Celebrating our 2024 Paris Residency Fellows

Amala Groom is a Wiradyuri conceptual artist who employs a Wiradyuri based ontology and embodied research-based methodology that considers traditional cultural practice and academia with formal research as a whole of person approach as both inquiry and investigation in the actual and literal sense. Her practice, as a collaboration with her Ancestors is driven by the philosophies of Yindyamarra, Kanyini, and Dadirri which lay the foundations for a feeling-centred approach in the delicate balancing act that lies between the physical and spiritual worlds. Across her practice, Groom proactively seeks to dismantle the Colonial Project by asserting the argument that colonialism is not just disadvantageous for First Peoples but is, in fact, antithetical to the human experience. 

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, the Ian Potter Cultural Trust, Create-NSW, and Arts OutWest, Groom recently conducted a residency at the British Museum with The Season; the cultural exchange between UK/Australia (2022). Recent awards include the Create-NSW 21/22 Visual Arts Commissioning Grant (2022) and the Create-NSW First Nations Creative Fellowship w/ State Library of NSW (2022/23). Groom's work is held by Artbank; Blacktown City Art Collection; Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre; Deutsche Bank; and Western Sydney University.

As a 2024 Paris Residency Fellow, Amala intends to research the intersection of Surrealism and Indigeneity, investigating the archives and collections at the Centre Pompidou, the Espace Dalí and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. 

Anthony Bond OAM is a freelance writer and curator. Director Curatorial at the Art Gallery of NSW where he was responsible for collecting and displaying International contemporary art 1984 - 2013.  Exhibitions and catalogues: The British Show AGNSW 1985; Biennale of Sydney 1992-93; Liverpool Biennale UK 1999; Body AGNSW 1997; Self Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary, National Portrait Gallery London and AGNSW Sydney 2005-6.  Monographic exhibitions included: Anselm Kiefer Aperiatur terra White Cube London and AGNSW 2006-2007; Mike Parr: The Tilted Stage Hobart Tasmania 2008; Francis Bacon: five decades 2012 at AGNSW.; The Ghost Who Talks an exhibition of Mike Parr’s recent performance videos shown at Venice 2015. Recent books: The idea of art published by New South Press Sydney 2015; Ken Unsworth published by ARTAND Foundation 2018. Essays: "British sculpture in Australia", Yale 2016; "A radical Iconography of the Violin", Contemporary Music Review Vol. 37, Routledge 2019.

As a 2024 Paris Residency Fellow, Anthony will pursue a project on the history of the avant-garde in Europe and Australia, accessing archives at the Centre Pompidou and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and conducting interviews with artists and gallerists.

Gail Priest is a sound artist, curator and writer living on the land of the Darug and Gundungurra people now known as Katoomba, NSW. Her practice encompasses performance, recording, sound design for dance and theatre, installation, curation and writing. She has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally at events and galleries including: Experimenta Makes Sense Triennial of Media Art touring nationally 2017-2020; ISEA2016  Juried Exhibition, Hong Kong; Werkleitz Festival, Halle-Saale, Germany; the Sonoretum, Kapelica Gallery, Slovenia; Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan; Artspace and Performance Space, Sydney; The Substation and Blindside, Melbourne. She has performed her live compositions at major Australian festivals as well as undertaking several international tours performing in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Norway, Finland, Iceland and The Netherlands. She has several music releases on her own label, Metal Bitch Recordings as well as Flaming Pines and room40. She curates events and exhibitions and writes fictively and factually about sound and media art including editing and contributing to the book Experimental Music: Audio Explorations in Australia (UNSW Press 2009) and was the Associate Editor of RealTime Magazine (2003-2015) Gail has recently completed a PhD at the University of Technology, Sydney exploring ficto-criticism as an alternative approach to sound theory. www.gailpriest.net

As a 2024 Paris Residency Fellow, Gail plans to to study the rich history of musique concrète as developed by sound artist, composer and radio producer Pierre Schaeffer, exploring the Institut Mémoires de l'Édition Contemporaine (L’IMEC) in the Ardenne Abbey in Caen, the Bibliothèque Sigmund Freud, the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music, and the Groupe de Recherche Musicales (which Schaeffer founded in 1951).

Blythe Worthy is a casual academic in the Film Studies department at the University of Sydney and works predominantly in the fields of transnational television and adaptation theory. Blythe has had their work published by the University of California Press, Edinburgh University Press, Springer, and Rowman and Littlefield. Blythe is the co-editor of a new collection with Palgrave Macmillan titled Adapting Television and Literature and is the Managing Editor of the Australasian Journal of American Studies. For their research on Antipodean auteur Jane Campion, Blythe was awarded the 2019 Australian Federation of Graduate Women National Fellowship. Blythe has worked in research for SBS and ABC television, and regularly lectures on television at the United States Studies Centre and NYU Sydney. Blythe is currently researching the television work of auteurs Mira Nair and Agnès Varda, as well as the impact of the #MeToo movement on American television. 

As a 2024 Paris Residency Fellow, Blythe will research the influence of 1960s Parisian critical theory on the transnational television sphere, and on female directors in Australia, France and India. Blythe will research at The Cité de Mémoire, The Picture Factory and LTC Patrimoine, as well as the Institut National de l'audiovisuel, the Cinémathèque Française and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.