Harriet Gillies
Photo credit Joseph Mayers
Scott Baker
Photo courtesy of the artist
The Cad Factory (Narrandera) and Brand X (Sydney) are committed to a rural and urban flow of artistic exchange and learning. This residency program gives a regional artist studio space in the Sydney CBD and gives a Sydney artist studio space in rural NSW.
The residencies will allow artists to connect with different communities, build industry connections and give time and space to develop work. It is a self-led and self-determined residency where artists can explore their practice within a different context. The aim of the program is to have meaningful dialogue between the art ecologies of regional and metropolitan NSW.
Brand X will host regional artists in their City of Sydney Creative Studios.
The Cad Factory will host Sydney artists in their recording studio.
2024 Applications have now closed.
Artists
Natalie Power
Natalie Power is a conceptual artist working with a variety of discarded/reclaimed materials and objects from the domestic realm. Natalie’s work often sits in consideration of "negative spaces" by using repetition and pattern visually in installations or through performance. In focusing on the space in between lines or objects, she is aiming to disrupt, challenge or change dominant narratives. Natalie makes durational performances under the pseudonym E.L.Elliott that takes a feminist approach to repetition, monotony, meditation, ritual, text and poetry.
Natalie Power (2022)
Natalie Power is a conceptual artist working with a variety of discarded/reclaimed materials and objects from the domestic realm. Natalie’s work often sits in consideration of "negative spaces" by using repetition and pattern visually in installations or through performance. In focusing on the space in between lines or objects, she is aiming to disrupt, challenge or change dominant narratives. Natalie makes durational performances under the pseudonym E.L.Elliott that takes a feminist approach to repetition, monotony, meditation, ritual, text and poetry.
Nick Wishart (2023)
Nick is an interdisciplinary artist and musician working with sound, light and interactivity. A large part of his practice over the last 25 years has involved writing, playing and recording music for live theatre and moving the image. He also works with video, code and embedded electronics. Most recently he’s been researching and creating a new instrument called ‘Round Sounds’ that use gyroscopes and accelerometers to turn human movement into sound and music. Created for the physical performer they are the perfect sonic bridge between musician and dancer.
Julie Montgarrett (2023)
Julie Montgarrett is a textile artist, curator and former University lecturer who has been exhibiting since the late 1970s. She has lived on Wiradjuri country (Wagga Wagga NSW) for almost three decades. Her practice has included solo and group exhibitions, site-specific installations, public art commissions and ground-breaking community-based arts projects in Australia and internationally. Her works are included in major Australian Collections.
Artists
Harriet Gillies (2024)
Harriet Gillies is an award-winning performance artist whose work spans digital, durational, participatory, visual, immersive, new writing and hybrid text forms of contemporary performance. She has presented across Australia, New Zealand, Germany and North America. Recent sold-out projects include 8/8/8: WORK created with Marcus McKenzie for RISING Festival 2022, an eight-hour theatre piece lampooning work life in a post-capitalist world, which won a Green Room award (Outstanding Work: Contemporary & Experimental Performance). She currently tours Queer Powerpoint with Xanthe Dobbie and Thom Smyth (Unfunded Empathy) as an ongoing series of niche deep-dives, presenting at the Sydney Opera House, Western Australian Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Biennale, Pleasures Playhouse and Grey Area in Taiwan.
Scott Baker (2024)
Based in Bermagui on Djringanj land of the Yuin People on the far south coast of NSW, Scott Baker is a multidisciplinary artist pushing pixels around since the late 90s when floppy disks were currency. Agile and adaptable, he works with live audio-visual performance, audio-visual installation and large-scale video projections exploring site specific responses to life, the universe, and everything. You’ll find him facilitating immersive community art experiences (The (Un)Usual, Trail of Light and Sound), doing visuals at festivals (Rainbow Serpent, Giiyong), projecting visuals on ski runs (Illuminate Thredbo) or performing under the musical alias Abre Ojos. He is also the lead creative for the Bioluminescence Project giving young people hands-on experience in the creative industries.
'Akavata at Brand X
Saturday 10 December 2022, 5pm - 9pm
City of Sydney Creative Studios, 119 Bathurst Street, Sydney
Wagga Wagga artist Natalie Power will be in residence at the City of Sydney Creative Studios from 5 – 18 December and will perform at this event.
Old is New, New is Old Launch
Saturday 25 November, 7:30pm - 9pm
Narrandera Parkside Cottage Museum
An opening of five new artworks, including 'Beacon of Hope' by Nick Wishart.
Scene Shift Residency 2023
17 - 31 July 2023 and 13 November - 4 December 2023
City of Sydney Creative Studios, 119 Bathurst Street, Sydney
and the Cad Factory Studio, Sandigo
Sydney-based artist Nick Wishart will spend 2 x two weeks exploring his practice and developing new work in the Cad Factory's studio, while Riverina-based artist Julie Montgarrett will be researching for a new exhibition to be presented in 2025, while in residence at the Brand X Creative Studios in Sydney.
Paper Cuts and Blind Ambitions: An artist insight with Julie Montgarrett
Saturday 2 December, 2pm-3pm
City of Sydney Creative Studios
Join contemporary textile artist Dr. Julie Montgarrett for a discussion around her socially-engaged creative practice; combining fabric, embroidery and community to unpick the historical threads of Australian grand narratives.
Public Programs
Watch Nick and Julie's reflections on their 2023 residencies
This project is a partnership between Brand X and the Cad Factory.
In 2023, this project has been supported by Create NSW and Regional Arts Australia through their Regional Arts Fund. The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government initiative that supports sustainable cultural development in regional, remote and very remote Australia.
In 2024, this project has been supported by Create NSW and Creative Australia.
