Social Practice Sharing & Gathering

Interested in ethically engaging with people and communities through creative practice?  

Come along to Subiaco Arts Centre for an introductory session on social practice through offerings by previous Know Thy Neighbour (KTN) artists, learn more about the current callout for KTN #4, and come together with the SPACED team for chats and refreshments.  

 
3.30-4.20pm Introduction to Social Practice Workshop with Tanya Lee. 

4.30-5.30pm KTN Info & Artist Talk with previous KTN artists Ian Wilkes, Poppy van Oorde-Grainger, Chris Williams, Mei Swan-Lim, joined by SPACED KTN program manager Rebecca Riggs Bennett and SPACED Director Elizabeth Pedler.  

5.30-6.30pm Sector Gathering with refreshments.  

KTN is a residency program by SPACED, that asks local artists to re-contextualise the familiar throughout Perth's metropolitan areas, and deepen their engagement with people, places and ecologies to form socially engaged creative outcomes and temporary public art projects. Find out more about the current callout here: https://www.spaced.org.au/programs/know-thy-neighbour-4  

Workshop facilitation by Tanya Lee, with panel speakers Ian Wilkes, Poppy van Oorde-Grainger, Mei Swan Lim, and Chris Williams. More information about the artists presenting below.  

Tanya Lee is a female Western Australian artist originally from a remote wheat belt town and now based in Broome. Tanya is currently focused on teaching and engaging communities, and her previous works operate across sculpture, performance and drawing. Her practice looks at everyday tasks to create humorous, absurd and even futile narratives that subvert the protocols and politics of every day social environments. Her work has been shown in galleries across Australia including the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne. Her recent performance work Landing has toured nationally and been presented at Dark Mofo Hobart, the Festival of Live Art in Melbourne and Bleach* Festival on the Gold Coast.

Tanya’s studies included a year as a visiting scholar at the École Nationale Supérieur d’Art de Dijon (ENSAD) in Dijon, France. Before completing her MA (Fine Art) at Curtin University in 2009.

Read more about Tanya’s project Community News (2015-16) in collaboration with Simone Johnston, part of Know Thy Neighbour #1 and supported by host partner The Perth Voice newspaper. 
 

Ian Wilkes is a Noongar theatre-maker, dancer and performer. He is currently directing Blue for Black Swan State Theatre and has just completed Karla Bidi for Perth Festival. Ian is the co-writer and lead performer in Galup and co-writer and co-director of Galup VR Experience. He has performed numerous roles including in Yirra Yaakin's Hecate and Ochre’s Kwongan for Perth Festival, CO3’s The Line at State Theatre WA and Honey Spot at the Sydney Opera House. Ian won the Perth NAIDOC award for Artist of the Year 2021 and was Perth Festival’s Artistic Associate the following year, and directed the festival’s opening event Djoondal in 2023. Ian is also a founding facilitator of Culture 2.0, Yirra Yaakin's regional youth engagement program.   

Poppy van Oorde-Grainger is an artist, filmmaker, producer and founding director of Same Drum. She has made work for London International Festival of Theatre, Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and Ars Electronica in Austria and previously won the Fremantle Print Award and Australia Council Kirk Robson Award. Poppy was Creative Producer for Community Arts Network's Ngaluk Waangkiny, Burdiya Mob and Goomalling Yarns and was Community Arts Manager for YMCA WA where she established and ran their statewide youth arts program over five years. Poppy regularly delivers large-scale arts and digital media projects with multiple partners and large teams of contractors. 

Read more about Ian and Poppy’s project Galup (2018-19) in collaboration with Doolann-Leisha Eatts and Ted Wilkes part of Know Thy Neighbour #2. 

Mei Swan Lim / Mei Saraswati is a 37 year old mum who works at Joondalup library. She stays in Wanneroo and belongs to the Bahá’i community. On-and-off, she's a visual and sound artist and singer/composer whose work centres on the environmental, emotional and spiritual importance of place, inter-cultural investigation and storytelling. Her work stories otherworldly experiences of the everyday, looking through a spiritual lens at our environment and emotional places we inhabit. She also occupies her time creating portals into her cultural past (and future) through paper cutting, weaving, making video art, field recording, sound collaging and singing.  Her main artistic achievements include making life-long friends through the art and music communities and having the opportunity to work with the likes of Proximity Festival, Perth Festival, Yirra Yaakin, Art Gallery of WA, PICA and Eka.   

Read more about Mei’s project Land Sale (2018-2019) in collaboration with Matt Aitken, part of Know Thy Neighbour #2. 

Chris Williams is an artist who lives and makes work on the lands of the Whudjuk Noongar people in Boorloo/ Perth. His work spans performance, live art, installation, intervention and CACD.  Experimental, socially engaged and playful, his works often strive to engage a less art-exposed public through curious performative interventions in public spaces.  Chris was an artist with pvi collective since its inception in 1998 until 2022, has a BA in English and Philosophy, with a focus on Performance (Murdoch University), and studied Visual Arts at Curtin University.   

Read more about Chris’ project Field of the Unwanted (2018-2019) in collaboration with Green Brigade part of Know Thy Neighbour #2 and supported by host partners DADAA & St Patrick’s Community Support Centre. 

Subiaco Arts Centre is a wheelchair accessible venue. The bathrooms including one gender-neutral, wheelchair accessible bathroom are located on the ground floor. Alcohol will be served and snacks will be available during the last hour of the event. The room will be lit by a combination of natural afternoon sunlight and overhead fluorescent light.  

Event banner image: Chris Williams & Green Brigade, Field of the Unwanted (2018-19), part of Know Thy Neighbour #2 and supported by host partners DADAA & St Patrick’s Community Support Centre. Image by Gary Parris.