Congratulations to Shoufay Derz, who was recently awarded an Australia Council development grant to undertake an intensive program of two international residencies, a mentorship & professional development.

This intensive professional program comprises skills development in Europe and the United States, with residencies taking place at Phasmid Studios (established by Paul Greenaway, GAGPROJECTS), Berlin (June – Sept 2017) and Parsons, The New School, New York (October – January 2018), and a one-to-one mentorship with established Australian artists Simone Douglas, Associate Professor, and Director of the MFA at Parsons, The New School. While in the United States Shoufay will visit the Badlands National Park in South Dakota, to build on her experience and research into ecologically resonant sites as memorials of geographic and geological history and identity.  Along with cultural heritage, Derz’s practice envisages the edges of the sublime void via inquiries into poetry and landscape and while in Germany she will access the chalk cliffs of Rugen, the site of ‘Kreidefelsen alf Rügen’, the famous painting by Caspar David Friedrich that is characteristically ‘sublime’ in the romantic tradition.

Shoufay’s research investigates the limits and possibilities of language, and the ambiguities faced when attempting to visually articulate the unknown. Just as the writer uses words to express the ineffable, her research engages the intersections between language and unknown worlds.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory.