Spirit Wave artists Tom Isaacs, Miho Watanabe and Tym Yee discuss how spirituality can underpin and influence contemporary art making. The conversation is led by Council’s Curator Cassandra Hard Lawrie and Researcher and Independent Curator Rachael Kiang. The talk will finish with a tour of the Spirit Wave exhibition at Art Space on The Concourse.
The talk will take place in the Willoughby Room at Chatswood Library.
Image: Miho Watanabe, Awareness of Between-ness Memory and Time, Assembly - sounds (detail), 2022, photo transfer and acrylic paint on silk
About Tom Isaacs
Tom Isaacs is a Sydney-based artist, working in the fields of performance and textile art. His practice draws from psychoanalytic theory, philosophy, religious and ritual practices, and art history to explore themes of mental illness, mortality, and the human condition. Tom graduated from Sydney College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (with Honours) in 2008 and a PhD in 2022. His PhD research concerned the relationship between ritual, psychoanalysis and body art, and how these different streams of thought address the problem of alienation. Tom is a Sessional Academic at the University of Sydney.
About Miho Watanabe
Miho Watanabe is a Sydney-based intercultural artist with a background in commercial photography in Japan and Australia. Despite her commercial work, her artwork destroys photography, using mixed media and painting to explore her concept of ‘Between-ness’. She studied painting/drawing and further researched photography, painting and mixed media at UNSW. Currently she is finalising her practice-led PhD research at Australian National University.
About Tym Yee
Tym Yee is an emerging artist living and working in Sydney, Australia, on the lands of the Darug and Guringai people. Drawing on his lived experiences as a second generation Chinese Australian and through the use of unconventional materials, he offers a distinct interpretation of contemporary Australian life through conceptual installations and paintings. His work uses humour, interactivity, and intrigue to engage audiences with themes such as cultural diversity, immigration, and Australian history, among other personal curiosities.
About Rachael Kiang
Rachael Kiang is an independent curator and arts manager with an abiding interest in socially engaged, intercultural visual arts and art that intersects with science and technology. She believes Contemporary Art is key to developing Asia literacy. She is currently the Interim CEO of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.
This event is part of the Council curated exhibition Spirit Wave and Chatswood Culture Bites.