s works have often challenged socially normative ideas of traditional art and theatre making, especially through the lens of an Asian-Australian background
PLASTIC SLIPPERS is an installation exploring the nuanced and overlooked beauty of Asian Australian culture and what it means to grow up in a Chinese, immigrant family. Bill is being mentored by David Capra.
Tell us about your ArtsLab project
BILL: My artslab project is an installation piece made to explore the domestic lifestyle of Chinese- Australian households. Coming from a first generation, migrant family, my work aims to bring to light a rich yet forgotten part of Australian social fabric.
What do you like to do when you aren’t art-making?
BILL: Definitely leaving the vicinity of a work table as much as a I can! I always enjoy getting out into nature one way or another. Whether it’d be hikes or a couple reading days at the beach, I’m always finding a way to let my brain breathe for a second.
TALL JAN (aka Brendan Donnellan)
Tall Jan, aka Brendan Donnellan, is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and drag performer. In 2018 they graduated from UNSW with a Bachelor of Arts (Creative Writing) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drawing and Graphic Design), and in 2019 they have completed their final year in the Creative Writing Honours program. A work in progress with an ever-changing artistic practice, they are most interested in learning through collaboration, openness, and creating challenging artwork. They have been performing for around one year, predominantly in the Wollongong region, at events such as Queer AF, Made From Scratch, and the Wollongong Writer’s Festival 2018.
In AMPLIFIER, watch Tall Jan lip-sync to audio from self-conducted interviews. This video artwork challenges the viewer to recognise experiences often ignored, interrogates the politics of drag, and questions the ethics of allyship. Brendan is being mentored by Bhenji Ra.
Tell us about your ArtsLab project
TALL JAN: Amplifier is a video artwork deeply invested in investigating the nuances of queer experience, the politics of drag, the ethics surrounding the role an ally, and the connection between body and voice. The artwork involves Tall Jan lipsyncing to audio taken from self-conducted interviews with other queer voices whose voices often go unexamined. The main foundation for the aesthetic and narrative of the video is generated by the personal interaction between myself and the interviewee. By using drag performance as well as my embodied privileges, I can draw attention to their voices and story while emphasising the tension that comes from their visual absence.
What do you like to do when you aren’t art-making?
TALL JAN: Getting into drag with friends using op-shop clothes and then going to watch others perform is one of my favourite things to do. But if you count that as art-making (which I suppose it is), I love playing video games. Anything that inspires a sense of child-like wonder alongside a constant feeling of progression is an absolute winner in my books. I could also watch make-up tutorials for days at a time – if only the hours spent viewing translated to actual skills, then I would be unstoppable.
CHARLOTTE SALUSINSZKY
Charlotte Salusinszky is a Sydney-based actor, writer and theatre-maker whose work draws together her interest in site-specific and autobiographical performance. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at The University of Melbourne, before graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2017, where she completed an Honours year in Theatre Practice. Her research focused on devised solo performance, reimagining her body as the Old City of Jerusalem, in order to explore how trauma is inscribed on people and on places. Charlotte has worked with independent theatre companies across Melbourne, co-devising Planning Atlantis (Grub Theatre), The Roar (Until Monstrous) and The Midnight Club (Talulah Theatre), and has performed as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Midsumma Festival, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival and the Australian Improv Festival. She is an Artistic Director of experimental feminist theatre company, The Dig Collective, an alumni of Impro Melbourne, and an ensemble member of Soothplayers: Completely Improvised Shakespeare.
In a solo devised performance, LITTLE JOKES IN TIMES OF WAR, Charlotte reenacts her grandmother’s role in her family’s escape from Hungary in 1956, and the repercussions of this event on her grandmother and herself. Charlotte is being mentored by Deb Pollard.
Tell us about your ArtsLab project
CHARLOTTE: I am developing a devised solo performance that looks at the kind of labour women perform in crises, by re-enacting my grandmother’s role in my family’s escape from Hungary in 1956, and tracking the repercussions of this event on her and myself.
What do you like to do when you aren’t art-making?
CHARLOTTE: I like reading, watching Star Trek, tinkering on my banjo and eating buttered bread standing up in the kitchen.
LANA FILIES & LILY HENSBY
Lana Filies is a Wollongong/Sydney based actor, director, choreographer, singer, and dancer. Her recent theatrical performance staring as ‘Kat’ in ‘Parliament Square’ as part of The University of Wollongong’s graduating season, directed by Mark Rogers of Applespiel, made its Australian debut in November 2018. She has worked on A Likely Story by Deborah Pollard of Version 1.0, and These are Not my People, Directed by internationally acclaimed BodyWeather practitioner Linda Luna Luke and written by Australian acclaimed playwright Mary Rachel Brown. In 2019 Lana worked with ERTH visual & physical inc. and featured as Jaz in Pretty Fly for a Dead Guy written by Lily Hensby as part of her honours show.
Lily Hensby is a Wollongong based actor, writer and director. She graduated from the University of Wollongong with a Bachelor of Performance (Acting) in 2017 and is currently completing an honours degree. Her work as a director includes Pretty Fly For A Dead Guy (Shopfront 2019), Central Plaza by Mark Rogers (UOW 2019) and The Magnificent Terrible Hottie Avery by Tasnim Hossain (Shopfront Senior Ensemble 2018). She has performed in Tom William Mitchell (Merrigong-X 2018) and Organs! (Shopfront, 2018).
Lana Filies and Lily Hensby: STALLS, a storytelling performance, is a relieving experience, creating an un-constipated kaleidoscopic view of the private and not so private universe within public urinals. Lana and Lily are being mentored by Lally Katz.
Tell us about your ArtsLab project
Our ArtsLab project, titled STALLS, explores the private and not-so private world of the public toilet. We aim to desensitise the audience and take away the taboo’ness’ of toilet talk through verbatim stories from ourselves and our smelly friends. STALLS aims to ask questions about the nature of this very normal thing we all do but never talk about.
What do you like to do when you aren’t art-making?
LANA: Singing in the car, shopping, eating Guzman, going to the beach or gym with my housemates and having cuddles with my puppy and my boyfriend.
LILY: Watching hours of good TV, reading, playing with cats, painting, writing, you know, all the boring smart stuff.
We both don’t really have an off switch to our creativity, all of our hobbies seem to involve being constantly on the lookout for inspiration and learning about good content for theatre making.
LUKE STANDISH
Luke Standish was born in Dubbo in NSW. Luke has recently graduated from the University of Wollongong Bachelor of Performance. While at university Luke travelled and Performed in Malaysia for Throne of Thorns, a rendition of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, performed in Mak Yong style. While attending university Luke worked with Linda Luke, Tim Maddock, Deborah Pollard, Chris Ryan, Cath Mckinnon and Janys Hayes. As well as working with writers such as Angela Betziene and Angus Cerini. Luke has always sought to expand his palette with the avant garde. His favourite artists include Marina Abramovic, Patricia Piccinini and Louis Theroux. Luke is currently attending the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, Advanced Actors Studio, as well as furthering himself in his BodyWeather Practice with short courses and retreats.
Part theatre, part documentary, STRIPPED unveils lived experiences of male exotic dancers, unpeeling perceptions and exposing the lives behind these vulnerable, strong, and extraordinary men. Luke is being mentored by David Williams.
Tell us about your ArtsLab project
LUKE: Stripped is a piece sourced from personal and shared experience of males in the sex industry, sharing moments of vulnerability and fear and giving you the show of your life.
What do you like to do when you aren’t art-making?
LUKE: I love the gym as well as being outside and my happy place will always be the Marrickville Park and laying down underneath the gum trees and letting the world pass me by.
ArtsLab 2020: Behind Closed Doors will run at 107 in Redfern from 26 February to 1 March. Season passes include access to the Industry Night.
