April Phillips Screenings and Artist Talk
Join us for an evening of digital storytelling, community connection, and creative insight as we celebrate the screening launch of guest artist April Phillips, followed by a live panel discussion exploring what it means to create digital artworks that hold space for community, story, and reflection.
As part of the FEEDBACK 2025 program, supporting emergent artistic practice across Western Sydney and Melbourne, this event invites audiences to experience April’s immersive digital film LOOK ▷ SEE (Look to See), and to hear from artists whose works are embedded in the public realm, commissioned to live and evolve alongside community, infrastructure, and the built environment.
From animated avatars and speculative futures to stories grounded in place and memory, this event brings together artists who are transforming everyday civic settings into dynamic cultural canvases.
Screening: LOOK ▷ SEE (Look to See) By April Phillips
From riverbeds to celestial skies, this poetic, immersive XR work traverses’ speculative futures through the power of perspective, zooming from microscopic to cosmic scale. LOOK ▷ SEE explores our layered planetary existence and invites us to witness the natural world through both ancestral knowledge and technological possibility.
Panel Discussion: Art, Architecture & Community in the Public Realm
Following the screening, April will be joined by a panel of commissioned artists whose digital works form the permanent digital exhibition at PHIVE. Together, they will reflect on the relationship between site, audience, architecture, and digital practice.
Moderated by Nithya Nagarajan, Curator & Artist Development, Parramatta Artists Studio
Date: Tuesday 30 September 2025
Time: 6pm for 6:15pm start (concludes 7:30pm)
Location: Ground Floor Foyer, PHIVE, 5 Parramatta Square, Dharug Country
Tickets: Free – bookings essential
Access: The venue is wheelchair accessible. Contact us for any access needs PHIVEtickets@cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au
Refreshments: Light catering provided following the talk
Who Should Attend:
All are welcome! Artists, designers, filmmakers, architects, urbanists, public art curators, cultural programmers, students, and anyone interested in how creativity intersects with city-making and community life.
April Phillips is an award-winning Wiradjuri–Scottish digital and XR artist working across moving image, photogrammetry, and immersive media. Her practice bridges Indigenous futurisms with experimental storytelling and bold digital processes. In 2024, she received the Melbourne International Film Festival’s Uncle Jack Charles Award for her XR work kajoo yannaga. April’s latest work LOOK ▷ SEE invites audiences into speculative dreamscapes that explore planetary connection, deep time, and the power of perspective. She is also a mentor in the 2025 FEEDBACK program.
Jeff McCann is a Sydney-based artist, illustrator, and maker known for his joyful, tactile, and inclusive practice. His work spans murals, wearable art, and public installations, often celebrating childhood nostalgia, community participation, and the natural world. Jeff co-created Lean In with animation artist Alice Peacock, a playful digital animation inspired by architectural details and local biodiversity.
Kristone Capistrano is a visual artist and educator based in Western Sydney. His moving image work 101 Graham Street pays tribute to working-class migrant families who have shaped Parramatta. Through layered imagery and reflective portraiture, his practice explores memory, migration, and place.
Kalanjay Dhir is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans animation, sculpture, and ecological thinking. A Parramatta Artists Studios alumnus, his work Habit features an evolving ecosystem of animated plant avatars inspired by local community members. The piece draws on seasonality, environment, and the role of public spaces as sites of gathering and transformation.
Presented by:
Parramatta Artists Studios and PHIVE, in collaboration with West Space, as part of FEEDBACK 2025
LOOK ▷ SEE Credits:
Director: April Phillips (Wiradjuri-Scottish)
Virtual Art / Animation Director: Pat Younis (Lebanese–Australian)
Technical Director, Visual Effects and edit: Jordan East
Story Artists: April Phillips, Pat Younis
Sound Composers: Mark Leahy, Leon Rodgers
Sound Design and Mix: Phil Threadfall
Photogrammetry 3D object scans from real world objects: April Phillips
PHIVE sits on the lands and waters of the Burramattagal of the Dharug nation. We acknowledge Burramatta as a significant place of ceremony, story, and tradition. We pay our respects to Dharug Ancestors and Elders, past, present and emerging, and extend our respect to all First Nations people joining this program.
