The Metro Tunnel Creative Program and Midsumma Festival commissioned five artists to create works that speak to Midsumma Festival's signature program 'A Safe(R) Space' and what that means to each artist.
The five artists explore the intersectional identity between different facets of Queer communities inside the theme of “Safe Spaces” and expressing what defines a safe space for artists and communities. The work is exhibited in the Franklin Street Frames beside Melbourne City Baths.
Midsumma is Australia's premier queer arts and cultural organisation, bringing together a diverse mix of LGBTQIA+ artists, performers, communities and audiences.
Participating artists: Emiko Artemis, Zoë Bastin, Kim Leutwyler, J. Rosenbaum, and Wet and Free.
About the artists
J. Rosenbaum
J. Rosenbaum is a Melbourne AI artist and researcher working with 3D modelling, artificial intelligence and extended reality technologies. Their work explores posthuman and postgender concepts using classical art combined with new media techniques and programming.
J works with classically inspired aesthetics with the latest technologies to create a speculative future grounded in the aesthetics of the past to show that gender minorities have always been here and will continue into the future.
Emiko Artemis
Emiko Artemis is a visual artist living and working in South Australia. Her work examines the intersection of bodily movement and space.
Emiko's images use symbols, evocative imagery and the natural world to capture interactions with both the inner and outer landscapes of mind, body and the environment. Her work draws on personal experience and theoretical concepts to tell stories and present ideas. Emiko also works with individuals and communities to enact positive transformation and personal empowerment. Art changes lives.
Wet and Free
Wet and Free Collective is a dynamic rhizome of identities coming together as one in creative expression with their connected spirit. In collaboration their art transforms materials and ideas into new creations with a commitment to the philosophy that everything belongs.
The images are inclusive of each artist’s understanding of the theme in combination with their connected relationships to each other, the LGBTIQ+ and POC communities, broader society, and life. Through their connected practice Wet and Free Collective encourage you to find understanding for yourself inside these works.
Zoë Bastin
Zoë Bastin is an artist and choreographer committed to the capacities of dance for personal and political expressive transformation. This manifests as installations, films, and live performances.
Bastin completed a PhD at RMIT University, where she developed a deep knowledge of contemporary sculpture and dance practice, with a particular interest in improvisation, feminist and queer critical theory, and new materialisms.
Kim Leutwyler
Kim Leutwyler is a Sydney-based artist who migrated to Australia in 2012. She works in a variety of media including painting, installation, ceramics, print media and drawing.
Her current body of work features paintings exploring notions of beauty, gender and queer identity.
About Midsumma
Midsumma is a festival that intrinsically creates safe and inclusive places for communities, with diversity at its very core.
We know that when communities feel safe and supported, they are able to build stronger connections within their own groups and then with other groups they interact with.
Instagram: @midsummafestival