about

From Dr David Reiter, biographical note forward to 3rd i., .....

Basil Eliades is a rare polymath. He operates in many fields simultaneously, pushing boundaries and achieving excellence and recognition in education, philosophy, public art, his own painting practise, and, of course, poetry.

Basil writes extraordinarily complex texts that reveal their beauty slowly. He is reverent of the form of words and their plasticity, and the energies they carry. He is also a dynamic performer, extracting everything from himself, the text, and the audience. To see him in action is to redefine one’s understanding of the meaning of a word, and the parameters of poetry.

He has lived, exhibited and performed extensively from Melbourne to London, and from Sydney to Stockholm.

Key Achievements:

Show, Don’t Tell, 2007
Feature artist & author in Etchings 2 (Ilura Press, 2007)
3rd i., text&audio CD., IP.2006
3rd i., book, IP. 2006
Snakes and Ladders Project, 2005
Development and implementation of philosophy based courses that explore identity, utilizing Text, Visual and Performing Arts, 2000 - 2008
Finalist, Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, 2002 - 2003
Master of Arts, 2003
Exemplary Teacher Status awarded by Wesley College, 2002

Career Objective:

Leveraging from over 18 years’ experience of teaching / lecturing and working with students
Inspiring through the Liberal Arts
Sharing my developing understandings of the interconnectedness of all things
Sharing my passion for learning to effect individual and social change
Pursuing my dedication and versatility as a teacher and learner

Career Summary:

20 years professional writing, painting, drawing
18 years of formal teaching
15 years counselling adolescents in education environments
14 years curriculum design, development, and implementation
18 years research

Capabilities Include:

Inspiring and enabling individuals to identify their abilities, and empowering them to proceed
Coaching and mentoring creativity
Curriculum development and implementation
Strong research and analysis skills
Strong relation management skills (internal and external)
Empathy and managing sensitive situations
Mediation and negotiation
Facilitating a context for cognitive reflection
Generating a creative response to a wide variety of stimuli
Mirth

picture by Sabina Hopfer

Professional Experience:

1987 – Current:
Professional Artist, Writer, Educator

My work explores energy and constructs and is primarily expressionist. Through many publications and projects I offer a broad range of people a means for understanding paradigms, from local shop owners to corporate collectors, and from Kindergartens to Colleges.

New philosophical perspectives developed and utilised in the production of text, 2D, 3D, installation and performance artwork.
Contributed energy and vitality to many learning institutions, highlighting the value of the Arts.
Motivated many people to enjoy learning, creating, and delight in their own creativity.

2008:

Artist-in-Residence, St Peter’s Primary School, Dimboola. The Cat in the Hat Project.
Teacher at Candlebark.

2007:

Feature artist & poet for March edition of Etchings 2, lit.arts journal (Ilura Press).
Publication of ‘Show, Don’t Tell’, CSC, Aus Govt Grant.
Release of ‘3rd i.’, audio&text CD (Interactive Press).
Teacher at Candlebark.
Facilitated one-week professional artists’ development workshop (RAV grant).
Produced and directed animated short ‘EntropyEvolution’, with Oliver Patsch.

2006:

Artist - , Writer - , and Director -in-Residence, Castlemaine Secondary College
This project involved the creation and publication of ‘Show, don’t Tell’, an illustrated anthology of teenage writings.
Core contributer to the opening of Candlebark ‘One of the most anticipated openings of a new school… in 30 years’, The Age, Feb 6, 2006. Publication of ‘3rd i.’, Interactive Press, Brisbane.

2005:

May - Dec Co-Ordinating Artist, RuralAccess Snakes and Ladders Project
Launched at Parliament House, Dec 7, on time and under budget. This $50 000Community Arts project used 350 students and adults across the Moorabool and Hepburn Shires to create two huge embroidered 'Snakes and Ladders' games to educate community groups about issues of inclusion and exclusion facing people with disabilities. The games challenge values systems and paradigms through a unique set of situations and questions.
Curriculum design and documentation for Candlebark
Artist-in-Residence, ‘Relativity’, Hepburn Primary School,Arts Victoria Grant, (April – May). Turning theoretical maths and physics into performance art. Big project, very classy DVD produced.
Artist-in-Residence, Bundanon,NSW (February – March).
Lectures and workshops for university and TAFE students throughout the period.
Teacher, drawing and art theory, adult education, BRACE Ballarat.

2004:

Teacher – art and science, Hepburn Primary School (p/t)

2000 – 2003:

Co-ordinator of Visual Art, Wesley College Melb, Clunes Residential Campus
The campus is residential for eight -week blocks, and educates ‘the whole person in the community’. The campus is widely considered to be the ‘cutting edge’ of education for adolescents. Duties included: curriculum development and implementation, staff professional development, running workshops and teaching experientially: visual and performing arts, philosophy, mediation, inter-personal skills, cooking…

Contributed to the overall development, curriculum, and ethos of the campus
Set up a culture of Art and Literature as integral to life-long learning, including major group-devised projects and contributions of individual excellence
Developed and implemented several four-day workshops, utilizing text and image as the key modalities to explore identity, presented to approximately 400 students over four years

1995 – 2008:

Sessional lectures, workshops, and tutorials, presented at schools and universities throughout Melbourne and Victoria, interstate, and overseas. Local examples include:

*Brisbane Writers Festival (2007)	*Melbourne Writers Festival (2008)
Wesley College (all campuses)	Ballarat Grammar School
Melbourne High School	Melbourne Grammar
Loreto College Ballarat	Victorian College of the Arts
La Trobe University	Melbourne University
University of Ballarat	Deakin University
Melbourne CAE	RMIT

Many talks, lectures and workshops throughout Victoria as Key Speaker for the ‘Kicking Goals’ program.

Contributed energy and vitality to many learning institutions, highlighting the value of Liberal Arts.
Motivated many individuals to pursue writing, drawing, and philosophy as a means of exploring their worlds.
Stimulated on-going discussion both in and out of the institutions regarding the Arts and Philosophy.

2003:

Artist-in-Residence Hepburn Primary School

2001:

Artist-in-Residence (Arts Society Grant) Wesley College Melbourne, Prahran Campus

2000:

Artist-in-Residence (AIS Grant), Bunninyong Primary, Ballarat

1999:

Artist-in-Residence, Maple Street Primary School, Bendigo

1996 – 97:

Manager, Kronos Electronics Laboratories.

1996 – 98:

Key Speaker, Kicking Goals Program.

1994:

Artist-in-Residence and teacher, Highbury Fields School, London.

1991 – 92:

Drama Co-ordinator and Art teacher, Sacred Heart Girls' College Oakleigh.

1990:

Lecturer / tutor, Australian Academy of Dramatic Arts, Sydney.

1988 – 89:

Editor, research co-ordinator and adviser for Margaret Carnegie, OA,'s "Pangana - Aboriginal Art" project. Lectures published 1989.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS:

Master of Arts (La Trobe University) - 2003
Post Graduate Diploma of Curatorship (Melbourne University)- 1992
Diploma of Education (Victoria College) - 1988
Bachelor of Fine Art (Victorian College of the Arts) - 1987
Associate Diploma (Australian Guild of Music and Speech) - 1986

Selected Exhibitions:

Sydney Biennale, (performance), AGNSW, Sydney, 2008
Self Portrait Prize, (Group) Prospect Gallery, Adelaide, Nov 05 – Jan 2008
Wallworks (Group) Daylesford Art Works, Dalesford, February 2007
Self Portrait Prize, (Group) Prospect Gallery, Adelaide, Nov 05 – Jan 2006
The Bundanon Suite, Convent Gallery Daylesford, July – Sept 2005
Happy Hour (Group), Daylesford Photo Biennale, May – June, 2005
Vivid (Group), 42 Downstairs, Melbourne, 2004
Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (Group), Australia-wide, 2002 - 2003
Isolated Connections: The Landscape Politic   Castlemaine Art Gallery, May-June 2003
Isolated Connections: The Landscape Politic   Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, June-July 2003
Pantechnicon Landscape Prize   Pantechnicon Gallery (Group), Daylesford, 2002
Intoxicating Landscapes    Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, March 2001
Fertile Ground    Bendigo Art Gallery (Group), September 2000
The Front   Grainery Lane, Ballarat, July 1999
Pantechnicon Landscape Prize   Pantechnicon Gallery (Group), Daylesford, 1999
Up to our waste in it   Powerhouse (Group), Daylesford, 1999
9x5x25   Victorian Arts Centre (Group), July 1998
New works 34 Aberdeen Park, London, Nov 1994
Nya Målningar (new paintings)   Södra Latin, Stockholm, 1994
Sobriety   Gallery 503, Melbourne, Nov '93 - Jan 1994
Retrospective   Gallery 503, Melbourne, June 1993
Bacchus on the Beach Acland Gallery, Melbourne, Feb 1993
Dionysia's Birthday   Roar Studios, Melbourne, Feb 1992
Critic Collins Street, Melbourne, Aug 1992
Roar 10th Anniversary Roar Studios, (Group) Melbourne, July 1992
Saturnalia   A.R.T. (Group) Melbourne, Dec 1992
Keith & Elizabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship (Group) Melb 1991
Gottenham Street Glebe, Sydney, Aug 1989
Children's Hospital Benefit BHP Building (Group) Melb 1989
V.C.A. Graduate Show Melbourne 1987
Grant Street Theatre  Melbourne 1986
Access Studios Melbourne 1985
Södra Latin Gallery Stockholm, Sweden 1983

Awards, Prizes, Grants:

Winner of Westgarth Film Festival 10 minute wonders with ‘Entropy/Evolution’.
Regional Arts Fund Quick Response Grant for Artists Masterclasses, Daylesford, Sept 2007.
$50 000 Department of Human Services Innovations Grant, through Hepburn Health
Service, Snakes and Ladders Project (in conjunction with Jane Knight) launched at Queen's Hall, Parliament House, Melbourne, Dec 7, 2005
Arts Victoria Grant, Artists in Schools, 2005.
Swiss-Italian Festa Landscape Painting prize runner-up, 2004.
Doug Moran National Painting Prize effective runner-up, 2002.
Exemplary Teacher Status awarded by Wesley College, 2002.
Herald-Sun Teaching Team of the Year State Finalist, Wesley College Clunes Campus, 2003
Arts Society Grant for Artist-in-Residency, Wesley College, Prahran Campus, 2001.
Australia Council Grant, AIS, 2000.
ABC Radio and TV Award, best production of Fringe Festival, 1992.
Theodore Urbach Encouragement Award, 1986
D&E Westbrook Drawing Prize, 1987

Published Poetry / Short Stories / Books / Journals:

Cordite – Experience issue, March 2008
Etchings 3 – Breath, Ilura Press, June, 2007
Etchings 2 – Feature artist / author, Ilura Press, March, 2007
Show, Don’t Tell, (ed.), CSC, Aus Govt grant through DEST, 2007
Starving Artist (anthology), Newstead Press, 2006
3rd i or within the contingent skin,Interactive Press, Brisbane,2006
ohne Titel (abroad), 1995
ohne Titel (divorce, death, birth, rebirth), Untitled Press, 1997
Cosy Poets, (anthology), Black Earth Studios, 1998
Hush, Men Are Speaking, (anthology), Arts Incorporated, Victorian Arts Council, 1999
A number of other ghost-written books published

Broadcast Performances and Interviews:

Mebourne Writers’ Festival, 2008, Why?
Brisbane Writers’ Festival, 2007
RRR, Multiple playings of CD 3rd i, June 2006 – October 2007
3LO, May 9, 2003 – interview
ABC TV – Arts on Sunday, interview and story, May 2003
JJJ - live reading Jan 1999
JJJ - performance from CD, Sep 1998
ABC – live readings, National Poetry Day, Sept, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
SBS - live radio interview and reading 14 August 1995
SBS - series of pre-taped performances
PBS - live radio interview and reading Arts About 25 May 1995
BBC - radio, UK, three separate live readings, 1994

Journals, Articles, Periodicals:

Many recent articles, radio and TV coverage of the opening of Candlebark
Many recent articles on the Snakes and Ladders Project< br /> Pollies get brush-off, The Australian Financial Review, March 12, 2004
The art of art as a statement, The Courier, June 12 2003
Ned Kelly army rattles ‘dem bones, The Age, May 28 2003
Home-front issues on display, The Age, May 17 2003
Activist, Good Weekend, The Age, May 10 2003
No sketching please, we’re Italian (Security Threat), The Age, The Culture, Sept. 25 2002
Brooding portrait wins Moran prize, The Australian Financial Review, June 6 2002
Changing face of portraiture, The Australian Financial Review, June 6 2002
Buninyong pupils look to future for literacy week, The Courier, September 6 2000
Artist fully booked up, The Courier, August 31 2000
Hands on work at Wesley, The Courier, March 2000
Poet-painter has arrived in town, (and other articles) The Advocate, 1998
Experience Ballarat’s poetry explosion, The Courier, August 13 1998
Big Ron’s about to be framed, Spy, The Age, 1997
Today’s Highlights, The Age, 27 July 1995
The Pleasure’s All Basil’s Cover story & article, The Mail 26 July 1995
Hedonistic Confessions Cover story & article, Neos Kosmos 31 July 1995
Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm, August 1995
Christmas Buyers Guide, p. 255, Art and Australia, Vol 31, #2, 1993
Basil takes a bite, The Age EG, Feb 5 1993
Article Sunday Age, Feb 21 1993
The Best Of Sunday, Sunday Age, Feb 23 1992
Galleries, The Age EG, Feb 28 1992

Citizenship:

Born Australian, citizenship Australian.

LANGUAGES:

English, Swedish, French, some Greek, Italian, Chinese.

LEISURE, PLEASURE:

Jane. Playing with my daughters. A deep love of ecology and permaculture. Poetry, cycling, martial arts, music, painting, writing, connecting with horses, meditation, energy work, dancing, learning, ceramics, everything on my resume, building with strawbale, and … zen.