INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT: GUEST LECTURE - Divya Lotliker
- Mar 3
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 8
In our first guest lecture, artist Divya Lotliker shared insights into her artistic practice and the development of the artist-run initiative Riff Raff, which she co-founded with Felix Jackson and Holly-Lee Dickson in 2023. The lecture offered a combination of personal reflection and practical experience, showing how creative practice can intersect with community building, collaboration, and grassroots cultural organisation. Through discussing both her own work and the evolution of Riff Raff, Lotliker demonstrated how artists can actively create opportunities for themselves and their communities when institutional support is limited.
Lotliker began by describing her own interdisciplinary practice as a visual and performance artist working across drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and performance. Her work draws strongly from personal experience and engages with themes of spirituality, femininity, suffering, and transformation. She explained that Eastern philosophies influence her approach, particularly in the way she values presence, experimentation, and ritual. Her recent work focuses on developing new rituals grounded in the Earth and informed by her intercultural upbringing. This emphasis on ritual and embodiment reflects a broader interest in art as a process rather than simply an object or finished outcome.
A significant part of the lecture focused on the creation of Riff Raff, an artist-run initiative based in Penrith, Western Sydney. The name itself reflects a playful reclaiming of the nickname “Riff,” a slang term used by the locals to refer to their hometown Penrith. By embracing this label, the founders aimed to take ownership of their identity and highlight creative activity in an area that is often overlooked within the broader Sydney art world. The initiative was created by artists for artists, specifically focusing on supporting creatives from Penrith and surrounding areas.
Lotliker described how the project began in 2023 with a simple idea: to understand what the local creative community actually needed. To gather this information, the founders distributed a flyer containing a QR code linking to a Google questionnaire asking questions such as where other creatives were located and what kinds of support they needed. The response exceeded expectations, receiving around seventy submissions. However, the group quickly realised that they did not have the funding to establish a formal physical space. Instead of abandoning the idea, they developed alternative approaches, including informal meetups held in public parks. These gatherings were free and accessible, creating a casual environment where local creatives could connect. Although attendance averaged around eight people, these small meetings played an important role in building relationships and forming a sense of community.
Figures 3-4: © Riff Raff, Examples of the callouts posted by Riff Raff for their meetups (2024), Instagram
Over time, these small initiatives developed into larger collaborative projects. One of the first significant outcomes was a collaborative mural created in April 2024, which later gained an exhibition opportunity at the Regional Penrith Gallery. This success demonstrated how small grassroots actions can lead to more formal recognition within established cultural institutions. Another project was the Library Project, a one-day event that expanded the initiative's engagement with the community.
Figure 6-11: © Riff Raff, The Library Project (2024). Photos from Instagram @riffraff_ari
A particularly important development was the creation of Riff Raff Magazine, which featured twenty artists from the Penrith region working across visual arts, poetry, and other creative forms. The founders asked themselves what the most effective way was to tell the stories of their community. The magazine became a platform for emerging local voices; seventy copies were produced and sold out quickly. This indicated that there was genuine interest in local creative expression.
Lotliker also discussed the challenges faced while establishing the initiative. She described encountering a sense of snobbery within some existing creative spaces and experiencing how younger artists were sometimes not taken seriously. These experiences were discouraging but also reinforced the importance of building independent platforms.
Projects such as Art 4 Donations (2024) and the short film Roots (2024), created with Daniel Balin, further explored Penrith’s creative landscape by documenting local artists and spaces.
Figure 14: © Riff Raff, Post for the launch of Exhibition, Magazine Launch and Short Film Premiere (2024), Instagram
One of the most experimental events organised by Riff Raff was Rat House (2025), a one-day pop-up exhibition held in a residential rental property between tenants. Ten artists participated, presenting work that included sound, projection, performance, and poetry, with performances staged throughout the house. This unconventional approach demonstrated how creative spaces can be temporarily constructed even when permanent venues are unavailable.
Figures 15-16: © Riff Raff, Room 1 in the Rat House featuring works by Ilana Lapid, Divya Lotliker and Sunset Connections plus Riff Raff's lil TV playing our short film, Roots (2025), Instagram
In 2026 the initiative expanded further with Rat Lab, a residency program for emerging Western Sydney artists funded through a Creative NSW grant. The residency emphasised collaboration, shared living, and experimentation rather than production of final outcomes. Participants spent time cooking together, running workshops, and exploring playful approaches to making, such as producing handmade paper from expired ECG rolls. The second stage of the program involved a shared studio space where artists continued developing ideas and building long-term creative relationships. The outcome was a handmade book made from the made paper with the artists' work.
Overall, Lotliker's lecture highlighted the importance of persistence, adaptability, and collective action within the creative industries. Her experiences demonstrate that meaningful artistic ecosystems can emerge from modest beginnings when artists take initiative and work collaboratively. Her statement “Dream big, dream global, act local” effectively summarises the philosophy behind Riff Raff. The lecture reinforced the idea that artists do not have to wait for institutional validation but can instead create their own platforms that reflect the needs and identities of their communities.
References: Lotliker, D. 2026, Divya Lotliker, viewed 4 March 2026, <https://www.lotliker.com.au/>. (Figure 2) Lotliker, D & Bailen, D 2024, Roots, online video, YouTube, viewed 4 March 2026, <https://youtu.be/1wD3OBur-cw>. (Video 1)
Riff Raff ARI 2024, Library Project Opening and Riff Rag Launch, Humanitix event page, viewed 4 March 2026, <https://events.humanitix.com/library-project-opening-and-riff-rag-launch>. (Figure 5)
Riff Raff ARI 2026, Riff Raff ARI, Instagram, viewed 4 March 2026, <https://www.instagram.com/riffraff_ari/>. (Photos 3, 4, 6-11, 12-17) Riff Raff ARI 2026, RR 2026 presentation – Divya Lotliker, online video, YouTube, viewed 4 March 2026, <https://youtu.be/l4QqHWT246g>. (Video 2)
