About me

I am a Chinese Australian designer, community practitioner and theatre maker born on the land of the Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation – Footscray.

A graduate in Arts and Community Engagement from the VCA, Interior Design from RMIT and Industrial Design (Honours) from Swinburne University, I began my career designing for Haskell Architects, a medium sized practice focused on community facilities such as schools, community hubs and recreational centres. This eventually lead to exhibiting my work at the Wanted Design NYC as part of the Alessi Mutant Exhibition.

Since moving to theatre set design in 2010, I have contributed design to productions at Art Centre Melbourne, Arts House, La Mama Theatre, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Theatre Works, 45 Downstairs, 100 Story Building, Brunswick Mechanics Institute and Donkey Wheel House. With a foot always firmly planted in the community arts sector, I have also coordinated projects or facilitated workshops for organisations such as The Centre for Cultural Partnerships, The Public Pedagogies Institute, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Cohealth Arts Generator, Sustainable Living Festival, Castlemaine State Festival, Maribrynong City Council, VU Metro West, Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre, Vietnamese Community of Australia, Big West Festival and Melbourne City Council.

In 2017, I was one of two lead Asian-Australian artists for Inner Beat: Live, a collaborative public art project that explores the construction of complex identities, as part of the AsiaTOPA festival. I set designed for AMKA: Narratives from the African Diaspora, Arts Centre Melbourne as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2017 and produced my first interactive installation called, My Ancestral Roots as part of the Gertrude Street Projection Festival 2017. In 2018 I was honoured by the Vietnamese Community of Australia - Victorian Chapter with the inaugural Arts Award which was given to me in recognition of my contribution to Asian-Australian arts.

Recently, my practice has been moving towards live performance installation and theatre making. In 2018, I wrote and performed Dreams at the One Night in Footscray festival. I have just completed a CultureLAB artist residency at Arts House to develop a theatre performance called My Ancestral Roots which explores themes of identity and family through large scale calligraphy. This residency has eventuated into its first public performance called INK 墨, performed as part of the La Mama Explorations program in May 2019. (Reconciling identities: a review of Jennifer Tran’s ‘Ink 墨’)

CONTACT

EMAIL
designer.jentran@gmail.com

INSTAGRAM
@designerjentran