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Cool Change

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Cool Change

Artist-run initiative (gallery and performance space) in Boorloo (Perth), supporting early-career an

Cool Change is an artist-run initiative based in Boorloo / Perth, Western Australia. Since our inception, we have hosted exhibitions, artist residences, performances, workshops, talks, and operated a small shop. Volunteer-led and not-for-profit, the organisation is committed to presenting critically engaged artistic practice in a welcoming and accessible environment with an agile and responsive ou

tlook. We are planning to recommence operations in 2023 both onsite and offsite. Two phrases signify our approach to recommencement:

Slow Roll
From what we have learnt over the last four years about volunteer-led arts organisations, a slow roll approach is needed to sustainably and strategically renew our operations. We need to remain responsive to changes and currents surrounding us, while also maintaining an agile structure that can adapt and bend to account for the needs of the emerging and experimental practices that Cool Change is designed to support. Cool Change should shrink and expand where needed, taking time to recoup, listen and breath as desired. To recommence at a slow roll pace is to account for the capacities of our volunteer team and those around us. As Is
The nature of space and site is an important variable for arts organsations. As a collective, we are driven by a resourceful and responsible approach to space and site, which does not take for granted the opportunity to operate on the unceded lands of Whadjuk Noongar people, and recognising our place as settler artists and workers on this land. What is the impact emerging volunteer arts organisations have had on property, community and inner-city lifestyle, and how has this impact been considered and remunerated by resourced and established businesses? This is an open question and a demand for the labour of emerging artists, writers, curators and workers to not be taken lightly. Cool Change is reconsidering the ubiquity of the white-cube and the impact this has had on potential for exhibition-based arts organisations to emerge.

27/05/2026

Cool Change is pleased to announce Katie Lenanton as the fourth and last participant in our 2026–27 Residency Program, working from our King’s Complex project space for eight weeks, from 11 January to 13 March 2027.

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This program is proudly supported by the WA Government. Cool Change is supported by the Visual Art, Craft and Design Framework, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

Photo: Inari Sandell.

Returning to Boorloo/Perth from Helsinki for her CC residency, Katie Lenanton will reconnect with her hometown through the curatorial project ‘Bar Tender’ (2022– ). Both a mobile pop-up art bar and a long-term relational artistic and curatorial project, her work draws parallels between the labour and social dynamics of a curator and a bartender. During service, she will listen patiently to the ideas, challenges, and hopes of artist-patrons, offering her advice and support over a wildcrafted drink.

Motivated by worldbuilding, change, and togetherness, Katie will utilise artworks, objects, and foraging practices to transform the Cool Change office into an environment for intimate social encounters. Through 1-on-1 conversations, she strives to create space for sharing, altruistic support, and solidarity. In addition to offering her time and bartending services by appointment, Katie will also host a larger gathering.

Katie Lenanton is an intersectional feminist curator, researcher, writer, and editor. She works with mediums like exhibition-making, social practice, wildcrafting, conceptual cocktails, installations, participatory sculptures, scent, sustenance, and publishing. Her practice is collective and site-specific, often taking the form of gatherings, workshops, and collective writing. She doesn’t work alone, and her practice is shaped through collaborations with artists.

Active in the cultural field since 2003, Katie’s roots are in DIY communities, contemporary art, publishing, and community organising. Asking the important question “Who is in the room, and under what conditions?”, she strives to make things happen in ways that feel comfortable, nourishing, and generative for everyone involved. She holds an MA in Curating, Medi

24/05/2026

Cool Change is pleased to announce Lillian Colgan as the third participant in our 2026–27 Residency Program, working from our King’s Complex project space for eight weeks, from 21 September to 21 November 2026.

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This program is proudly supported by the WA Government. Cool Change is supported by the Visual Art, Craft and Design Framework, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

During her two-month residency at Cool Change, Lillian Colgan will explore deviance, irreverence and improvisation as creative tools for upsetting naturalised systems of power and oppression. She is particularly interested in how these methodologies can influence the everyday challenges that trans people encounter—highlighting the pockets of agency (or even pleasure) that people use to survive within an increasingly inhospitable world.

Informed by research conducted through interviews and conversations with local q***r and trans community members, Lillian will develop a new body of work sitting somewhere between installation and social practice. During her CC residency, she will also establish a regular reading group, engaging with texts such as Mira Bellwether’s ‘F**king Trans Women’ (2010) and the 1970s magazine ‘New Femme’ (started by The Chameleon Society of Western Australia).

Lillian Colgan is an artist based in Boorloo/Perth. Her practice explores how normative social power shapes embodiment and considers how material play can be used to unpack complex feelings and offer insights into q***r and trans identity. By drawing on her personal experiences, she generates multidisciplinary installations, typically involving sculpture, textiles, video and/or sound.

Since graduating in 2014, Lillian has exhibited nationally at galleries including LWAG, PICA, FELTSpace, Firstdraft, Artspace, and Wollongong Art Gallery. She has participated in development programs and residencies with Performance Space, Vitalstatistix, Proximity Festival, and Parramatta Artist Studios. Lill has facilitated creative workshops—including the Trans Alterations Workshop at Goolugatup and We Have Many Layers at Cement Fondu—and is currently employed as a Teaching Artist at AGWA.

21/05/2026

Cool Change is pleased to announce Annie Huang and Reegan Jackson as the second participants in our 2026–27 Residency Program, working from our King’s Complex project space for eight weeks, from 13 July to 12 September 2026.

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This program is proudly supported by the WA Government. Cool Change is supported by the Visual Art, Craft and Design Framework, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

Drawing from their interest in the collective experience of language and technology, Annie Huang and Reegan Jackson will explore internet memes as a shared cultural language. Focusing on widely circulated audio fragments—catchphrases, vocal tics, and remixed speech—their work will examine how these sounds move through algorithmic systems, becoming collective signals of time, humour, emotion, and cultural reference, while remaining ephemeral and intangible despite their ubiquity.

Through computational processes, these fleeting signals will be translated into digital models before becoming sculptural objects in porcelain, metal, and glass through the melting capabilities of a kiln. Interactive sound and visual elements will also be explored, with audio inputs generating and manipulating forms in real time. In seeking to materialise what typically only exists in circulation, the project will reflect on the ways digital sediments affect contemporary experience.

Annie Huang is an artist based in Boorloo/Perth. Her practice considers the cultural complexities experienced by intersectional identities through the lens of Eastern and Western contexts. Informed by material and theoretical research, she utilises ceramics, video projection, animation, and new media installation to speculate and reflect on contemporary narratives surrounding the ‘foreigner’ and ‘insider’.

Annie is currently a sessional teacher and PhD Candidate in Fine Arts at the University of Western Australia. She has participated in various exhibitions, talks, residencies, and group projects, both nationally and internationally, including, most recently, at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre (WFAC), and Seoul National University, amongst others

19/05/2026

Cool Change is pleased to announce Jimi DePriest and Lia T as the first participants in our 2026–27 Residency Program, working from our King’s Complex project space for eight weeks, from 4 May to 4 July.

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This program is proudly supported by the WA Government. Cool Change is supported by the Visual Art, Craft and Design Framework, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

Photo: Mckenzie Eastman.

Jimi DePriest and Lia T, working together for the first time, will draw on their combined experiences in electronic art and sound design to explore how ‘clutter rejection’—an adaptive method observed in echolocating bats—can function as a vector for navigating dystopic chaos. Regarding this process as a behavioural response to the infiltration of urban noise into the acoustic terrain traversed by bats, the duo’s conceptual approach will problematise and reconfigure echolocation as a site of artistic inspiration and technological invention.

With Lia prioritising sound design, Jimi will work as the visual artist and engineer, utilising the CC studio as a space for material experimentation, technological development, and research. Working with a four-channel audio system, DIY electronics, and video projections, Jimi and Lia will catalyse a mercurial ecosystem of ultrasonic frequencies, digital synthesis, data signals, sensors, and moving images. Their collaboration will materialise an entropic sonic field, guided by a shared curiosity for chaotic feedback.

Jimi DePriest is an emerging electronic artist and researcher whose creative practice is influenced by their research interests in composing Marxist and anti-imperialist analyses of automation and weapons technologies. Fusing tactical media with bio-art, their work often distils the material consequences of neoliberalism and potentials for resistance into conceptually potent visual symbols.

The interdisciplinary nature of Jimi’s practice has enabled them to develop skills across critical theory, wet-lab media, electronics, and filmmaking. They seek to continue expanding this practice to produce increasingly complex and transgressive electronic media installations while broadening the conc

23/04/2026

Cool Change is excited to announce our 2026–27 residency program.

1️⃣ 4 May – 4 July
Jimi DePriest & Lia T

2️⃣ 13 July – 12 September
Annie Huang & Reegan Jackson

3️⃣ 21 September – 21 November
Lillian Colgan

4️⃣ 11 January – 13 March
Katie Lenanton

Across four eight-week residencies, participants will have access to a combined studio and presentation space at our King’s Complex office space to develop new work.

The program supports practitioners across art forms to realise ambitious projects, offering dedicated time and space alongside opportunities for professional development.

Please follow us for further information on each residency, coming soon.

⚠️

This program is proudly supported by the WA Government.

Cool Change is supported by the Visual Art, Craft and Design Framework, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

13/02/2026

Cool Change is currently accepting applications for our 2026–27 residency program.

We invite proposals from artists, curators, producers, and collectives from across art forms to undertake one of four eight-week intensive residencies with us between May 2026 and March 2027. Successful applicants will receive a fee of $3,000 (inc. GST) to support their residency projects and the delivery of milestones and outcomes.

Residency participants will have access to a combined studio and presentation space at our King’s Complex office venue for the development of new work. While there are no requirements for the completion of works, an exhibition of works-in-progress will be presented to the public across two weekends at the conclusion of the residency.

CC will support each residency by providing a program manager, a series of studio visits with relevant arts professionals, and project mentorship with AGWA curator Robert Cook. We will also commission a text and produce a small print publication to accompany each residency.

EOI can be submitted via our online form until 11:59 PM AWST on Sunday, 8 March 2026.

Please refer to our website or for more information.

23/09/2025

We are thrilled to share some more moments from from a few weeks ago.

After a few weeks of reflection we couldn’t be more grateful for such generous support and feedback from the audience in the room. Big thanks you all, and to everyone that took footage on the night feel free to send it to us!

Photos by

06/06/2025

The opportunity to submit an expression of interest to join Cool Change’s committee as the Treasurer has now been extended.

Applications (consisting of a cover letter and CV) will now close at midnight on Sunday, 22 June 2025. For more information, please see our website or .

Please note: all committee member positions are unpaid volunteer roles.

We want to thank everyone who submitted an EOI to become an ordinary member or the Secretary in this callout. The committee will assess applications and contact applicants over the next few weeks.

23/05/2025

There are now only seven days left to submit an expression of interest to join Cool Change’s committee. We are looking for four new committee members, two of whom will replace our outgoing Secretary and Treasurer.

Applications (consisting of a cover letter and CV) close at midnight on Friday, 30 May 2025. For more information, please see our website or .

Please note: all committee member positions are unpaid volunteer roles.

02/05/2025

Cool Change is currently seeking expressions of interest for four new committee members, two of whom will replace our outgoing Secretary and Treasurer.

Applications (consisting of a cover letter and CV) close at midnight on Friday, 30 May 2025. For more information, please see our website or .

Please note: all committee member positions are unpaid volunteer roles.

Address

Level 2 King’s Complex 533 Hay Street
Perth, WA
6000

Opening Hours

Wednesday	11am - 5pm
Thursday	11am - 5pm
Friday	11am - 5pm
Saturday	11am - 5pm

Website

http://www.coolchange.net.au/

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