Flux + Flow

Caroline Garcia is former Western Sydney, currently Brooklyn NYC based contemporary artist. Her practice traverses a highly personalized aggregation of distinct systems that interlace ethnotraditional forms of knowledge (such as dance, botany, poetry, and ceramics) with digital technologies (including green screening, robotics, motion capture, extended realities (AR/VR), and 3D practices). Her aesthetic approach is often humorous and playful, and at times irreverent. Caroline’s practice is shaped by alterity. In her work, she centers peripheral bodies by adopting the role of shape shifter - sliding into the gaps between cultures and experiences of otherness.  She employs the mimetic capacities of the Filipina/x archetype as a tool to migrate gestures and ritual. 

Caroline is a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow: Digital/Electronic Arts, a 2021 New York Artadia Awardee, a 2021-22 Franklin Furnace Fund recipient, and the 2018/19 American Australian Association’s AUSART Fellow. She has presented work at The Shed, Lincoln Center, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Smack Mellon, Creative Time Summit X, and The Vera List Center, among others (all NYC) Sydney Opera House, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Carriageworks, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, The Australian Center of the Moving Image, The Institute of Modern Art Brisbane, s well as DARK MOFO, RISING Festival, Channels: The Australian Video Art Festival, Proximity Festival, Underbelly Arts Festival, NEXT WAVE, The Festival Of Live Art, Junction Arts Festival, Sydney Contemporary Manila Biennale, Art Central Hong Kong, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Galerie Tanja Wagner, and Salzburger Kunstverein, among others.                                                                                                                                                                              

She was an artist in residence at the EMPAC in 2016/17, The Studios at MASS MoCA in 2019, awarded the Edwards Charitable Giving Trust Residency at ISCP in 2020, a Tech Resident at Pioneer Works, as well as an Experimental Projects resident at the Institute for Electronic Arts in 2021. She was a CultureHub Resident, a Wave Hill Winter Workspace artist, a Recess Session artist for 2021-22, and in the LMCC Workspace program for 2022-23. Caroline is an MFA in Fine Arts graduate from Parsons The New School of Art, Media, and Technology.  

Kristina Mah is an artist, design researcher and martial artist from a Burmese and Filipino cultural background. Her work is positioned at the intersection of philosophy, science, art and design. Kristina integrates somatic and contemplative research approaches and she is interested in exploring consciousness and being and relationalities across social, cultural and ecological contexts. Her research draws inspiration from ancient wisdom traditions and emphasises embodied knowledge and lived experience to explore how to create experiences that translate wisdom and compassion for public engagement. Her practice takes form primarily as installation, combining video, photography, mixed media, and digital and interactive technologies that are informed through ritual, gesture, geometries, architecture and sensory experience.  

CB City (Ashbury) resident Kristina has exhibited in contemporary and media arts exhibitions and festivals including VIVID Sydney. She graduated from the University of Sydney with a PhD in human-computer interaction and she works as a post-doctoral researcher with the Urban Interfaces Lab under an ARC Discovery Project exploring the future of autonomous mobility. Kristina has practiced karate for over 30 years, and she is a 5th Dan black belt (Renshi) in Go-Ju Ryu Karate-do. She became the first female Renshi at her club, Miyagi Kan Karate. Kristina has competed at the highest level in her sport since 2001. She is currently ranked number 1 in Australia in her event, and she is the current Oceania Champion and Australian Champion.  

Michellie Jade Charvat is a proud Palawa Tasmanian Islander woman living on Dja Dja Wurrung Country (Bendigo, Victoria). Her artwork explores her personal relationship with her Aboriginal culture and spiritual practices, beliefs and wisdom through the context and discipline of Martial Arts, Muay Thai.  

 
Her process uses digital drawing, print media, photography and audio with a commentary on the politics surrounding women in martial arts and cultural appropriation. Her Muay Thai training has led her to reconnect with her warrior heritage as a direct descendant of Mannalargenna; a spiritual warrior that fought to protect his tribe and family during the colonisation of Tasmania. Fighting is in her ancestral bloodline. It felt safe to welcome this passion into her identity, art practice and life in a deep way. In addition to being a practising artist, Michellie is a dedicated artist-educator and Partnership Manager with Australians Together, supporting teachers and schools to embed First Nations perspectives confidently and appropriately. She is continuing to complete her degree in Creative Arts from La Trobe University.