Mandurah-based emerging artist Alex Winner part of 2024 Perth Festival Lab program

Mandurah-based emerging artist Alex Winner has been introduced to a world of possibility as one of ten participants selected via video application for this year’s Perth Festival Lab program.

The filmmaker, musician and artist working in video, sound and installation art has spent Perth Festival 2024 being exposed to many different art forms he would not necessarily seek out in a discovery of the attainable.

“Theatre and dance is a completely foreign world to me, I’ve never really experienced it, so coming to the Lab has just kind of opened up all these possibilities of things that I can explore,” the 24-year-old says.

“There are nine other emerging artists in the program and just hearing from them and their perspectives about work has been so interesting. There’s been a lot of networking. We’ve been talking about collaborating on projects, so in that sense, it’s already been super helpful in terms of my arts practice.”

Winner was drawn to movies from the moment he started watching them as a kid, his parents giving him a digital camera by age eight where he would make stop motion films, teaching himself how to edit them on the family computer.

“I just fell in love with making and the process of making and telling stories,” he says.

“I went to Murdoch University and studied film. Towards third year and end of my degree, I was like, ‘how do I combine film with my love of contemporary art?’ So I did an honours degree in fine art and sound art. Ever since, I’ve just been trying to mesh the two, film and contemporary art.

“I’m kind of exploring how video art and installation art can be used together to create large, immersive experiences.”

Winner says the Mandurah arts community has really embraced him, especially CASM (Contemporary Art Spaces Mandurah), giving him the space and the opportunity to develop as an artist.

Similarly, the Festival Lab cohort are given space for inquiry and connection as they spend four intense weeks together engaging with the Perth Festival program, participating in critical discussion and workshops, meeting visiting artists, producers and Festival staff.

“Festival Lab for emerging artists is one of the many behind-the-scenes Connect Program activities to remove barriers and create pathways for thousands of West Australians to participate in the arts,” Perth Festival artistic director Iain Grandage says.

“Through Connect, we work with schools, community groups and grassroots arts organisations to build a thriving WA arts community making Perth Festival truly an event for everyone.”

Winner’s Festival Lab experience has put him in good stead while he prepares an installation along Smart Street Mall as part of Mandurah Crab Fest — continuing his ongoing commitment to activate Smart Street — and works on a road trip-themed film he hopes to shoot later in the year.