Australia’s creative community is mourning the loss of one of its premier artists, new media and projection illusionist Nick Azidis, 51, who died in his sleep of a cardiac arrest at Tocumwal NSW where he was staying while working at an event, on November 19th.
He suffered heart disease and came from a family with a history of inherited heart disease, explains Harry, Azidis’ oldest brother.
“Nick was having pain in his back, angina, and was going to go to emergency but decided to work through it. An autopsy has revealed Azidis had an enlarged heart and severe coronary artery disease,” said Harry.
As one of the world’s leading projection artists, millions in Australia and internationally have seen Azidis’ moving and stunning art. He created a staggering 1800 large-scale light projections in digital and analogue mediums over a 30-year career, where he rarely stopped working.
“He was good at making an ugly, plain-looking area to be transported into something beautiful with his large projectors,” said Harry.
His work has been featured in the Gertrude Projection Festival, Melbourne White Night, Melbourne International Music Week, Australian Open Tennis Championships, The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), The Lume Melbourne, and the Australian ANZAC Centenary/NGV building façade.
Harry shares a story of the time Azidis involved the residents of the commission towers on Gertrude Street in a projection by getting them to create their artwork, which he then projected onto the towers where they lived.
A resident, who was constantly hassling Azidis while he worked, said, “Wow, these are beautiful” after he saw the final projection on the towers. “He just transformed that man and everyone around him”, recalls Harry.
Internationally, his work has featured in the All Together Now Festival (Ireland), Light Odyssey Lightpool Festival Blackpool (UK), Athens International Video Art Festival (Greece), Psy–Fi Festival, Love Light Norwich Festival (Netherlands), Malahide Castle (Ireland) and Noor Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)and more.
He was part of the City of Melbourne’s pandemic Flash Forward program, where 40 artists transformed the city’s lesser-known lanes.
“Everything he did was self-taught. He was self-made”, said Harry, explaining that his brother never went to university.
Azidis grew up in humble circumstances, the classic Melbourne Greek migrant story. He was born in South Caulfield in 1972 and grew up in Chadstone. He was the youngest of three brothers. His father migrated to Australia in the 1950s, and his mother arrived in the 1960s. She worked as a hairdresser and had her own salon and his father worked as a foreman and die setter in a factory. As a child, Azidis had a pet horse.
He went to the progressive and creative Huntingdale Technical School in the 1980s before beginning his career as a painter and sculptor.
In the early 90s, he bought his first projector. He began experimenting as a light technician in what was then part of Melbourne’s early rave scene. He made the projections at the first Earthcore event held in Australia. It was only a short time before his reputation grew, and he could make a living working full-time on his creations, setting up ProjectionTeknik in 1992.
In an interview with Neos Kosmos in 2014, Azidis said he turned to projection art to create “leave no trace artworks”. He enjoyed the ephemeral beauty of impermanent art. He became a pioneer in large-scale digital artworks, a new medium. His reputation grew worldwide, cementing him as a world leader.
“Everyone wanted to work with him,” says Harry.
In 2016, he met fellow projection and digital artist Rose Staff. He collaborated to create an installation for White Night Melbourne at the State Library of Victoria. They became engaged later that year before marrying in 2019 on Milos Island in Greece while working on one of their artistic projects in Europe.
The kindred spirits formed a dynamic romantic and artistic partnership, collaborating on large-scale projects in Australia and overseas. They lived in West Footscray with Azidis’ two sons from a previous relationship, Felix,15, and George, 12, while renovating their house in Sunshine.
Azidis and Staff had recently returned from Kefalonia, where they went every year for work and pleasure and had hoped to live there in the future.
As news of his death spread worldwide early last week, shocked friends and colleagues paid tribute on social media to a person many described as a pioneer, a genius, innovative, gentle, kind, and compassionate.
“The lights are out everywhere,” said Harry.
His wife, Rose Staff, survives Nick Azidis; his sons Felix and George; his brothers, Harry and Chris; and their parents.
Funeral: 11:30 am, Friday, December 1st 1. Anargiri Greek Orthodox Church, 85-87 Willesden Rd, Oakleigh, VIC 3166
Video of Nick Azidis’ work for the White Night Festival 2016 below.