Our Artist in Residence program is a vital component to the Courthouse Gallery+Studio space. These residencies provide artists with the invaluable opportunity to immerse themselves in a new environment, fostering creativity and innovation. By working closely with our Gallery and engaging with the local community, resident artists can develop their practice in unique and inspiring ways.

Bringing these artists into our space enriches The Junction Co. and Courthouse Gallery+Studio’s public programming by offering fresh perspectives and interactive experiences. It allows the community to witness the artistic process firsthand, participate in workshops, contribute to collaborative projects and engage in meaningful dialogues with the artists. This not only enhances personal expression but also strengthens the connection between the Gallery, the artists, and the community, creating a vibrant cultural hub where creativity and collaboration flourish.

With this specific residency, having artists on-site is crucial for the vibrancy and success of the upcoming IOTA exhibition Listening Geographies, Portraits of Mirage Country. This unique show features cross-disciplinary installations by three talented artists from the Indian Ocean rim: Amelia Blanco, Kate Alida Mullen, and Andrea Vinkovic. Their presence enriches the gallery experience, allowing visitors to engage directly with the creative minds behind the art.

Amelia Blanco, a Port Hedland local, brings her family’s multi-generational migration and cultural adaptation to life through her work. Kate Alida Mullen blends traditional and modern storytelling to create a multi-sensory portrait of place, while Andrea Vinkovic Andrea Vinkovic, who is inspired by fragility, organic beauty and the delicate balance of the natural environment. These artists tell tactile, luminous, and sonic stories of Marapikurrinya Yintha (Port Hedland), uncovering hidden narratives from deep ecological histories to modern industrial and multicultural realities.

Their presence during the lead up to the exhibition allows for dynamic interactions and deeper connections with the audience. Through various workshops and residency programs, the local community will also contribute works to the exhibition’s installation, making it a truly collaborative and enriching experience. This engagement not only enhances personal expression but also fosters a deeper connection to the diverse traditions and stories within the region. Join us and immerse yourself in the vibrant and thought-provoking world these artists have created!

THE ARTIST

Andrea Vinkovic is Perth Based, Croatian born ceramic artist inspired by fragility, organic beauty and delicate balance of natural environment, and intrigued by parallels with cultural environment.

Vinkovic comleted an Advanced Diploma for Art and Design in ceramics in 2022 at Central TAFE, where she later worked as a ceramic technician and lecturer.

She has exhibited her work in Perth and across Australia since 2001, including Gangjin, South Korea, national ceramic conferences in Bendigo, Brisbane, Sydney and Hobart; multiple Sculpture by the Sea Cottesloe and Bondi, and at Venice Art Biennale 2022.

Vinkovic manages, teaches and mentors at ClayMake Studio in Maylands with her daughter Emma, and runs Blue Studio Ceramic Residency in Lesmurdie.

THE RESIDENCY

Vinkovic will work alongside Blanco and Mullen, facilitating workshops with the local Hedland community, creating pieces to contribute to the community aspect of the exhibition.

Through these workshops, Vinkovic aims to create ceramic installations that seeks to focus participants and viewers on the beauty and fragility of their land (now and through deep time) and encourage them to explore through textural manipulation of clay.

THE ARTIST

Amelia Blanco is a multidisciplinary emerging artist based in Port Hedland, Western Australia with a Cocos-Malay heritage.

Blanco perceives both the opportunity and the limitations that exist for young people. Blanco overcame these barriers by perusing education and work on other places and has chosen to return to Port Hedland to be with her multigenerational family. She takes from her three simultaneous careers in videography and photography, lighting design for events and a mechanic. She enjoys drawing on all three skill sets in her art, mostly focusing on movement, light and shadow.

In 2022, Blanco was featured in a group exhibition at the Courthouse Gallery+Studio, Port Hedland, as part of sate-wide Open Borders project. In 2023, she was invited to exhibit and present an artist talk at John Curtin Gallery, Perth, for the Open Borders Regional Art Triennial Survey exhibition.

THE RESIDENCY

Blanco will work alongside Vinkovic and Mullen, facilitating workshops with the local Hedland community, creating pieces to contribute to the community aspect of the exhibition.
Under Blanco’s guidance, the community will create individual works using layers of translucent paper to craft self portraits. These individual artworks will be assembled to form a larger, cohesive installation. Light will be used to expose the layers, revealing the depth and beauty of each portrait. This collaborative effort highlights the power of community and the changing effects of light and shadow in art.

THE ARTIST

Kate Alida Mullen is an artist based in Southwest Western Australia. Mullen’s multidisciplinary practice spans drawing, installation, performance, textiles, printmaking, sound and film to document relational, temporal enquiries into the subtle, layered histories of places. Mullen’s site-specific responses engage a methodology of deep listening as mode for navigating colonised space.

Mullen graduated from the University of Western Australia with First Class Honours in Fine Arts and is completing a creative practice-led PhD through La Trobe University (Vic).

Recent projects include: Open Borders Regional Arts Triennial, 2023, John Curtin Gallery (WA); Storm the Gods and Shake the Universe, 2023, FORM Gallery (WA); Emergences, 2023, Holmes à Court Gallery at Vasse Felix (WA); Can Serrat International Art Residency, 2022, Spain; solo exhibition Its Sighs Become Yours, 2022, The Farm Margaret River (WA); Erased Drawings (Studies for Grieving Ritual), 2019, Dark Mofo (Tas); Thinking Rooms for Enacting Knowledges, 2019, Deakin University (Vic).

As longstanding forms of craft adapt to the evolving technological age, sound has become a medium that, like cloth and thread, may be gathered, processed, manipulated, and woven to convey vast layers of meaning and impressions of place.

THE RESIDENCY

Mullen will work alongside Vinkovic and Blanco, facilitating workshops with the local Hedland community, creating pieces to contribute to the community aspect of the exhibition.

Under the guidance of Mullen, community members will participate in a collaborative deep listening experience, where they will contribute to a large-scale installation by creating marks on locally dyed textiles.

15/08/24 – Amy – Youth Involvement Council Workshop

19/08/24 – Andrea + Amelia – Strelley Community School Workshop

20/08/24 – Andrea + Amelia – Strelley Community School Workshop

21/08/24 – Andrea – Arting Around, Free Public Workshop

22/08/24 – Amelia – Youth Involvement Council Workshop

22/08/24 – Andrea + Amelia – Free Public Workshop at the Gallery

23/08/24 – Andrea + Amelia – Kalarra House Workshop

26/08/24 – Andrea – South Hedland High School Workshop

27/08/24 – Andrea + Amy – Youth Involvement Council Workshop

28/08/24 – Amelia – Arting Around, Free Public Workshop

28/08/24 – Andrea – HARTZ (Hedland Arts), Free Public Workshop

29/08/24 – Andrea + Amy – Youth Involvement Council Workshop

30/08/24 – Andrea + Amelia – Free Public Workshop at the Gallery

30/08/24 – Andrea – Team Building Workshop

31/08/24 – Amelia – Spinifex Kids, Spinifex Hill Studio

02/09/24 – Amelia – South Hedland High School Workshop

03/09/24 – Andrea + Amelia – Creative Connections Workshop at the Hedland Well Womens Centre 

04/09/24 – Kate – Arting Around, Free Public Workshop

04/09/24 – Andrea + Amelia – Spinifex Artists, Spinifex Hill Studio

05/09/24 – Andrea + Amelia – Spinifex Artists, Spinifex Hill Studio

06/09/24 – Andrea + Amelia – Kalarra House Workshop

10/09/24 – Kate – South Hedland High School Workshop

11/09/24 – Kate – Youth Involvement Council Workshop

12/08/24 – Kate – Wunderkammer Session, in conjunction with the exhibition opening