FOUNDERS
2023 & 2024
enough.studio |
https://www.instagram.com/foldingshovel/
| BIO: Architectural designer, optimistic activist, artistic adventurer and strong swimmer. |
| CONTRIBUTION: Dreaming, drawing and scheming. |
| BIO & CONTRIBUTION: I like to get shit done, rolling with ideas that emerge from our collective hive mind. I take the opportunity to be creative with waste and to find ways we can express our dreams and frustrations by activating new ways to relate to our world. I have worked to care for our bush, grow healthy food and build sustainable homes. Now I make art to shift the narrative from passive consumer of late stage capitalism to neo-utopian collectivism grounded in care for country as part of country. |
Ellie Hannon
| BIOGRAPHY: Ellie Hannon is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Newcastle NSW that works across exhibitions, public art and community-engaged projects. These process-led actions fuel Hannon’s visual account presenting personal and political issues in relation to place. Informed through her involvement with community art projects, and environmental and social justice communities, Ellie makes art as a means to connect with a sense of place that prioritises relationship building and reparation, both internal and external, self and environment, the simple and complex. |
| CONTRIBUTION: I’ve worked on the Art Raft Project as a facilitator, community connector, and builder/maker. My purpose was to collaborate with a community of skilled artists, dreamers and makers, discovering how our combined strengths could create something truly special and beautiful—both for the river and a manifestation of collective action. |
Alexander Holt
https://www.instagram.com/sixteen.wooden.fire.hangers/| BIO: I am a social work student and I like to do things that make sense and entertain me. I am drawn to projects which through art, play, community and caring for Country, challenge the settler colonial narrative. |
| CONTRIBUTION: I love the ArtRaft. I like how it has grown both intentionally and organically. It has been an opportunity to express my different skill sets. I helped facilitate, developed systems and built things, while colaborating with some phenomenal artists and friends. I am really excited to see where this one goes. |
2024 CREW
SPONSERS of ART RAFT
RISING TIDE
https://www.risingtide.org.au/
https://www.instagram.com/risingtide.aus/
About us
We are the rising tide of ordinary people, called by extraordinary times. We are a diverse movement demanding Australia honours our commitment to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. We are prepared to take whatever peaceful actions are within our power to defend the climate.
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Nissa Phillips
https://www.instagram.com/nissaleee/| BIO: For me, nature is art. We just need to have the eyes to see the beauty, and everything in its complex relationship.. I love this country, and I want to help protect it. I have been involved in helping to construct a native forest on the elders raft. There are local and medicinal species on board to make tea. I am a social ecologist, gardener and herbalist. I am also deeply passionate about working with first nations people's, and have deep respect for First Nation's knowledge. CONTRIBUTION: I have mostly helped with building a native forest on the elders raft. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
Genevieve Kenworthy
https://www.instagram.com/genworthy/| BIO: I'm Gen, I'm a teacher and artist. This project has been a culmination of my passions - friendship, making, play, and the natural environment. CONTRIBUTION: I'm on the design and build team. I've worked on the raft structures, the drapes, and I lead the whale lantern project. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
https://www.instagram.com/its.chrisbrown/| BIO: Chris Brown is a multi-disciplinary artist exploring identity, memory, place, and environment. Working across photography, installation and performance, Brown's practice blurs art and life. Driven by curiosity and collaboration, Brown's work fosters dialogue and challenges viewers to question their perceptions. Innovative and playful, Brown is constantly evolving, harnessing the queerness of nature as a central driving force of inspiration. Browns work engages audiences in conversations about our interconnected world. CONTRIBUTION: Chris has been documenting the construction process of the art rafts using a range of alternative silver-gelatine based photomedia approaches, supporting group discussions and assisting with materials collection and processing. |
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Therese Keogh
| http://www.THERESEKEOGH.com |
| BIO: Therese is an artist and writer living and working on unceded Awabakal and Worimi Country. |
| CONTRIBUTION: Brainstorming, listening, Underwater audio recordings from Awabakal and Worimi Country and Sea Country ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
Brontë Naylor
@brontenaylor
http://www.bronte-naylor.com
CONTRIBUTION: Bronte Naylor has developed and managed graphic design, digital assets, data collection, and web-based platforms for ART RAFT. Collaborating with Therese Keogh, she has co-created an interactive "game" that invites both artists and non-artists to contribute artworks to the central “COMMUNITY CONSTELLATION.
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Holly Macdonald
https://www.instagram.com/h_ollymacdonald| BIO: Holly Macdonald is a visual artist living and working in Newcastle on unceded Awabakal and Worimi Country. Her practice is founded in ceramics and combines handbuilding in clay with installation, drawing, and interdisciplinary collaboration to explore the relationship between maker, material, and place. As well as maintaining a studio practice, she teaches ceramics and has contributed time and enthusiasm to organisations such as The Creator Incubator (Muloobinba/ Newcastle), The Australian Ceramics Association and Firstdraft (Warrane/Sydney). CONTRIBITOIN I’m keeping the budget balanced and lending a hand where I can. |
Reily Kibble
https://www.instagram.com/queer.ry/?hl=en| BIO: Part-time cowboy, bird noticer and lover of all beaches. CONTRIBUTION: Collecting materials, processing recycled timber, building raft structures, strapping barrels, lifting heavy things, transportation and brainstorming counterpart. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
Lara Merrett
https://www.instagram.com/laramerrett/ | BIO: I’m a Sydney/ Gadigal based visual artist whose work interrogates the relationship between painting and its place through an expanded painting practice, that invites us to enter and navigate its folds. |
| CONTRIBUTION: My contribution is re using part of a previous painting installation as a shade cloth and or fabric structure on the Art Raft. |
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https://www.instagram.com/a_thinking_hand/| BIO: my hands do the talking through the tools. CONTRIBUTION: Scattered here and there over the last month for the weekly working bees, collecting drift wood, de-nailing studs and building raft bases |
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Sinead Waiteshttps://www.instagram.com/sinbad7546/ |
David Vardeh
Person of mystery
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https://www.instagram.com/bonbonbonza/ |
| CONTRIBUTION: I’ve followed the journey of Art Raft with my camera the last two years, coming along to builds, meetings and test launches to document the creation and development of the Art Raft/s. Along with contributions of sewing the sails and helping out with building and making. It’s been a beautiful time watching Art Raft and collective grow and move with intentional creativity to offer spaces of joy and play for community. And the build has been much the people involved, I’ve felt very supported and trusted to learn and grow my skill set while contributing to the project! |
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Womens Welding Workshop |
| BIO: Naomi Wilde is a mixed media artist with a background in sculpture, puppetry and dance. CONTRIBUTION: Carpentry, assembly and good times |
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| BIO: I’m a multidisciplinary artist mainly focused in sculpture based in Muloobinba Newcastle. Through my visual art practice, I pay homage to textures and shapes found in nature. Skill-sharing is also a passion within my creative practice. The more we encourage people to express their creative selves, the more vibrant the world of art becomes. |
| CONTRIBUTION: The art raft has been a beautiful emergent art project. I feel lucky I was asked to be a part of this second iteration of this interactive installation in the world’s largest coal port, at the mouth of the Hunter river. This is the second year of the art raft’s presence at the Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port. The first year was a very fun installation. This year, we have included something a bit closer to the heart, as well as a focus on play. Come play and create intentions with us! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
Alana Mundi
| https://www.instagram.com/alanamundi |
| BIO: Alana Mundi is a musician, mother, performance artist and all round bad arse babe. She has played in bands such as Sycorax, The Bits, The Beef Curtains and Thrasha Polka. She has been at the heart of Newcastle’s cultural scene for over 30 years, holding hearts and making waves. CONTRIBUTION: Ratcheted some drums to a deck, not much at all but I had many chats with the core crew believing in their creations and abilities. I love the Art Raft so much. I’ll be running karaoke from a raft at the Blockade event too. |
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Heidi Axelsen & Hugo Moline
https://www.instagram.com/_m_a.p_a_/?hl=enBIO & CONTRIBTION: Heidi Axelsen and Hugo Moline @_m_a.p_a_ have donated bespoke sewn panels for the house artraft from their Owner Occupy project originally commissioned by Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. A series of mobile dwelling machines imagining a different future of speculative real estate. Reappropriated into the artraft house for the Rising Tide, the selective colour pallete, eyelets and carefully sewn in window panels afloat in Newcastle Harbour somehow echoes the fragility of the system we have built our lives upon.