Photography by Guy James Whitworth.
Maria Thaddea
Maria Thaddea is a young emerging Asian-Australian interdisciplinary creative, ethnically Chinese, culturally Chinese-Indonesian-Australian, working on Gadigal Land.
Her practice mainly revolves around print and graphics and how they apply to multisensory installation-based work through experiential spatial design (set design, exhibition curation, staging). She is interested in abstract notions of perception, identity and belonging as it relates to her diasporic experience.
Tell us about your creative process, what drives your practice?
I like to think of my creative practice as a representation of my explorations into my identity - whether that be cultural, gender-based or any of my other beliefs and opinions. From my multicultural upbringing, it became painfully apparent very early on in my life that people and their perceptions and biases are very complex and frankly, intimidating. Because of that, I prefer to present ideas of perception as I draw from my personal experiences and my interest in epistemological philosophy. I’m not currently at a point where I’ve fully come into my identity as a whole, and I don't know if I ever will really, so most of my works depict different sides of issues I’m interested in as I work through them in hopes of also helping others through them. My practice basically revolves around thinking exercises that I try to make look cool. I’m here for a good fun, yet introspective, time.
What is the role of colour in your practice?
I have always been very particular with colour as I was raised by my grandparents, my grandpa in particular used to work with Batik and is very opinionated with colour combos. I guess because of that, colour always came naturally to me and I really didn’t realise its significance in my practice until people started pointing it out. The first time I consciously thought about colour was when I saw Carnovsky’s RGB collection that uses cyan, magenta and yellow prints with RGB acrylics or lights – basically what I’m currently exploring in my works, so clearly it was highly influential. I think that, at its core, I love how mood-altering colour can be and employ that.
Perception, identity and stereotypes are recurring themes in your work. How do you navigate these concepts?
With great difficulty. They’re all really big concepts that are highly subjective in nature, so it’s always a nerve-wracking navigation process. You never want to offend anyone or perpetuate biases but I think that you’re always bound to do so by tackling those themes. At the end of the day, I can only really tell my story but I try to also present other possible perspectives in hopes that people get the idea that although their perspective may not be presented, they’re valid and others exist.
How does your background in graphics and experiential spatial design inform and intersect with your print practice?
I transitioned into printmaking a couple years ago and I found my graphics background very practically useful for that. I mainly work in screenprints and all my years with Photoshop made for a seamless transmission – in terms of how I was already used to thinking in layers. My works so far, mostly, still have quite a significant graphic and digital quality to them, but I definitely love the more painterly and dainty approaches to print that I would love to explore more of in the future.
My background in experiential spatial design definitely influences my prints in that I almost start projects with how I intend the print to be displayed in mind. In the experiential spatial side of things, I’ve always had this strange affinity to coloured lights that unsurprisingly crossed over into my print practice. I just really enjoy multisensory, dynamic and physically enveloping installations and that’s where I’m at with my current print practice.
Are there any female printmakers | artists that influence you?
Yes! Many! The freshest in my mind would be
I love her observation of mundane objects and their cultural influences through her transnational perspective. She’s mainly a printmaker but also has some beautiful ceramic explorations.
Has absolutely beautiful graphics reimagining traditional Chinese ideas and visuals. Incredible use of colours. It's contemporary but I get so much nostalgia when I see her pieces – they just make me smile. I also have a thing for soft diffuses.
Silvia Quintanilla (Carnovsky)
Carnovsky is an art and design duo and their RGB collection really kicked off my colour and layering explorations. It is probably my current greatest influence practicality-wise.
She mainly works in sculpture and installation and is pretty much the epitome of ‘genre-defying’. Her works are definitely more abstract but I really like the undercurrent of fluidity in her works. I also love how spatially and sensorially encompassing and transformative her installations are.
Finally, what exciting projects are you working on at the moment?
I’m currently working on a public mural commission for Hurstville’s Lunar New Year celebrations with my friends Hilda Zhang and Penny Zhang – not print-based but definitely culturally relevant to my greater practice. My False Ink-lings series is a constant work-in-progress and I’m always working on it in some capacity. I’m also working on figuring out how exactly I fit in or want to approach the creative industry.
On a side note, I’m working on a shared dinner party recipe book (currently on a google doc but would be really cool printed) and possible music stuff for possible installations ☺.
