WE ACKNOWLEDGE THE GADIGAL PEOPLE OF THE EORA NATION, THE TRADITIONAL CUSTODIANS OF THE LAND ON WHICH WE OPERATE
The space
The Waiting Room Project is a liminal space located in the Sydney Sexual Health Centre, of Sydney Hospital. As a way of alleviating the anxiety of a clinical waiting room, the project aims to display contemporary art that changes the way the space is occupied.
This project is for artists, designers, writers and curators who are particularly interested in the site-specificity of this non-white-cube environment and who are responsive to the experience of being in a health centre waiting room.
caretakers 2022
Sehej Kaur Sehmbhi
ਸਹਿਜ
She/Her
February 2022 - present
Sehej Kaur Sehmbhi is a Warrang based student currently in her 3rd year of Bachelor of Media Arts at UNSW Art & Design. Her artistic practice explores the lived experiences of the South Asian diaspora at an intersection with the psyche and surrealist landscape. As both a patient and artist, Sehej is interested in transforming and alleviating the medical anxieties the BIPOC community are often faced with.
Kaylee Rankin
She/they
February 2022 - present
Kaylee Rankin (B Arts/Fine Arts, UNSW A&D) is a Warrang based multidisciplinary artist working as one half of creative duo Spacefloss Collective. Her practice explores the intersection of desire and imposed shame through diverse materials to make works people can play with, put in their noses and pull apart. She is passionate about community led art spaces that priotritise expansive perspectives and reject the traditional western elitist and exclusionary structures of the arts world.
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Sarvika Mishra
सारविका
She/Her
February 2022 - present
Sarvika Mishra (B Media Arts, Hons, UNSW A&D) is a Warrang-based creative practitioner. Her research and works are informed by cultural resilience within the spheres of colonialism and climate change. She is interested in exploring an area of art writing and curation beyond the conventional western academic norm.
Melanie Raveendran
She/Her
February 2022 - present
Melanie Raveendran (B Art Theory & B Criminology, UNSW) is an emerging art theorist/curator based on Darug territory (Western Sydney). Her research and writing practice delves into the process of decolonisation, settler-colonial genocide and the South Asian diaspora. Consistently acknowledging and interrogating her position as both a settler and a minority in Australia, she aims to navigate layers of privilege, power imbalance and opportunities for healing. Melanie is currently undertaking a Master of Art Curating at USYD.
PREVIOUS
caretakers
Natalie Quan Yau Tso
左君悠
She/her
September 2020 - March 2022
Natalie Tso (B Fine Arts, 1st class honours, UNSW A&D) is a Warrang-based emerging artist and curator. Her artistic practice centres bodily memories as a means to process and survive trauma. She produces and engages with intimate materiality through participatory performances, to subsequently transform the material residues into sculptures and installations. Her curatorial practice aims to expand upon the process of internal decolonisation and explore art as a space for public healing.
Her instagram is @nataliequanyautso
View her other works here
Jodie "Joey" Sim
單袓𠒇/兒
She/they
September 2020 - May 2022
Joey/Jodie Sim is a Warrang (Sydney) based multidisciplinary artist-curator engaged in locating the diasporic experiences of familiarity and a sense of home. Her artistic and curatorial practice considers the ways conversations can be facilitated in hopes of creating spaces of comfort within a diverse range of experiences. Joey has completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) at UNSW Art & Design.
Her instagram is @jodie_sim
Her other works are here
THE WRITING ROOM COORDINATOR
Eric Jiang
he/him
September 2020 - January 2022
Eric is a writer/artist whose work explores queerness, time, the Chinese diaspora, and friendship. In 2020, he took part in the National Studio, a playwriting program held by Australian Theatre for Young People, and participated in the Laboratory, facilitated by Montague Basement and Kings Cross Theatre (KXT). Eric was a recipient of Shopfront’s ArtsLab residency in 2020, for which he created a short art film. His creative writing is published or is forthcoming in Voiceworks, Going Down Swinging, Meanjin blog, Rabbit and I Am Not A Virus. He tweets at @squeric_.
PREVIOUS Curators
Joel Humphries
July 2019 - February 2020
Assistant curator: February 2019 - June 2019
Joel Humphries (B Art Theory, UNSW A&D) is an emerging curator and occasional artist based in Sydney. His curatorial practice seeks to find alternative contexts for art, in an attempt to expand audiences and perspectives. He has a particular interest in video and media art, writing as practice, and queer theory.
Upasana Papadopoulos
October 2018 - June 2019
Upasana Evangelia Papadopoulos (M Art Curating, Uni. Syd) is an emerging curator with a particular interest in creating and discovering art spaces that inspire dynamic dialogues and interactions between artists and audiences. She has a background in art history, curating, media studies, writing, music/performance and psychology with a particular interest in its contribution to advocacy, justice and empowerment. She has curated exhibitions and art spaces in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.