Presence of Mind: Finissage Artist Panel

Presence of Mind – what is its relevance to our contemporary condition today and how may it be applied to art practice and appreciation? Hear from artists in the show Aryadharma, Kath Fries and our guest writer Dylan Goh. The panel will also flesh out the themes of the project and its many inter-relations.

Moderated by curator Rachael Kiang.

Panelists: Aryadharma Aaron Matheson, Dylan Goh, Kath Fries and Rachael Kiang

Dylan Goh is our guest writer from 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, he joined the Presence of Mind digital residency project and contributed an essay to the Presence of Mind catalogue publication. Dylan is an artist-curator on unceded Bidjigal and Gadigal lands. His practice (encompassing socially engaged initiatives, ceramics and installation) is grounded in holding agency over how cultural narratives are represented. Speaking to experiences as a 2nd generation Asian Australian caught between two worlds, Dylan leverages storytelling and participation to disarm audiences, engender empathy and transfer knowledge. His recent projects include: 吃饭 (Chi Fan) (2021-22) – an online culinary database tracing intimate stories and migration of food recipes across the contested “Chinese diaspora”; Lunar Wishes (2021) – a collaborative mural inscribed with community messages of hope and yearning amidst global lockdowns and separated families; and #mealtimewithdilly (2020) – an online exhibition amplifying connections between food, memory and culture during the pandemic. As a mentee under Asian Arts curator Min-Jung Kim, Dylan has recently assisted the exhibition development of Five Hundred Arhats at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. He is also specialising in intangible cultural heritage as the New Colombo Plan Fellow (Republic of Korea) and a selected participant of the 4A Curators’ Intensive program.

Aryadharma Aaron Matheson is a Sydney based artist, who was raised in the UK. After completing a Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours at Norwich Art School in 1999, he worked at Triratna London Buddhist Centre and lived in a Buddhist community there for a number of years. Then followed much exploration and meanderings, including a year at the Royal Drawing School and getting to know his estranged artist father in Australia. In 2014 Aryadharma was ordained under the auspices of Triratna. Aryadharma completed a Master in Fine Art at National Art School Sydney in 2018, and is represented by Liverpool St Gallery. Aryadharma has lived with Multiple Sclerosis since 2010, and considers it the blessing of his life, “I’ve needed to be more deliberate, slow down, and let go of what is unnecessary. Engaging with painting, meditation and Dharma practice imbues the earthbound discomfort and limitations of Multiple Sclerosis with meaning, and even a degree of transcendence.”

Kath Fries is a Sydney-based artist and curator, living and working on unceded Gadigal and Wangal land. Her practice involves being attentive to embodied experiences, relationships, materiality, and ecological interdependencies. Fries’ art practice is underpinned by her mindfulness and meditation practices, embedded in Buddhist philosophies of impermanence, interconnection, and compassion. She has a PhD from the University of Sydney and has been awarded grants from Australia Council for the Arts, Ian Potter Cultural Trust, Create NSW, NAVA and the Japan Foundation.

Moderator: Rachael Kiang is a Sydney based curator, she has been the manager and curator of Gallery Lane Cove + Creative Studios NSW (Centrehouse Inc) since 2016. Originally from Singapore, Rachael’s curatorial research is focused on socially engaged artistic practice, cultural interactions and the synergies of art, science and technology. Rachael is interested in transdisciplinary and experimental approaches to art making and exhibiting. She has a strong commitment to audience and community engagement as well as culturally diverse programming. Prior to Gallery Lane Cove, she managed the programs and operations at the National Institute for Experimental Arts and Creative Robotics Lab, UNSW Art & Design, and was Program Manager and Producer at The Big Anxiety Festival. She previously worked at the iCinema Centre for Interactive Cinema Research and the Biennale of Sydney. Rachael holds a Master of Arts in Curatorship & Modern Art from the University of Sydney and a Master of Arts in English Studies from the National University of Singapore. A practising Buddhist, she has envisioned a curatorial and research project that investigates the intersection of Buddhist and creative practices and its impact on the making process and the artwork.

Image credit: Kath Fries, Hold dear, 2011-21