Meet the creatives living and working in reduced-rent spaces in the inner city

Multidisciplinary artists, musicians, performers and change-makers are creating in our live/work spaces.

Anthea Williams, theatre and film director

Award-winning theatre director and emerging film director Anthea Williams specialises in developing new Australian performance. Her work focuses on marginalised experiences by creating space for new and diverse voices working with radical narratives and processes in order to privilege the relegated and forgotten. She is interested in how silent histories can and do impact upon the present and is an advocate for disability rights.

Credit: Katherine Griffiths/City of Sydney
Shan Turner-Carroll, multi-disciplinary artist

An Australian artist of Burmese descent, Shan Turner-Carroll’s practice explores site-specificity and integrates mediums including photography, sculpture, performance and film. Shan describes himself as a trickster or magician, using everyday objects in his artmaking. Play, humour and experimentation are key elements.

Credit: Katherine Griffiths/City of Sydney
Emily Parsons-Lord, experimental contemporary artist

Emily Parsons-Lord makes ephemeral installations and performances informed by research and critical dialogue with climate sciences, natural history and politics through the material consideration of air.

Credit: Katherine Griffiths/City of Sydney
Kieran Bryant, multidisciplinary artist

Emerging autobiographical artist Kieran Bryant works across installation, photography, sculpture and video.

Credit: Katherine Griffiths/City of Sydney
Jonny Hawkins, multidisciplinary artist

A rising artist whose practice champions togetherness, queer celebration and the historical and contemporary stories of local LGBTIQ communities, Jonny Hawkins works across screen and personal essays. Jonny is a performance maker and event producer.

Credit: Katherine Griffiths/City of Sydney
Vidya Makan, composer, lyricist, actor and singer

Among her many other achievements, Vidya Makan is the inaugural recipient of the Create NSW Musical Theatre Fellowship, commissioning her to write a new Australian musical about suburban life for South Asian families.

Credit: Katherine Griffiths/City of Sydney

Every 18 months we offer creative studios and living spaces for people working in a creative field.

This program is managed by Brand X, a not-for-profit leading provider of affordable creative space in Sydney, providing artists and creatives with the opportunity of space to create.

Check out the latest tenants in our spaces at Darlinghurst and Nadeena Dixon at Waterloo.

Nadeena Dixon is a Wiradjuri, Yuin and Gadigal (Dharug-Boorongberrigal clan) multidisciplinary artist. Her practice encompasses printmaking and multi-platform production including photography, animation, video, editing, sound, webpage design, and integration. She is recognised as a master weaver in Indigenous cultural traditions and her cultural practices include dance, song, language, songwriting, contemporary theatre storytelling, and contemporary ceremony. She is also an experienced guitarist, singer and performance artist.

Daughters Wasana and Naryma Dixon are both graduates from COFA School of Art and Design and multidisciplinary artists working in illustration, web page design, photography, short film and animation.

Follow Brand X for more in-depth interviews and info about these artists.

Published 31 May 2022