We invited a range of participants whose work touches on some key themes and approaches that were important to us in the project, and which reflect our interests as Fugitive Moments. These include investigations of landscape; the effect of technology on how we see the world; the presence of the past in the present and a desire to engage with the rich historical vectors that the Bundian Way possesses.
Some of the participants are artists, some are academics and writers, activists and historians. We feel these practices can sift through and stir up our collective understanding of place(s) and history and create new representations and openings.
Bradley L. Garrett
Bradley L. Garrett is a cultural geographer based at the University of Sydney. After a brief career as an archaeologist for the United States Bureau of Land Management, he moved to London in 2008 and began sneaking into lost, forgotten and off-limits places in the city, photographing them, and sharing them with the public. His first book, Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City (Verso Books 2013), is an account of his adventures trespassing into ruins, tunnels and skyscrapers in eight different countries. Brad is currently at work on a new book called Bunker (Penguin/Scribner in 2019), which traces the cultural history of apocalyptic imaginations.
Joe Hamilton
Joe Hamilton (b. 1982 Tasmania) makes use of technology and found material to create intricate and complex compositions online, offline and in-between. His recent work questions our established notionsof the natural environment within a society that is becoming increasingly networked.
Hamilton holds a BFA from the University of Tasmania and an MA from RMIT in Melbourne. His work has been shown to great extent internationally with recent group exhibitions at The Moving Museum Istanbul, The Austrian Film Museum, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and The New Museum in New York.
Paris Norton
Paris Norton is a Gamilaroi woman with Irish and Maori heritage, living on Wiradjuri country in Dubbo NSW. Norton’s work is a visual response to the emotions surrounding her cultural identity and its relationship to contemporary Australia, utilising photography and found materials. In 2012 Norton held her First solo exhibition in Baradine, NSW with works exploring the connections between people and place. She has won prizes in the Outback Archies, Art Unlimited and participated in the 2013 Left Field Project with Orana Arts. She returned to the project in 2016 as an Alumnus to further develop her creative practice. In 2017 Norton will exhibit her work in Walan Yinaagirbang–Strong Women at Firstdraft Gallery in Sydney, Cementa Festival in Kandos, currently on display a solo exhibition at the Western Plains Cultural Centre as a part of the Homeground program, Mudgee Readers Festival exhibition and the development of new works for a 2018 solo show with First Draft Sydney.
Maurial Spearim
Maurial Spearim is an Indigenous woman from the Gamilaraay, Kooma, Muruuwari nation. A VCA graduate with a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts Degree, Maurial continues to collaborate with a wide range of artists who, much like herself, have a passion to co-create, develop and perform. Maurial is interested in exploring theatre, song,and dance through the expressions of the body and the utterance of the voice, where artforms are combined to create a story evocative of past and present. Credits include We Get It, Elbow Room/Neon Festival MTC 2015; Wentworth, Foxtel 2013/2015; Secret River 2015, Redfern Now tele-movie 2015; Who Stole The Sole state tour, Phunkitional Arts Limited 2013-2015; BalaaBalaa Yuli-Gi dancer 2015; Skin Choir Songlines, Aboriginal Music Corporation 2012-2014; Body Armor state and national tour, Ilbijerri Theatre Company 2010-2013; Seven Sisters dancer 2010-2013; Move It Mob Style dancer 2012.
Miya Tokumitsu
Dr Miya Tokumitsu is a lecturer in Early Modern art history at the University of Melbourne. She is a former Fulbright scholar (Germany) and her research has also been supported by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts in Washington, DC. Her art historical research focuses primarily on artisanal labour of 15th- and 16th-century Europe, but she is interested in rhetorics of work and labour across the ages. She is the author of Do What You Love. And Other Lies about Success and Happiness (Regan Arts, 2015) and is a contributing editor at Jacobin.
Barnaby Lewer
Barnaby Lewer is one half of Fugitive Moments with Tristan Deratz. He has, at various times, been a union organizer, researcher, PhD candidate, and digital campaigner. After completing the MA of Culture, Criticism & Curation at Central Saint Martins, London in 2016 he has been involved in curatorial projects that interrogate the intersection of exhibition making, art, critical theory and history. He is also a published writer and currently works at Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
Tristan Deratz
Tristan is one half of Fugitive Moments. He is an artist who explores the behaviour and emotional possibilities of digital technologies. A graduate of Sydney College of the Arts, he also studied under Josephine Pryde at the Universitat der Kunste, Berlin. He was recently artist-in-residence at technology research lab Metalworks by Maxus in New York and works as Digital Producer for MCA Australia.
* Due to unforeseen circumstances, Paul Gorrie, Gunai/Kurnai and Yorta Yorta man, Blacktivist, environmentalist, teacher and artist was unable to join the trip at the last minute. His presence was greatly missed and a planned performance/intervention by the environmental activist, Jonathan Moylan, during the Underbelly Arts Festival is our nod to Paul.
Alexandra Porter-Hepworth and Tylor Wilson provided invaluable logistic support and company for the walk. Thank you!