Mikaela Zuiderduyn, 'My Matriarch The Shopaholic'
29.7 x 42 cm
Hahenmhule Hemp
Edition 1/1
$333
Ann, the Vietnamese neighbour of Johnny Ma, lost her husband age 60 which let her finally have the financial freedom he previously had deprived her from. With this new liberty, she became a shopaholic; a hoarder. Johnny, an owner of Perth's finest creative hub and studio space, has been helping her out for years since moving in to the lot next door and buying the the studio space behind her house. After kicking out the film development lab that housed in his space, he wanted to transform the negative energy that was left there. He hired me, and another set designer, and we set to work transforming the empty shed into a 'asian opium den' set. He decided to hold 'Ann's Fashion Show', a night to sell all the clothes she's never worn to rich people who bought tickets. We collected the many clothes, shoes and accessories she had bought with her freedom money and in this photo, Johnny and Ann wear some of her items to advertise for the night, showing the matriarchal relationship they share. It explores relationships, neighbourliness, unconditional and unrequited motherly love, and Johnny; the man he is.
Mikaela Zed is a multidisciplinary artist and image-making practitioner based in Western Australia, working across a multitude of screen cultures. With a background in both creative and commercial disciplines, she recently completed a double degree in Arts and Commerce at Curtin University, majoring in Film and Marketing under the prestigious John Curtin Undergraduate Scholarship, and is currently completing her Honours in Arts with her dissertation and exegesis entering on filmic innovation and expanded cinema in feminist storytelling.
Mikaela’s practice spans narrative filmmaking, documentary, photography and mixed media installation. Her cinematographic work on Skin Deep (Formato, 2024), a surrealist short film exploring beauty, immortality, and obsession through expressionist and structuralist storytelling, has been awarded awards internationally, with a key inclusion at CinefestOz 2025, a semi-finalist selection at GoMental! Film Festival, Berlin and Remember the Future, World Film Festival in Cannes. That same year, she was also nominated alongside her co-collaborator Jasmine Formato, for Innovation in Alternate Content at the WA Screen Culture Awards for her experimental fashion film Faux-gue. Directorial work, inclusive of editing, writing and cinematography credits on her documentary “Digital Realism”, won Best Documentary, at Cornell University’s Centrally Isolated Film Festival 2023.
Professionally, Mikaela has worked on major commercial and independent productions across roles in cinematography, art direction, and marketing.
Beyond screen work, Mikaela is an active creative entrepreneur, designing garments for her upcycled fashion brand and engaging in visual arts, textiles, and community arts projects. Her current leadership roles and volunteering positions reflect her commitment to impactful storytelling and social engagement. Driven by experimentation, collaboration, and care, Mikaela’s work is grounded in feminist aesthetics and a love for texture, tactility, and layered image-making and particular interest in the intersections between digital culture, truth, and expanded cinema.