Blatt & Matonelli: Mosaic Morphologies

9 May

Katherine Palella and Sirena Varma
9 May - 13 June 2025

Blatt & Matonelli is a collaboration between artist Katherine Palella and multidisciplinary designer Sirena Varma, both based in Magandjin, Australia. Their work celebrates and reimagines cultural heritage, merging the tile-making traditions of Lebanon and Sicily with contemporary design to explore how aesthetics are shaped by geography, memory, and the fluid concept of home. Inspired by geometry, vernacular architecture, and everyday motifs, the clay tile-making process incorporated hand building, experimentations with repeat patterns, painting and sgraffito.

This project reflects an ongoing attempt to reclaim traditional practices as a means of connection—to history, identity, and belonging. Exploring how design motifs span time and place, this projection celebrates and reimagines cultural heritage, merging tradition with digital artistry into an evolving visual experience. The work is projected at an architectural scale, embedding cultural memory into the local urban landscape.

Katherine Palella (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist with extensive experience working on creative projects, artworks, exhibitions and events. With a strong interest in critical theory, Katherine’s background is primarily in DIY approaches via Artist Run Initiatives Magandjin Creatives for Palestine, Small Lakes, 4C Collective and Conduit Arts, and collaborative work with musicians and videographers. Other times they paint in abstraction, exploring a kind of internal topography of affect through colour and gesture.

Sirena Varma (she/her) is a multidisciplinary designer and visual artist. Informed by a background in architecture and an interdisciplinary approach, her expertise lies in graphics, exhibition design, and digital illustration. Driven by creative collaboration, she co-founded Twig, an interdisciplinary collaborative. Growing up in Lebanon, Sirena draws inspiration from her Lebanese, Palestinian, German, and Indian heritage.

Sirena and Katherine’s collaborative work began organically, born out of a shared curiosity and desire to explore how interdisciplinary practice can exemplify our dedication to community care, and our cultural and creative expression. Their shared activism for the Palestinian cause brought them together to collaborate on a project that unites Magandjin-based creatives across the state in acts of solidarity through their artistic practices. Alongside a broader collective, they organised, led, and curated an exhibition featuring over 200 works, offered by the community in support of Palestinian refugees arriving from Gaza.

The artists would like to acknowledge Thomas Oliver (Photography), Jade Shanley (Pottery Mentoring), Vacant Assembly (Studio Space) and Clay School (Kiln Firing).