INTERNATIONAL

SHIGEAKI IWAI – JAPAN

Shigeaki Iwai’s recent works deal with issues of communication and multicultural phenomena in cities and rural areas around the world. He often conducts long-term fieldwork research prior to an exhibition. For Dialogue, between 1996 and 1999 Iwai filmed footage that records more than 60 languages spoken in multicultural cities in Europe and Asia. Iwai attempts to represent and reconstruct local communities or traditions in a contemporary way utilising a range of media including sound, text, video and installation. His work has been exhibited in Brisbane, Perth, London, Rotterdam, Aarhus, Stuttgart, Milan, Toronto, Havana, Bangkok and many cities in Japan. He has been involved in organizing a number of projects and educational workshops for people of all ages. He is currently lecturing at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

AHN, PIL-YUN – KOREA

Ahn, Pilyun studied sculpture at the College of Fine Arts, Seoul National
University. From 1990 to the present, she has held four private exhibitions;
Soul (1990), A Deep Mirror (1993), Journey into the Mirror (1993), Gambling (1994), and been involved in many collaborative shows.

The titles of her exhibitions reveal her profound spirit of searching into
fundamental matters of life. Through a synthesis of Western art practice and her local cultural traditions, Pilyun has explored the complexity of her
Korean identity, in the context of rapid globalisation and technological
development. This is reflected in the conjunctions she creates between
traditional Korean references (such as shamanistic rituals and hanchi –
traditional paper) and computer technology.

Alongside her two most recent solo exhibitions, Pilyun staged performances
to contribute to her diverse and unique exploration of sculpture,
installation and performance.

THREES ANNA – NETHERLANDS

Threes Anna is a writer and director from the Netherlands. Threes is currently working on her first feature, 'The Bird Can’t Fly' and her third novel, ‘Raw fish’, her second novel, ‘Motormoeder’ was published in January 2005.

After graduating from the Rietveld Academy of Arts – Amsterdam, in 1985 where she studied theatre design and audio-visual studies, Threes became a core member of the international theatre company – Dogtroep.
From 1989 to 1999 Threes was the Artistic Director of Dogtroep during which time she wrote and directed all Dogtroep’s shows and was responsible for the executive management of the company. She created over 50 theatrical spectacles across the globe. Performances were staged on the remains of the Berlin Wall, during the war in Belgrade and just after the first elections in South Africa, as well as in the snow at the Winter Olympics in France, in the slums of Uzbekistan, in the Royal Theatre Carré in Amsterdam and on an artificial lake at the World Expo in Seville. Most of these shows were open-air spectacles that drew audiences of over 65,000 people. Her fascination with extreme situations and locations was roused during this period. She challenged artists and actors to work in unusual environments.
For the spectacular performance 'Noordwesterwals', in which 1.2 million litres of water formed the lead role, Threes was inspired to make a short film. During this same period Threes made several documentaries on visual artists highlighting their work; ‘Brainstorm’, ‘Future’, ‘Theatre in South Africa’, ‘Fights’, ‘In the Netherlands, ‘The Wals’ and recently (2003) she made a portrait of a filmdirector ‘Portrait of Maarten’.

After 14 years of creating performances Threes began developing two feature film scripts. 'The Bird Can't Fly' (2001) was developed from dozens of interviews conducted in South Africa with a range of people from diverse social backgrounds within their own unique dwellings. The second, 'War for a Kiss', (2002) was inspired by the Indian film industry – Bollywood,
In June 2003 her first novel, De kus van de weduwe (The Widow’s Kiss), was published by Publishing House Vassallucci, Amsterdam. This novel has been nominated for two literary prizes in Holland and is in its fifth print run.

www.threesanna.com

AUSTRALIAN

ELIZABETH DRAKE – VICTORIA

Elizabeth trained as a classical pianist, studying in Melbourne, Siena and London. Her interest in theatre began while at Melbourne University where she produced music for many Melbourne University Student Theatre productions. While in London she developed her interest in new music and inter-disciplinary performance.

On her return to Australia she composed music for Pram Factory productions and formed a duo with Jan Cornall with whom she performed Failing in Love Again. While in Sydney she was introduced to film theory and developed theories of sound and music in film and contemporary theatre. She has lectured and written on these subjects. She received a Guild of Screen Composer’s Award for Special Achievement in Sound Design for her work on Breathing Underwater directed by Susan Murphy Dermody.
Returning to Melbourne she has composed the music for many theatre and dance productions and produced her own music theatre and performance works. These have been produced at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and in association with the ASTRA Choir. She has collaborated extensively with Jenny Kemp. She co-directed Call of the Wild and composed the music and sound design for Still Angela which has recently been on an Australian national tour with Mobile States. She has worked with Sandra Parker and Margie Medlin for the Danceworks’ production, In the Heart of the Eye.

She was the composer for Japanese Story and won the AFI Award for Best Original Music Score and the Film Critics Circle Award. In 2004 she was nominated for an ARIA award and won the APRA-AGSC Award for Best Feature Film Score.

DEREK KRECKLER – WA

Derek has developed craft competencies in several disciplines. He currently works at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts lecturing in Sound Design for theatre and film and at the Edith Cowan University School of Contemporary Arts as co-ordinator of Electronic Arts. Apart from his role as student mentor, he teaches conceptual skills and strategies for generating and organising design forms and narratives. Derek has mastered and utilises the following software in his teaching: Pro Tools HD and other TDM forms, Final Cut Pro HD, Photoshop (to a prepress level) and Quark publishing software.

Derek is also a practicing visual artist. Working in different media over the past 28 years, he has exhibited in Kwangju, New York, London and in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. His most recent exhibitions include The 2003 Clemenger Art Awards at the National Gallery of Victoria, The 2004 Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art and the 2004 Sydney Biennale. His current work deploys photography, sound and video.

Derek’s working life began as a fisherman and deckhand in the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1977 he travelled to Adelaide and studied in the South Australian School of Visual Arts four year, undergraduate programme. During his time at the school of art, Derek is proud of the fact that he did not produce a single object. Upon his graduation in 1980, his performance “Wet Dream” was selected for exhibition at the Biennale of Sydney. In 1990, Derek was invited to participate in the PS1 Artist’s in residence yearlong programme in New York. Over the past 15 years, he has had many exhibitions of his visual artwork and created several performances as a director and choreographer. His Theatre works include “Dali” co-written with David Field which toured to La MaMa in Melbourne and the Stables Theatre in Sydney. “sit.com” developed with five performers from the Side Track theatre group in Sydney and featured at the 1997 Perth International Arts Festival.

TERESA CREA, COORDINATING FACILITATOR – SA

Teresa Crea is a writer and director but her recent interests have gravitated more towards hybrid and new media art. Her work spans grass-roots and participatory projects, to contemporary experimental productions and live art events. Crea has commissioned and directed projects in digital media, including a series of sound and performance installations in Adelaide, Perth and Singapore.

Crea was awarded a New Media Arts Fellowship in 2003, her two-year Fellowship program beginning in 2004. Trained in film and theatre, Crea co-founded Australia's first professionally recognised bicultural performance company, Doppio Teatro, in 1983. She devised many bilingual works with the company, several of which toured nationally and internationally. Both the company and Crea have received national awards for their seminal contribution to multiculturalism in the arts.

As a creator and director, Crea has found herself working with an increasingly broad spectrum of artists, and making work across a variety of platforms. Working with large interdisciplinary teams has required her to act as a translator, mediator, negotiator and curator.

'...for me, one of the most exciting and yet to be defined areas of future practice exists in that space between cross-cultural and interdisciplinary/new media...'