Speaker Bios:
Marco Cuevas-Hewitt is a writer, cultural theorist, lapsed anarchist, and would-be blimp pilot currently based in Perth. Works-in-progress include escaping the PhD black hole and overcoming political depression. Operating in the interstices between art, activism and academia, his diverse projects aspire to liberating the imagination from the dictatorship of reason.
Tim Gregory is a cultural theorist and artist based in Perth. He is Lecturer in Theory at Curtin University. His current focus is on the political potentiality of pornography and the sexually explicit to disrupt our conservative relationship with the image. He has published in international journals and undertaken artistic projects for the Museum of Contemporary Art, NSW Art Gallery and Latrobe Regional Gallery. In both his practice and research, Gregory attempts to disrupt, confuse and contest the normative pressures that categorize the visible.
Danius Kesminas‘ arts practice is project-based, multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural, inter-medial and highly collaborative. Of central concern to Kesminas is the consideration of trans-nationality as an intellectual framework to rethink the concepts of globalisation, and regional and cultural specificity. Kesminas founded PUNKASILA, an artist collective project featuring seven young artists from Yogyakarta including: “Hahan” Uji Handoko Eko Saputro, Rudy “Atjeh” Dharmawan, “Iyok” Prayoga Satrio Utomo, Janu Satmoko, Prihatmoko “Moky” Catur, Gde Krisna Widiathama and Wimo Ambala Bayang. PUNKASILA are In Confidence artists.
Lynn Lu is a performance artist based in London. Lu’s work explores gender and identity, her performances respond to the physical space and underlying themes of the exhibition, they create resonating relationships between herself, the audience, and between members of the audience themselves. Lu is an In Confidence artist.
John Mateer is a Perth-based writer and independent curator with a mixed heritage and a deep interest in cross-cultural relations. He has for some time been observing Australia’s associations with Europe, America and Asia and how this feeds artists living within these environments. John curated In Confidence.
Hayati Mokhtar lives and works in Kuala Lumpur. Her practice utilises the moving image to observe and comment on defining the landscape, its buildings and its people. Deeply rooted in her work are the ideas surrounding memory, place and belonging. Mokhtar is an In Confidence artist.
Hossein Valamanesh is a sculpture and installation-based artist who works predominately with ideas relating to memory, cultural dislocation, loss and the progression of time. As an Iranian born, Australian based artist his work combines elements from both cultures in an elegant and often playful way. Valamanesh is an In Confidence artist.