Currently, as part of my ArtKeeper project, I am focused on sewing all the applique pieces that will soon be stitched down on the large theatre curtains I’m using to create the immersive textile scene for my ‘Quietly Seething’ installation work. I’ve also been working from George Carpenter’s recording studio along with a selection of my friends, family and peers who have been helping me read out 60 responses I collected last year from female identifying people about their experience and relationship with feminine rage. These recordings will make up the audio component of my installation. 

I am in a really fun and exciting point in my project right now. I have written well over 100 poems and am now in the process of plucking out the best ones while creating new poems in response to my band's national tour, and cultural yarns I am having with my Aunty Pat Torres. The work has many different themes, currents, colours and directions but is currently united under the working title banner of: Damn Good Television. My goal for the end of the ArtKeeper project is to have a manuscript ready to send off for publishing and am already in talks about getting the work published! So, in short, I am refining the poems I have already written madly, and madly writing more poems.

I've recently finished a third draft of my short film script for Birds of Paradise, following two rounds of notes from our mentor Wesley Enoch. Wesley's insights and expertise as a playwright made this process incredibly helpful and rewarding. I'm now in the process of compiling a detailed reference guide of images from 1960s Gold Coast to inform the character designs, animated story-world and key-frame artworks for the film. So far this has involved visits to local secondhand bookshops and selecting a spread of relevant photographs from HOTA's Gold Coast City collection. Shortly I'll begin working with my animator and designer Jack Grayson on developing a visual language for the film and interpreting our reference images for animation.

My ArtKeeper work has undergone quite a metamorphosis in the making process so far. I’ve done a lot of research into the practices, traditional stories and rituals of farewell around the world that have helped me to uncover and write some exciting elements for my new theatre work, ‘Awake’. I recently had my amazing collaborator Victoria Falconer here from Sydney for a creative development where we explored the live music elements and sound design ideas for the show, as well as uncovered the characters, style and dramaturgical structure of the greater work. Next up for me is a deep dive into writing, editing and testing my first full draft of this work, while Vicky is working on selection, arrangement and composition for some of the music we will include. It’s an exciting and daunting task, and my challenge now is to let myself be ambitious while also staying open and letting the work lead me where it wants to go. We are already getting so excited to share an excerpt of the greater work, as well as our plans for its future, with the HOTA community in July. We hope to see you there!

I've been working hard to complete a locked off draft of the pilot episode of my audio drama 'The Neighbour' set in an apartment in Burleigh Heads. Recording of that episode with actors will be happening in early May. Once recording is complete, I'll be moving into post-production with my sound designer Nick van Cuylenberg so that we have a shiny edited recording complete by the end of the residency in July.