ARTIST IN RESIDENCE / Nicole Smede
21st July – 23rd July, 2025
The Lock-Up welcomes Nicole Smede to the Artist in Residence Program 2025. Nicole will be utilising this residency to complete research and development for two commissioned soundscapes as part of Karla Dickens’ upcoming exhibition. The works will be presented as a co-commission by The Lock-Up and New Annual 2025.
ABOUT NICOLE SMEDE
Nicole Smede is a Warrimay multidisciplinary artist, composer and poet of cross-cultural ancestry, living and creating on Wadi Wadi Dharawal Country. Working across sound, voice, poetry, and installation, her practice explores the interrelationship between land, language, and memory, guided by ancestral knowledge. Through immersive soundscapes and poetic works, she invites deep listening as a form of connection and return to Country.
Her compositions have been commissioned by leading festivals and ensembles including Canberra International Music Festival, Ensemble Offspring, and River City Voices. Her voice features on award-winning soundtracks such as Goldstone and Black Cockatoo Crisis, and her poetry appears in Guwayu: For All Times and Australian Poetry Journal, amongst others. In 2025, she premiered Nyiirun Yiiga, a mass choral work in Gathang language, and solo exhibition Bagandha yanggamba-ngga at Shoalhaven Regional Gallery. Nicole is a member of Mudjingaal Yangamba choir, and her works are held in national collections.
