MWF 2024 Award Shortlist
Alexandre Dubois — “FAINT: Intra”
Alexandre Dubois is a multidisciplinary artist known for his work in photography, music, and 3D animation, as well as for founding FAINT magazine.
With a strong passion for conceptual photography, he explores the realms of fashion, portraiture and digital interference, creating emotive and vibrant visuals that often incorporate quasi-surrealistic elements and a poetic sense of nostalgia, futurism and introspection.
Aside from visual arts, he is also deeply involved in music as a self-taught musician, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer, operating under the moniker HEARTATTRACKS.
Alexandre is committed to not-for-profit and community-driven initiatives, volunteering and fundraising for multiple important causes such as Black Rainbow NT and Wildlife Victoria. He is passionate about using his platform to raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world.
Images © Alexandre Dubois
Bon Mott — “Intergalactic plasma”
Dr. Bon Mott is an emerging nonbinary and neurodivergent artist-curator with community-focused approaches. They have a Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne focusing on performance-activated installation art, and are dedicated to learning Indigenous knowledge, with an extensive record of leading significant cultural initiatives with community grants. An activist at heart, they engage the public in dialogue for societal advancement through art,
as well as mentoring interdisciplinary art students at the VCA. Their transdisciplinary sculpture installations encompass a spectrum of mediums, from photography to performance art. They combine transformative, mixed-method research that embodies a union between marginalised community collaboration and the exploration of lightning in art, a profound aspect of their identity and activism.
Images © Bon Mott
Chilali Weller — “Chilali”
Chilali Weller is a Melbourne-based designer driven by his love for merging fashion design, visual art, graphic design, film, and photography. He aims to create new and innovative silhouettes, as well as giving his take on traditional outfits, to create garments that could be worn by any body.
Chilali has done extensive research into, and implemented the use of, planet-friendly materials and practices such as hemp denim, hemp knit,
cactus leather, biodegradable 3D print filament, deadstock fabric, recycled materials, and constructing upcycled garments. He loves using his upcycled outcomes to inform future garment designs, which he constructs from scratch.
Winner of the 2023 Upcycled Runway at Melbourne Fashion week, with garments purchased by National Trust for their permanent gallery collection.
IG: @_chilali
Images © Chilali Weller
Erik Yvon — “Queer Tapestry”
Erik Yvon is a Victorian-based fashion designer, inspired by their queer experience and Mauritian roots. With a Bachelor of Fashion Design and training under esteemed Australian labels Romance Was Born and Neo Dia, they gained recognition for winning both The Wool Awards and the Australian Fashion Awards. With this accreditation and experience their eponymous label launched in 2018, placing a strong emphasis on queer, and ethical production—an embodiment of their values.
With unwavering dedication to inclusivity, Erik Yvon continues to reshape the fashion landscape, deliberately driving their creative expression through a kaleidoscope of diversity, bringing empowerment to the forefront. The label has been acclaimed through magazines and media channels such as I-D, Vogue Italia, British Vogue, Vogue Australia, Melbourne Fashion Week, Sydney Fashion Week and New Zealand Fashion Week.
Images © Erik Yvon
Mae Hartrick — “Casting”
Mae Hartrick is a Naarm-based artist recognised for her distinctive approach to visual storytelling. With a foundation in Printmaking (RMIT BFA), Hartrick employs creative direction, set design, and photography as a means to explore themes of The Occult, Queer Identity, and Ethereal Narratives.
Hartrick’s creative approach often occurs through-way of collaboration, her work focuses upon world-building by creating handmade sets, manipulated lighting, and exists in the intersection of fashion-as-art and the photographic medium.
Images © Mae Hartrick