ᗰIᔕᕼᗰᗩᔕᕼ - RMITxBLINDSIDE Pathways Exhibition

Yujia (Laura) DingYujia (Laura) Ding is a mixed-media artist based in Naarm, whose work is deeply influenced by her rich cultural experiences in both China and Australia. This fusion of multiple perspectives and identities brings depth and resonance to her art.

Currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree at RMIT University, Yujia is dedicated to refining her skills to become an accomplished artist. Her academic endeavors are complemented by practical explorations across diverse artistic mediums, all to bring the audience an immersive healing journey. Each piece she creates is a poetic narrative, inviting viewers to engage deeply and resonate on a profound level.

With a foundation in digital media design and a boundless curiosity for exploration, Yujia aspires to discover the complexities of cultural diversity and challenge the constraints of tradition. Her artistic vision is characterized by authenticity and originality, pushing the boundaries to open new areas of expression.

Rose John is a multi-disciplinary artist, presently focusing on handmade and self-designed jewellery installations. As an individual of Australia’s large South Asian diaspora, Rose explores her experience being raised within the Northern Rivers (NSW) community as an young Indian immigrant. Documenting her journey through jewellery, Rose narrates her adolescent interactions with identity, culture, and diasporic emotions.

Using her chosen mediums such as painting, pottery, writing, and jewellery, Rose has been navigating her own challenges, emotions and cultural ‘unlearnings’ over the past five years.

Engaging thematics of identity and belonging, Rose’s current project within her Masters of Fine Art presents a physical manifestation of her current status in context of her cultural identity. Influenced by South Asian architecture, floral motifs, textiles, traditions, and rituals the artist provides her work as a realm of cultural intersection between her western surroundings and her native heritage.

Angie Shi is a designer with a background in print and publication design. Her practice ranges across graphic design, publishing, zine-making and craft. Born in Shanghai and growing up in England and Australia, she has navigated the complexities of finding belonging and identity. She is interested in storytelling, methods of image making and our connections to place and the natural world.

Neryhs Wo is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores the contradiction of hoping to be found and understood but doubting the existence of total understanding between minds. She expresses through a variety of media including poetry, paintings, illustrations, public installations, and performances.

Neryhs was born in Hong Kong, continued her BA (Hons) study in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts of the University of Arts London, and graduated with First Class Honours in 2017. She is currently a student of MA in Art in Public Space at RMIT University.

Tessa Christie (b. 1998) is an Australian visual artist whose work is deeply influenced by her environment, cinema, and the power of narrative. She graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School in 2016 and earned her Bachelor of Art (Fine Art) at RMIT, Melbourne. Currently, Tessa is pursuing her Master of Art (Fine Art) at RMIT, Melbourne. Her artistic practice navigates themes of trauma, intimacy, and adoration through graphite drawings, photography, and oil painting.

Tessa's artistic process is a testament to her profound connection with her subjects, aiming to immortalise the subtle nuances and complexities of their existence. She achieves feelings of vulnerability and sensitivity through intricate details, materials, and scale, often working on a small scale, which invites viewers to lean in and look closely. Tessa pays homage to the imperfections and complexities of life. Her practice is a tool for looking—revealing what unfolds through the process of making.

Despite capturing realism, Tessa's work often carries an undercurrent of melancholy. Within the mundane contours of portraiture, whether depicting figures or intimate spaces like a bedroom, she delves into a deeper exploration of the human condition. Each composition is a manifestation of the splendour and fragility of the human experience, as felt through the artist herself.

Ya Juan Long is a contemporary visual artist known for her vibrant and expressive artworks. Inspired by identity and culture influences, her paintings often explore themes of identity and connection. With a bold use of Old Masters such as Leonaordorda Vinci’ s painting techniques ‘Sfumato’ of layers of colour, the experience her work on a deeply personal level.

Born in China and grew up in Australia, graduated Fine Arts (Fine Art) (Honourse) at RMIT in 2022. Her work is an exploration of the fluidity of an identity and culture, in MFA project’s series of paintings and drawings on canvas line and silk exploring materials and various influences drawn upon.

Jie (Maisie) Yu Jie (Maisie) Yu is an art curator born in China, currently studying for a Master of Art Management at RMIT University in Melbourne with a focus on curatorial practice. Her primary interest lies in exploring the connection between artworks and audiences and passionate about transforming traditional exhibitions into dynamic, interactive experiences. She is dedicated to creating highly interactive art exhibitions that increase audience engagement through various strategies. aims to bridge the gap between artwork and audience, fostering meaningful connections and dialogue.

At the Blindside Art Gallery in Melbourne, she is responsible for designing and managing the reading corner and zine workshop for our current exhibition. These interactive areas are designed to encourage participants to share their cultural stories and personal experiences, fostering a deeper understanding of cultural and personal identities.

Hannah Morel's work investigates urban mobilities and systems of knowledge. Informed by feminist and decolonial theories, as well as new materialism, her practice commutes with her between sites, inviting community engagement and public discourse. Acknowledging the body as medium, her work questions inherent risk involved with gendered mobilities.

Morel's work is situated in a discursive, expanded creative practice, and her research prioritizes the perspective of marginalized labor. At a time in which violence and policing of fem and non-binary bodies is at an alarming global tolerance, her work is deliberate. Through mind-maps written in chalk and on construction flags, Hannah asks the commuter to pause, further advocating on behalf of collective care. Often ephemeral by nature and transgressive by trade, the work evokes cheeky public permissions through her playful modes of research.

Niamh Felton is a Naarm/Melbourne based cultural studies researcher, community radio presenter and DJ. Her various outputs centre around themes of space, place-making, community, and local cultures, with her sonic focus being on percussive, trancey, and left-field sounds.

Niamh’s previous research has explored the musicalised scene functions of community radio and its ability to create dedicated space for local music scenes and therefore empower local musicians, punters, and other scene participants. It is available to read via Continuum journal.

Lala Zarei, an Iranian-Australian artist, excels in printmaking and watercolour. Her versatile talents span printing, drawing, painting, bookbinding, ceramics, sculpture, and photography. With numerous solo and group exhibitions, she passionately shares her life's narrative through art. Since relocating to Australia in 2018, Lala delves into her Middle Eastern upbringing, navigating identity as a woman in a new cultural landscape. Her work echoes her journey, infused with themes of travel, migration, and the evolving tapestry of memories. Despite challenges, she perseveres, drawing inspiration from her diverse experiences, resonating in her compelling artistic expressions.

Nikki Lam’s practice explores the complexity of belonging through the exploration of self, memory and space. Working primarily with video, performance, text and installation, she is interested in exploring the translations of hybrid identities, often through studies of rituals, language and representations. Born in Hong Kong (1988), Nikki's work has been shown at Underbelly Arts Festival, SafARI, Firstdraft, BUS Projects, The Ferry Gallery (Bangkok, Thailand), Galleria Marcollini (Forli, Italy), and toured around the world with Over View International Festival of Video Art. Her most recent curatorial projects include Frames of Seeing (2017) at Nite Art, Flygirl by Caroline Garcia (2017), Screen as a Room (2016) at THE SUBSTATION and Channels Festival (2015).

Steven Rendall’s work is littered with references to technology, art history, horror movies and pop music. Materials, images and meanings are scavenged and rearranged in various ways.

Rendall was born in the UK in 1969. He moved to Melbourne in 2000 where he currently lives and works. Steven Rendall is a lecturer in the School of Art at RMIT University. He completed a Bachelor of Visual Art (Honours) at DeMontfort University in Leicester, undertook post-graduate studies at the Royal Academy Schools in London and completed a PhD at Monash University in 2015.

Rendall has staged numerous exhibitions in Australia and the UK. His work is in various collections including The National Gallery of Victoria, The Monash University Collection, Artbank, RMIT University Art Collection, The City of Melbourne, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne and St. Helier Hospital, London.