We are delighted to welcome you to the annual Research Creation Showcase
in its expanded ‘up-late’ version. With the support of the School of Humanities
and Communication Arts, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, the Writing and
Society Research Centre, the Institute for Culture and Society, and Western
Sydney Creative, we are proud to present this eclectic and diverse celebration
of Western Sydney University’s most exciting thinkers, makers and storytellers.
After two years of ‘locked down’ online programming, 2022 celebrates the
return of our in-person-together event, and what better place to do it than at
one of Western Sydney’s most important cultural institutions. We’re grateful to
our event partner, the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (CPAC), as we could not
have accomplished this without their generous and exuberant encouragement
and support. This year’s Showcase takes full advantage of the opportunity
borne out of our partnership. From our earliest planning meetings we sought
to embrace the CPAC space, to fill it with the sounds, visions, ideas, voices and
people of Western Sydney. The program we have developed traverses multiple
forms, genres and platforms, from music, film, fashion and visual practice, to
online media, performance and writing. As you sample parts of the program, or
if you attend both the day and evening sessions, you will discover that Research
Creation is a hotbed of creative happenings. We open with 2022 Archibald
winner, Blak Douglas, talking about his practice and creative journey. This is
followed by a selection of artist-led workshops that take place both inside the
gallery and on the banks of the Georges River, while in the theatre (level 2) a film
program runs in parallel.
The afternoon session includes ‘lightning talks’ by Western Sydney University
creative thinkers and makers, the continuing film program, and a panel on art,
voice and activism led by award-winning filmmaker Dr Wendy Chandler, featuring
Blak Douglas and Timorese social justice campaigner and film producer Lurdes
Pires. The panel discussion anticipates the launch of Dr Chandler’s collaborative
online documentary and associated photographic exhibition Mobile Stories, an
innovative multimedia project that documents the stories of young social change
makers in Timor-Leste and Western Sydney.
The “up late” session kicks off with Jazz trio, Randomesque and the premiere
of Roger Frampton Comes Alive!—a documentary about the Sydney-based and
extraordinary Australian Jazz musician, Roger Frampton, written and directed by
his daughter Dr Emily Rytmeister. The music continues with the cool sounds
of the Giraffe Quartet.
The exhibition of the creative practices of Western Sydney University’s
artist-scholars are available all day on display in the main Turbine Hall.
In spite of every challenge the last two years has shown us, the making and
knowledge practices you will experience are testament to the resilience of
creative arts scholarship and their creators. The creative arts can inspire us to
understand and act in a timely fashion—with agency and across our gendered,
racial and bodily diversities. While the Research Creation Showcase 2022 offers
compelling examples of creative practice, we can also learn from the presenters
about the kinds of knowledges that are embedded in these works as emphatic
indicators of the importance of the creative arts and research in a time of change.
Professor Hart Cohen, Dr Rachel Morley and Ms Lina Gong
