Adele Varcoe
Skin stylist and kooky lady extraordinaire. Adele is just about to complete her Masters in Design at RMIT University, Melbourne, where she teaches in the School of Fashion Design. Her Masters project, inspired by the story of the Emperor's New Clothes, involves using special effects make-up to style a person's skin like a garment on the body. She has also worked as a special effects artist on several films. Adele has starred in two of my videos (Rebreathe and Greenwashing) and is my partner in crime on the Hand to Mouth project where her calm and relaxed manner is a welcome counterpoint to my adrenalin pumping pace.
Pia Ednie-Brown
Pia the all round perfectionist is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT. She writes, teaches and undertakes ambitious projects that are very difficult to get 'just right'. As a result she often works way too hard. In addition to getting down to the nitty gritty with me as my Masters supervisor we have worked together on several projects including Skins of Intimate Distance and the BioSpatial Workshop (on which I was artist-in-residence). She continues to be one of my closest intellectual confidants.
Sarah Martinus
Sarah is an exceptionally talented lass whose workaholic tendencies are far too well developed for one so young. It was my pleasure to act as both mentor and model for Sarah through her final year as a student of Fashion Design at RMIT. Kudos to anyone responsible for designing vomit into a fashion collection. Sarah was involved in the BioSpatial Workshop and worked with Adele and myself on Hand to Mouth.
Cheryl Wheatley
Cheryl was named after her Dad's ex-girlfriend. By the time her Mum found out it was already on the birth certificate and she couldn't change it.... This among many other gems have come my way while working with Cheryl on several performance projects over the course of the last eight years. Cheryl is a professional performer, community artist and choreographer who has performed on two of my projects How to Turn Your Solar Plexus into a Terrorist and Hand to Mouth.
Caitlin Berrigan
Watch this space! Caitlin is so determined, dedicated and damn smart that she is going to send herself into orbit if she's not careful. A fellow food worker and biofascinator currently completing her MFA at MIT, my relationship with Caitlin began with mutual website appreciation. Despite being savaged by her cat when sleeping on her couch in New York it has since blossomed into a long distance art romance. In January, Caitlin will be at SymbioticA and working alongside Adele and myself at an art/food at the CIA.
Kathy High
Sugar Mummy supreme! I first met Kathy at a party in Troy, NY. I hitched a ride with her to the Subtle Technologies Conference in Toronto and scored a free hotel bed for a week. A few more free beds (Prague, Berlin, NY) and conferences later and we are still friends... Kathy teaches in the Fine Art Department at RPI and shares my interest in lab rats. We will be collaborating on a rat work at SymbioticA in 2009.
Bo Wong
Photographer and conversationalist extraordinaire, Bo manages a steady banter and ready lens at all times without missing a beat. Having known Bo since with were both crusty young things, I have been extremely impressed with her metamorphosis into highly skilled professional and respectable mother-of-two. Bo was the photographer for my edble phone book (currently in-press) and was also responsible for most of the Hand to Mouth pictures.
Maria Grade Godhino
Maria is a PhD candidate in the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of Western Australia, where she tries (and often fails) to fit in time on her research in between her busy teaching, union organising and social schedule. We spent many hours in the dissection lab together where she was kind enough to share some tails with me for my collagen extraction project. This work eventually developed into A Rat's Tale.
Ross Coulter
Ross is a Melbourne based video artist. While I tend to disagree with him that 'video art is supposed to be slow' it has nonetheless been a pleasure to edit Ross' slow, steady and considered footage on Greenwashing and Hand to Mouth.
Mezz O'Brien
Professional aesthete and master of the 'holding a video tripod over his head while riding a skateboard' technique that featured in Greenwashing, Mezz's camera work and lighting direction has been invaluable on several recent projects.
SymbioticA
While not strictly a person, I know, SymbioticA nonetheless has a distinct personality... Messy, experimental, combative, earnest and hard working. It has been an important part of my art adventures over the last 5 years and no doubt for some time to come.