The Unconformity, an Australian contemporary arts organisation and social enterprise, has appointed three Tasmanian artists – Iris Blazely, Nancy Mauro-Flude and Stevie Battese – as its inaugural Ongoing Artists, each receiving an 18-month paid position to develop new work culminating in world premieres at The Unconformity 2027 festival.
The appointments come as Ireland becomes the first country to permanently pay artists a living wage – with Australia and other countries in ‘watch and act’ mode.
The Unconformity’s Ongoing Artist program, say the organisers, goes a step further: a festival-scale model for sustained creative employment rather than short-term project funding.
‘Employing artists to work on lengthy creative development – where artists are treated as workers with entitlements, not just recipients of a commission – offers a replicable model for festivals and arts organisations across Australia and beyond,’ said Louisa Gordon, CEO, The Unconformity.
‘Our initiative offers a structured role with mentorship and the freedom to ideate and develop a vision for their work for the festival in 2027. The framing of artists as employees, rather than beneficiaries, aligns with a shift toward treating artists as creative professionals deserving of the same time, stability and trust as any other worker within an industry worthy of investment from all levels of government and stakeholders.’
The Unconformity’s open call for Ongoing Artists drew 54 applications from creatives working across more than a dozen disciplines – from music and dance to digital art, science communication and installation.
Engaged as part-time employees, embedded fully in the organisation, the three artists will each work one day per week with The Unconformity’s Artistic Director and programming team from now through to October 2027 – seeding ideas, undertaking research and site visits on the West Coast, and growing their projects from concept to festival presentation.
‘The field of applicants was a genuine reflection of the depth and diversity of artistic practice across Lutruwita/Tasmania,’ said Loren Kronemyer, Artistic Director of The Unconformity. ‘from experimental technology and ecological art to spectacular audiovisual work.
‘What united the strongest proposals was a willingness to sit with uncertainty, to explore unknown facets of life on the West Coast. Iris, Nancy and Stevie each brought that quality. Their practices are distinct, but all three are driven by a commitment to place, to process, and to making work that couldn’t exist anywhere else.’
The Unconformity’s 2025 festival presented 60 events and 18 world premieres across Queenstown’s streets, historic buildings and wilderness landscape, attracting visitors from across the island and mainland to engage with the creativity and ecology of Lutruwita/Tasmania’s wild and inspiring West Coast.
The Ongoing Artists program extends that investment, giving three artists the time and resources to make work that requires time, care and curiosity.
The three artists are:
Nancy Mauro-Flude, Southern Lutruwita/Tasmania
Nancy Mauro-Flude is an artistic researcher working across poetic computing arts and contemporary performance, with expertise in design anthropology. A core member of Permacomputing.net, she repurposes electronic waste, builds low-power network systems and develops bespoke tools that support information exchange beyond corporate platforms.
Her Ongoing Artist project will develop West Coast stories through low-voltage digital infrastructure, created via community workshops, collective sharing and story gathering.
‘I am deeply involved in how artists can contribute to community-led infrastructure, knowledge transmission, and shared futures by working slowly, eccentrically, and experientially with the places and communities they are part of,’ she said. ‘The Unconformity’s long-term dedication to the West Coast community resonates with my own approach.’
Stevie Battese, kanamaluka/Launceston
Stevie Battese is a digital artist and photographer based by kanamaluka (Launceston), whose abstract work explores faces, identity, disguise and disillusion through imagery rooted in trauma and survival. Running his own photo and video practice for five years, he will bring his signature dark, vivid aesthetic to a large-format audiovisual installation capturing cycles of light and dark on the West Coast.
‘It’s no mistake that my abstract work looks and feels eerie — with bright colours set onto a dark stage,’ he said. ‘My art is a path carved from ruin, much like the path that Queenstown has risen from. It’s a mark of survival. But if you look past what was, there is great comfort in knowing things can tick on from their wounds.’
Iris Blazely, Queenstown
Iris Blazely is a painter, printmaker and writer living on the West Coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania. Her work explores the edges where disparate species – human, animal, invasive – converge in the wake of colonialism, conjuring dream-like narratives from collage and surrealist imagery. T
ranslating this practice into large-scale installation, she will invite festival audiences to feel and experience rare and sometimes uncanny West Coast ecological phenomena.
‘For a long time I’ve wanted to paint and print on a larger scale, to experiment with installation in ways I’d never be afforded otherwise,’ she said. ‘Experimentation and freedom makes for good art, and I would love more than anything to have that freedom within my practice.’
