Upcoming artists-in-residence: Virginia Hilyard and Fiona Kemp

Virginia Hilyard and Fiona Kemp

Virginia Hilyard and Fiona Kemp are multidisciplinary artists who met whilst doing Masters of Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts in 2002. Incorporating principles of meditation and mindfulness, the experience of being in a place is the primary concern for them. Their collaborative work often uses fragments of sound and image collected while in the field … being present in time and place. These gathered fragments become the basis of the tangible artwork - a result of the experience.

Fiona Kemp and Virginia Hilyard, The Circle is

Everywhere, 2020, still from 360 video diptych.



" ... During our residency at Gunyah we plan to develop raw data (video, audio, VR) we gathered on Kotlin Island in Russia. Immersion at Gunyah – through stillness, observation and listening – provides perfect conditions to mature the work - important processing before embarking on a companion piece in Finland ..."


Fiona Kemp and Virginia Hilyard, The Circle is

Everywhere, 2020, 360 video diptych and samovars,

installation at Articulate Project Space.


Fiona Kemp lives on Gadigal and Bidjigal Country, she is a multidisciplinary artist whose body of work explores the way certain objects, images and repetitive practices resonate memory. The media varies according to the nature of each project and additional study in clinical psychology informs the theoretical underpinnings of some of the work. Memory Time and Memory Space was the research focus of a PhD awarded from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, 2010. 


Fiona Kemp and Virginia Hilyard, Work-in-progress,

2020, still from 360 video triptych.


Virginia Hilyard lives on Wangal and Gadigal Land, she works across media including handprocessed film, the digital image and field recordings. Undertaking artist residencies in Thailand and The Philippines, exhibitions included Womanifesto II and Cities on the Move, Bangkok; Experimenta, Melbourne; Artspace, Sydney and Art in General, New York. Other artist residencies include the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris and National Centre for Contemporary Arts on Kotlin Island, Russia. Recent works include Remembering Yellow – made with her mother who lives with dementia – exhibited as part of the Womanifesto, Trans-southeast Asia Triennial, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Museum, 2021. 
@avventura2046


Fiona Kemp and Virginia Hilyard, Work-in-progress,

2020, project based project at Articulate Project Space,

Sydney, various screen based works