Virginia Hilyard on Collaborating with Varsha Nair and joining Womanifesto

By Virginia Hilyard

Please note that this publication is currently under review and will be subject to changes.  

I met Varsha during my Asialink Artist Residency in Bangkok in 1998-99, finding her to be a breath of fresh air in the mega-city. I felt we immediately synced up on many levels. 

We turned daily activities and curiosities into material to shape and share. I seem to remember we dropped into making Your Hand Open and Closes and Opens and Closes effortlessly – filming Varsha’s masseur one home visit. 

My curiosity about Muay Thai boxing took us to Bangkok’s Lumpini Stadium, a memorable experience filming the young boxers. 

We both organised exhibitions and screenings of this work—the first was organised by Varsha who installed the hands video for Womanifesto II, projected on a floating screen in Saranrom Park in 1998.

Virginia Hilyard is a visual and media artist whose practice is grounded in an experimental aesthetic and an interest in the convergence of digital and analogue image-making – using technology and the hand-made mark. Producing film, video, sound and installation work since 1985, Virginia has contributed widely to moving image culture in Australia and overseas and has worked collaboratively with artists of other disciplines including composers, sculptors, poets, writers and performance artists.^*

^*4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, 'Virginia Hilyard', https://4a.com.au/creatives/virginia-hilyard, accessed June 2025.