Stephen Cassidy – Writing biography

A parallel part of his long career in the arts and culture sector over many decades, Stephen Cassidy’s writing has ranged across articles, poetry, short stories, installations, songs, websites and digital media. It includes several blogs. This one, handwriting stocks homegrown graffiti from the digital world – writing, rhyming and digital animations. balloon floats thought balloons for our strange and unsettled times – short quirky articles about the eccentricities of everyday life, almost always with a sense of short black humour.

More serious articles appear in indefinite article, which publishes irreverent articles about contemporary Australian society, popular culture, the creative economy and the digital and online world – life in the trenches and on the beaches of the information age.

His writing builds on an early start from the age of nine, with a first prize in the Poatina RSL Essay Competition in 1962!

It has previously gained recognition twice in HQ magazine story contests, with shortlisting in 1994; in the Bauhinia Literary Awards, the ACT Writers Centre Poetry Award, Conversations group exhibition at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery and the 2004 Goulburn Art Award. It was shortlisted in the Newcastle Poetry Prize New Media Award and included in a 2005 group exhibition at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery.

Over a long period his work has appeared in various magazines such as Community Arts National and the NSW and South Australian Community Arts Network newsletters, Powerline magazine, published by the Powerhouse Museum, Artbeat, Artlink, Blast, ACTWrite, Idiom 23, Jazz Australia, Art Wires, published by the National Association for the Visual Arts, Music National, published by Music Australia, and Arts Hub.

At Cockatoo Island Sydney Harbour, once a base for heavy industry now a centre for heavy creativity

Currently (at the beginning of 2017) he draws on his experience from this long and diverse career in the arts and culture sector for his writing and for a range of research and commentary on contemporary Australian arts and culture. Particular areas of interest include creative industries and innovation, – including literature and contemporary music – and the link between creative industries and Indigenous culture. From his work while in the Australian Government, he also has an interest in the importance of Australia’s Indigenous languages for Australian culture and the community revival movement which is re-establishing them as part of daily life. 

He is a long-standing member of the ACT Writers Centre, and before that the NSW Writers Centre, an Adjunct with the University of Canberra through the Faculty of Arts and Design, and a member of independent ACT arts advocacy body, The Childers Group. From 2014-2016 he was on the Board of Craft ACT and helped establish its initiative, Design Canberra.

Poetry

Poetry has ranged across experimental works combining images and text, such as 'Sitting on twigs', 'Cut back to black' and 'Stopping by Lake George' in the Conversations group exhibition at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery in 2004. 'Lithograph' was highly commended in the 2003 ACT Writers Centre Poetry Award.

Short stories
His stories, 'In search of unreliable facts' and 'Stranded in Hay', have both been recognised in successive HQ magazine story contests, with 'In search of unreliable facts' shortlisted in 1994. 'Stranded in Hay' was also published in Idiom 23 magazine in October 2004 after being highly commended in the Bauhinia Literary Awards. In 2003 two other stories, 'Closeness' and 'In Search of Unreliable Facts' were commended in these Awards.

Installations and artwork
The installation 'The lost art of conversation', produced with visual artist Deborah Faeryglenn, was a central component of his involvement in the 2004 Conversations group exhibition at Gouburn Regional Art Gallery. The artwork 'Memory artefacts' was commended in the 2005 Goulburn Art Award.

Digital media
Interest in digital media has a long history. 'State of origin' was produced with visual artist, Deborah Faeyrglenn, for the 2004 Goulburn Regional Art Gallery group exhibition, Conversations. Shortly following this 'Remembering Dresden' was shortlisted for the 2004 Newcastle Poetry Prize New Media Award. This was followed with 'Signature of water', produced with visual artist Deborah Faeyrglenn as part of a group exhibition Waterworks at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery in 2005.

See also

I smoke baby cigars
‘Smoking baby cigars in the dark of the backyard. Like some Cuban presidente haranguing the crowd with reminders, I proffer a list of romantic anniversaries, our May 4th movement, our July 12th uprising – our moment when everything became new’, I smoke baby cigars.

Cut back to black
‘Cut back to black, thin chill drizzle mid-winter – infinite regression on petrol’. Also called ‘Revhead heaven’, Cut back to black.

Coming back to these stones
‘Coming back to these stones – in the sandy dry reaches of the Coorong in South Australia’s South East birds flicker across the flat water like beads of run-away mercury’, Coming back to these stones.

Landscapes in a rear vision mirror
‘Heading at a moment's notice into Broken Hill, breaking several traffic laws on the Barrier Highway, in the rear vision mirror the land kept switching colours’, Landscapes in a rear vision mirror.

Stopping by Lake George

‘Lake George is a vast stretching freshwater lake, with no outlet. It is only diminished by evaporation. Many stories are told about Lake George, a still point of the turning earth, with all the quiet of the eye at the centre of a hurricane’, Stopping by Lake George.See other work from the Conversations group exhibition, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, 2004 – a collaborative exhibition of writers and visual artists.

State of origin
Multimedia piece developed with visual artist, Deborah Faeyrglenn, State of origin looked at where we come from, where we go next and where we truly belong. In this work the writer and visual artist combined word, image and computer technology to make visual music. Words and images moved across the computer screen, with no fixed address, State of origin.

The lost art of conversation
Installation, developed with visual artist, Deborah Faeyrglenn, on words, meaning, reflection and infinite (or at least, partial) regression. Three tall thin vertical mirrors stand against the wall, covered in bursts of words. Three matching paper shadows flow out from the wall along the floor. Words on the mirrors flutter and blur into shadows, The lost art of conversation.

balloon
A fictional narrative work in the form of a website, the website as writing. About the adventures of a refugee from the big city who sets up the High Country Thought Balloon Company. A series of brief vignettes about the characters, situations and stories which intersect the path of the balloons as they soar across the skies of the Southern Tablelands and Snowy region. It is about changing perspective, balloon.

Malacoota Inlet
‘Shutdown in a flat, wet land, the line beween sea and sky where grey meets grey, where stricken yachts come in’, Malacoota Inlet.

Sitting on twigs
‘Sitting on twigs in the flat lands, in a piece of country loaded with meaning, like a tightly coiled spring’, Sitting on twigs.

Signature of water
A series of artworks as part of the Waterworks exhibiton at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery responding to the shared task of facing up to life on our dry continent. Ranges from short, minimalist animations, using cartoons, to hyperfiction drawing on the styles of crime novels. It is a mix of poetry, storytelling, images and sounds which is heavily influenced by the styles of popular culture and the urban and rural landscapes around us, Signature of water.