In September of 2023, Luke Abdallah completed a two week residency in at the Bilpin International Ground for Creative Initiatives. Luke and his team are so thankful for this residency experience, and particularly want to thank Rae & Yuri Bolotin for hosting us.

Throughout his Bilpin residency, Luke focused primarily on print-making, creating collagraphs inspired by the smells, sounds, tastes and visual descriptions of multiple narrowed-down locations in Bilpin. These prints are designed to be displayed alongside their partnering plates (which have been double shellacked), in order for audiences to enjoy the tactility of the piece as well as the visual image. Abdallah also created a series of abstract, charcoal pieces, utilising local, found, charcoal from previous years’ bushfires, depicting the local bushland. 

In Bilpin, Luke also produced a number of collaborations, one being a series of ‘drum paintings’ (i.e., pieces painted through laying paper or canvas on the surface of a drum using alternate, bespoke paint application tools such as found or altered objects and natural detritus. Luke painted to music played by collaborators Izumi Nago and Nick Lunzer, musicians and music therapists. Additionally, Abdallah collaborated with film maker Stephen Abdallah, editor Harrison Evans and musicians Crystal Leigh Adams and Rowan Yeomans to produce a sound and film piece documenting Luke’s experience of producing art and gathering sensory inspirations from place.