Parko Techni 2018 Artist Biographies Khaled Sabsabi Born in 1965, Tripoli, Lebanon and currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia. Education, Master of Arts, Time Based Art major at COFA, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Khaled Sabsabi’s process involves working across art mediums, geographical borders and cultures to create immersive and engaging art experiences. He see’s art as an effective tool to communicate with people, through a familiar language. Sabsabi makes work that questions; rationales and complexities of nationhood, identity and change. His practice speaks to audiences in ways that enlighten our understanding of universal dynamics which is more complex and ultimately more unknowable than our own selves. Khaled was awarded the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship in 2010, 60th Blake Prize in 2011, MCG Basil Sellers fellowship in 2014, the Fishers Ghost Prize in 2014 and the Western Sydney ARTS NSW Fellowship 2015. He is represented by Milani Gallery, Brisbane and has 14 works in private, national and international collections. He has also participated in the 3rd Kochi Biennale, 1st Yinchuan Biennale, 5th Marrakech Biennale, 18th Biennale of Sydney, 9th Shanghai Biennale and Sharjah Biennial 11. Lumiforms Lumiforms make interactive light and sound installations. Working in the public sphere, we aim to create tactile and engaging experiences for all audiences. Our services include interactive lighting and sound design, custom fabrication and installation, 3D design and prototyping, interactive visualisation, concept development and consultation. We work closely with architects, engineers, industrial designers and creative programmers to produce works for VIVID Sydney, Sydney Opera House, Parliament House, The Power House Museum, UNSW The Galleries and Glow Festival, as well as other events and exhibitions both locally and internationally. Lumiforms is a Sydney based company founded by Jonathon Bolitho, Harry Hock and Sebastian Barkoczy Temporary Public Art @ Sydney Olympic Park 1 Gary Deirmendjian Gary Deirmendjian was born in 1967 in Armenia, USSR and lives in Sydney, Australia. His practice encompasses sculpture, photography, video, installation and site-specific intervention. Working predominantly in public/ shared space, he is broadly recognised for creating thought provoking and socially concerned works that are of a challenging scale and immersive. He has exhibited extensively and received numerous awards and new work invitations and commissions for private and public artworks, as well as site- specific projects, realised broadly in Australia and several internationally. He holds an MFA in Sculpture from the National Art School (2006), Sydney, where he currently teaches (Sessional Lecturer since 2012). Prior to turning to full-time artistic practice, Gary trained as an Aeronautical Engineer (Honours, University of NSW, 1990) becoming significantly active in Defence Research & Development and then Industrial Design through establishing private practice and teaching (Lecturer, University of Western Sydney, 1996–2001). He is the author/photographer of Sydney Sandstone (Craftsman House, 2002), containing essay contributions from fellow collaborators, including Tim Flannery and Phillip Cox. Emma Anna Born Sydney, Australia 1975. Emma Anna is a visual artist, creative producer and writer whose work draws upon a diverse range of professional and personal experience. Emma holds a BA (Communications) from The University of Technology, Sydney and a Diploma in Graphic Design from the Sydney Institute of Technology. She completed a Masters of Art (Art in Public Space) at RMIT University Melbourne in late 2009. Prior to establishing her independent practice ANAGRAM in 2007, Emma worked as a senior designer and communications specialist within the design and architecture industries in Sydney and Melbourne. Emma specialises in creating public projects with an emphasis on text, colour, modes of communication and the idea of ‘the mass’. She uses the tools of language, popular culture, humour, universal symbolism and everyday technologies to help define both place and community. Emma has held several solo exhibitions since 2005 and exhibited as a solo practitioner and in group shows internationally. Her work is held in a number of public collections and private collections in the USA, South America, Europe and Australasia. She currently lives and works between Australia and the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Emma Anna has produced delightful signs with Waverley’s Community Garden volunteers. She’s working with dog walkers, rangers and parks management to produce ephemeral signage that humours the different users of the coastal walk to consider each other. Temporary Public Art @ Sydney Olympic Park 2 Eggpicnic Eggpicnic is a Sydney based illustration and design studio set up by designers, Camila De Gregorio and Christopher Macaluso devoted to wildlife conservation. They produce fine art prints and toys to end wildlife extinction through education. Playful and passionate, Eggpicnic tells the stories of the birds and wildlife we love the most and aims to open our hearts and minds, using simple lines and shapes to create characters that tread a fine line between art, design and cartoon, but also exude a serene stateliness that is utterly contemporary. Eggpicnic’s work has been chosen by the City of Sydney as part of their new Creative City Sydney program to change the cityscape, with their birds debuting on hoardings around Sydney. Temporary Public Art @ Sydney Olympic Park 3.