00:27:15
December 2022

From left: Mandy Evans, Genevieve Jobes, Amanda Levey and Anita Lever, with the work by Mandy mentioned in the podcast in the background.

Heartfelt social action: Amanda Levey talks with Anita Lever, Mandy Evans and Genevieve Jobes

On a visit to Sydney Amanda Levey met with the three artists who had all participated in ‘Artists4Ukraine’, an exhibition that was a fabulous example of social action in response to the unfolding tragedy there. They then collaborated to create the video piece Ukraine Heartbeat and submitted it as a creative contribution to JoCAT. Amanda talks with them about their process of making this piece.

It is suggested that you view the 1:35 minute video work below before listening to this podcast.

Any listeners who feel moved to contribute to the fundraising mentioned in the podcast can find the link by clicking on the ‘Artists4Ukraine’ exhibition button below.

View the video work

The ‘Artists4Ukraine’ exhibition

  • BFA, MArtAdmin, MA ATh, AThR

    Anita lives and works on the unceded lands of the Wangal peoples of the Eora nation, (Sydney), Australia. Anita is an artist, art therapist, maker, educator and mentor. She works across a broad range of media and seeks out creative spaces in which to dive deeper into her own eclectic art practice, be it in a remote rural art residency in Finland, ancestral farmhouse in Slovenia or in a studio space within a Lighthouse on the eastern seaboard of Australia. Her art practice explores new ways of seeing, making and processing, and traverses site specific investigations and explorations into personal mappings of migration and movement that touch on the notions of edges, longings and voids. While these spaces cannot be always be seen they are imagined and re-imagined through mixed media installations. Anita seeks out the architecture of collaboration and attunes to others whose artistic vision sits alongside her own. Creating visual playlists through song, video, installation, paint, stitching, this personal language is shared through exhibitions, curatorial practices and her ongoing commitment to her studio investigations.

  • MA, BCA, AThR

    Mandy lives and works on the unceded lands of the Dharug and Gundungurra people, she is a multi-disciplinary artist whose studio is located in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, NSW. She was born in England and migrated with her family to Australia in the 1970s. She completed a Bachelor of Creative Arts and spent a decade collaborating with other multi-disciplinary artists and musicians in the vibrant local music/ performance scene. Mandy has exhibited her work around Australia; in Wollongong, Sydney and Adelaide, as well as the Blue Mountains, recently exhibiting in a number of group shows at Western Sydney University with other art therapists and the regularly at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre. Her solo exhibition of recent paintings and small sculptures at The Braemar Gallery in Springwood, titled A strange and familiar landscape, explores how the world has changed since Covid-19. She has also been accepted into the Annual Portrait Exhibition at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre in February 2023. Mandy has been practicing Vipassana meditation for almost 30 years.

  • Genevieve acknowledges the Cammeraygal People, traditional owners of Wulworra-Jeung, where I live and work, paying respect to Elders past and present. How do we show solidarity to Ukraine during a time of war? Physically drawing lines of people and nightingales helped accept the reality of invasion. Giving digital life to song facilitated seeing the resilience and beauty of Ukrainian people. Collaboration in active projects, ‘Artists4Ukraine’ exhibition and the Ukraine heartbeat video, navigates a way into and through seemingly impossible times. Genevieve is an artist based in Sydney, Australia and Seattle, Washington. Her formal background includes, sociology, archaeology and technology. Currently, Genevieve is studying Bachelor of Fine Art at the National Art School, Sydney.

About the artists

This work is published in JoCAT and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND-4.0 license.

  • Levey, A. (Host). (2022, Dec). Heartfelt social action: Amanda Levey talks with Anita Lever, Mandy Evans and Genevieve Jobes [Audio podcast]. JoCAT Podcasts. JoCAT. https://www.jocat-online.org/p-22-lever-levey

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