Curated by Syaza Nisrina, Nadhila Zakira and Kathryne Genevieve Honey
Air Means Water is a transnational exhibition that navigates the porous boundaries between Indonesia, Singapore, and so-called Australia, curated by Syaza Nisrina, Nadhila Zakira, and Kathryne Genevieve Honey. The project foregrounds shared and divergent histories of migration, colonial inheritance, and cultural identity; bringing together the work artists: Agnes Christina, Fyerool Darma, Amrita Hepi, Megan McPherson, Patriot Mukmin, and Shahmen Suku. Air Means Water examines how geopolitical borders shape contemporary life while proposing alternate modes of kinship and solidarity across distance.
Air Means Water extends beyond the gallery through a series of public programs including language-specific tours, film screenings, shared meals, panel discussions, and a weaving workshop. These events invite audiences into a space of collective reflection, where hospitality and dialogue become forms of resistance against imposed borders.
Supported by the City of Melbourne, and the University of Melbourne through the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF).
Event Series
Film Screening: A River in the Middle of the Sky
Monday 4 August, 6pm
Interactive Cinema Space, Arts West, University of Melbourne
RSVP
Panel Discussion between Artists and Curators
Wednesday 6 August, 5.30pm
Forum Theatre, Arts West Building, University of Melbourne
RSVP
Weaving Workshop with Patriot Mukmin
Monday 11 August
Arts Lab, Arts and Cultural Building, University of Melbourne
RSVP
To taste a place: A communal meal and screening of Pacukka: The Sour Tradition of South Sulawesi
Tuesday 12 August, 5.30pm
Research Lounge, Arts West, University of Melbourne
RSVP
Meet the curators: Coffee and conversation for students
Wednesday 20 August, 1pm
Arts Hall, University of Melbourne
RSVP
Curatorial Walkthrough In Mother Tongues
Led by Nadhila Zakira in Bahasa
Saturday 2 August, 2pm
CAVES, Nicholas Building
RSVP
Led by Syaza Nisrina in Malay
Saturday 9 August, 2pm
CAVES, Nicholas Building
RSVP
Led by Kathryne Genevieve Honey in English (with Auslan option)
Saturday 16 August, 2pm
CAVES, Nicholas Building
RSVP
Agnes Christina
Agnes Christina is a multidisciplinary artist that is intrigued by the problems that we face in our daily lives and how to negotiate with them. Agnes often presents her works in the form of performances, paintings, embroideries and fashion. Agnes’ visual artworks have been presented in events like Bazaar Art Jakarta, Artjog, Jogja Biennale, Singapore Art Week and Sydney Contemporary. Her theatre plays have been published by Aurora Metro UK and Kalabuku, and her play anthology “Forbearance/ Utang Emosi” was awarded “Penghargaan Sastra 2024” (Indonesian Literary Awards 2024) by the Indonesian Ministry of Education. Her clothing line, @leafthief.id continues to grow as a cult favourite in the Indonesian and Singaporean crowd.
Fyerool Darma
Fyerool Darma (b. 1987, Singapore) integrates sound, video, new media, sculpture, texts and craft practices into his object and material experimentations, which juxtapose the aesthetics and ideology of modernism alongside Southeast Asian cultures, histories, aesthetics, and politics. He has gradually developed a complex visual vocabulary that draws from sources including tangible and intangible Malay heritage, archives, the Internet, literature, popular culture, the history of craft, visual arts, manufacturing, and manual labour. Apart from art-making, he divides his time teaching art to youths at a non-profit organisation situated in Jurong, and attending to his family and caring for Pipi, their reptilian housemate. Darma’s works have been exhibited at Centre of Heritage Art and Textiles, Hong Kong (2024); La Trobe Art Institute, Australia (2023); NTU ADM Gallery, Singapore (2023); Seoul MediaCity Biennale, Seoul Art Museum (2023); Singapore Art Museum (2023); National Gallery Singapore (2022-23), among others. He will have his fourth solo exhibition at the gallery this December.
Amrita Hepi
Amrita Hepi (Bundjulung/Ngapuhi Territories) is a multidisciplinary artist & choreographer based in Naarm and Bangkok. Her interest as an artist is in the idea of archive; particularly in relation to the body and how it is organized by ancestry/people/events and environment. By coalescing fact and fiction, memoir and ethnography, the local and the singular into the artwork she makes. Amrita trained at NAISDA & Alvin Ailey NYC. A critically acclaimed artist, she has twice been the winner of the people’s choice award from the Keir Choreographic Award, was a Forbes 30 under 30 for artist, and has shown and been commissioned nationally and internationally. Amrita is a Triad member of performance company APHIDS, on the board of directors and artistic associate for RISING festival and part of the Artistic Associate group for STRUT dance. Her commitment to collaboration, experimentation and kinship are key tenets to her practice.
Megan McPherson
Dr Megan McPherson is a settler artist, educator, and researcher based at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at The University of Melbourne. Megan’s overarching creative practice research emphasis is in printmaking, textiles and installations. She publishes in the areas of creative practice research, academic identity, Indigenous knowledges and pedagogies, and learning and teaching in the university and informal setting. She examines the intersections of pedagogical and material engagements in artistic, social and cultural productions using ethnographic, sociological, and creative practice methodologies to explore identity, subjectivities, affect and agency.
Patriot Mukmin
Patriot Mukmin is a PhD researcher at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. His research explores the artistic representation of Indonesian political struggles during the mid-Cold War (1955–65), examining post-colonial identity amid global ideological tensions that influenced the bloody events in Indonesia in 1965-66. His practice integrates text, archives, video, and his personal approach, woven photography. Solo exhibitions include Revolution: Cross Points of Power of 45–65 (Melbourne, 2024), La mer (La Rochelle, 2023), Empty Unempty (Narita, 2019), Treachery of Paintings (Jakarta, 2017), Vox Populi (Jeonbuk, 2016), and KUP: Cross Points of Power of 66–98 (Bandung, 2015). He won the People’s Choice award in the 2024 UMSU Art Prize, University of Melbourne, and the 2022 Bandung Contemporary Art Award from ArtSociates, Indonesia.
Shahmen Suku
Shahmen Suku (b. 1987, Singapore) is an artist currently based in Sydney, Australia. His practice explores themes of migration, displacement, race, culture, colonisation, and gender identity, shaped by his upbringing in a matriarchal Tamil household in Singapore. Suku’s work often draws on personal history, cultural rituals, and food traditions. He has notably embodied aspects of Tamil cultural heritage through his alter ego, Radha. During his residency at NTU CCA Singapore, Suku moved beyond this persona to directly engage with his experience as a minority in Singapore, confronting the complex narratives of his family history — economic hardship, familial tension, health struggles, and ongoing conflicts.