Fire Artist
Community artist and sculptor, Mahony Maia Kiely was involved in Mountain to Mouth in 2009 and 2014. She will contextualise the sculpted work culturally, embedding it in the history of the Mountain to Mouth project, and the Australian social and cultural landscape of Geelong.
Mahony has worked in Australia and around the world over the past 25 years in various roles including: artistic and event director, choreographer, creative producer, performer and facilitator of community process. She specialises in working with communities and companies who wish to use performance to express or celebrate, and devises content in collaboration with partners and participants to this end. In July 2015, she made a sea of lanterns with 1000 school children in Port Moresby for the Pacific Games Opening Ceremony. With Leonard Tebetgenu she structured a giant Conch (3x3x7m). It was completed by locals, and used as ‘cauldron’ in the opening of the Pacific Games, July 2015. The collaborative relationship begun then, will continue in Mountain to Mouth 2016.
Using cane, bamboo, wire and fabric Mahony creates large puppets, lanterns, fire sculptures and community rituals working with and within communities. Her own artform is sculpture built of earth, bound by medium and fired in the summer sun.
