Can you tell us a bit about who you are and what you do?
I’m a writer and independent curator in Melb, and sometimes model. I write about art, culture, fashion and music and do a lot of profiles with creative people! My curating tends to revolve around whatever topic happens to be motivating my curiosity at the time. This year that was identity: to do with being Australian and of mixed race, and being asked where you are from all of the time. I put on an exhibition about it with a couple of other creative women, Amy Dellar and Jess Brohier!
What’s one thing that you love about what you do?
The people I meet – every job I do shares a new story, or a new room full of amazing creative people living incredible lives. Other people’s stories have influenced my work so much and I think there is just so much we can learn from each other.
Can you describe your creative process to me?
Usually with writing I seek out people whose work I think is relevant to something I’m interested in at the time or to things that are happening in society. Even just communities locally – wherever I happen to be.
Then when I’m at the desk, my number one rule is to just write – overthinking can get the better of everyone, as well as taking on/trying to do too many things at once. But I’ve become pretty resourceful at making use of every small window of time I have to get work done, and I’m super lucky to have so many creative people around me all the time and the opportunities to travel and be a part of creative communities in other parts of the world. Curating for me tends to be really creative and I never really follow any sort of conventional process for personal projects – it’s usually me sending out a lot of emails and briefs, and chasing people/things up for a couple of months, in complete chaos. I would love to find the time/money to do more projects though, I feel like as soon as you do one you realise that you can probably pull together any crazy idea you want if you try hard enough.
Can you tell me what motivates you to create?
I feel like there are a lot of voices who often go unheard, which includes many people making important art, but who have to work twice as hard to find the success they deserve than other people who benefit from the privileges set up for them in our society. So, it has always been my priority to work with those people and to give them the opportunities they deserve to share their work. There really are so many amazing people doing so much incredible work, and not always that much recognition to match. They tend to be the most interesting people to speak and collaborate with as well.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far?
There have been a few! Being able to travel and doing interviews overseas is always incredible, and being published internationally feels really important. Also seeing the progression in my career always is really motivating. I feel like it’s hard to pinpoint milestones in creative careers, because they can be so unconventional. This is something I think we are moving away from in general which is great. Going from being the person consistently hitting people up with pitches, to people hitting you up to pitch for them was amazing too! You almost don’t realise it’s happening until you’re in the middle of it because you spend so much time knocking on doors. But it feels great to see the outcomes of hard work, both for me and for the other creatives I work with and support.
