Virginia Hilyard, a screen artist based in Sydney, has made and exhibited screen and installation works nationally and internationally since 1985. Her solo and collaborative works have been exhibited in capital cities and regional centres in Australia, throughout South East Asia, Europe, the UK, North America and Canada. Virginia has supported the development of experimental screen production and exhibition through her involvement with artist-initiated organisations in both Australia and South East Asia. Her range of experience working in media arts includes co-directing and producing a number of collaborative single and multi-channel video installation and performance based projects; directing commissioned single and multi-channel video projects for major cultural institutions including the Sydney Opera House Trust and the Museum of Sydney; crewing on independent documentaries; teaching screen and sound-based production through community based workshops and at both secondary and tertiary level; production management at SBS-TV and as a cinema projectionist. Since 1993, Virginia has undertaken a number of artist’s residencies in the Asia/Pacific region, working across media, genres and cultures with filmmakers, visual and sound artists, writers, performers and composers. Virginia has received support for her projects from the New Image Research Fund of the Australian Film Commission, Hybrid Arts and New Media Arts of the Australia Council and Asialink Australia. Commissions from the Historic Houses Trust in 1996 and the Sydney Opera House Trust in 2002 have allowed Virginia to carry out intensive research with the National Film and Sound Archive, working extensively with archival image and sound. In December 2005, the State Library of Victoria requested the use of one of Virginia’s still images as part of the architectural feature wall in their newly renovated Dome Galleries. Her work can be found in a number of collections including Museum of Sydney; SBS-TV, Sydney; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Sydney Opera House Trust; Griffith Artworks, Brisbane; Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok; College of Fine Arts, University of NSW and University of Technology, Sydney. Virginia has taught digital video in the School of Theatre, Film and Dance at the University of NSW and is currently teaching digital film production in the Master of Film and Digital Image degree course at Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney. She has recently been awarded a three-month residency in the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. This award comes through the Power Institute Foundation for Art and Visual Culture, The University of Sydney. Virginia will take up this residency from the beginning of January to the end of March 2009. Virginia Hilyard August 2008

Areas of Practice

Artist, Educator