Blog Archives

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expanded photography, 2020 – present

photogrammetry webXR explorations of plants as celestial encounters and building interiors as containers of space and memory

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expanded photography, 2020 – present

photogrammetry webXR explorations of plants as celestial encounters and building interiors as containers of space and memory

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Skin: neuroqueer entanglement, 2019

SKIN takes the form of a large-scale photographic artwork that wraps the skin of tattooed neuro-diverse LGBTQIA+ people around the digital facade of Fed Square.

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Skin: neuroqueer entanglement, 2019

SKIN takes the form of a large-scale photographic artwork that wraps the skin of tattooed neuro-diverse LGBTQIA+ people around the digital facade of Fed Square.

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QUEERTECH.IO = ART(URL, IRL); 2018

QueerTech.io 2018! Themes emerging from the 2018 selection include digitally-born queer utopias, queer re-imaginings of computer game platforms, and interactive works that extend the digital as a queer prosthesis. The project features over twenty five artists engaged in making neural

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QUEERTECH.IO = ART(URL, IRL); 2018

QueerTech.io 2018! Themes emerging from the 2018 selection include digitally-born queer utopias, queer re-imaginings of computer game platforms, and interactive works that extend the digital as a queer prosthesis. The project features over twenty five artists engaged in making neural

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I am looking in a room, 2017

“This work was made in response to the location, standing on Hopkins Street looking up into the windows of the Trocadero Art Space studios. I was interested in the somewhat voyeuristic feeling of peering up into a lit window at night and, in turn, attempting to connect with the street life on the footpath below.
During the making of the work, the first subject simply pulled out their phone and ignored the camera. They then introduced me to Alvin Lucier’s astounding 1969 sound artwork ‘I am sitting in a room’. The second subject improvised choreography in response to that artwork.
I have a long-standing interest in the cultural convergence of screens, windows and image frames, as articulated by Friedberg (2006) in ‘The Virtual Window: Alberti to Microsoft’. I wanted to explore the ambiguous and shifting positions between looking in and looking out, the feeling of being inside and outside, hence the title ‘I am looking in a room’, with a hat tip to Lucier.”
This four-channel video work was commissioned by the West Projections Festival 2017.

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I am looking in a room, 2017

“This work was made in response to the location, standing on Hopkins Street looking up into the windows of the Trocadero Art Space studios. I was interested in the somewhat voyeuristic feeling of peering up into a lit window at night and, in turn, attempting to connect with the street life on the footpath below.
During the making of the work, the first subject simply pulled out their phone and ignored the camera. They then introduced me to Alvin Lucier’s astounding 1969 sound artwork ‘I am sitting in a room’. The second subject improvised choreography in response to that artwork.
I have a long-standing interest in the cultural convergence of screens, windows and image frames, as articulated by Friedberg (2006) in ‘The Virtual Window: Alberti to Microsoft’. I wanted to explore the ambiguous and shifting positions between looking in and looking out, the feeling of being inside and outside, hence the title ‘I am looking in a room’, with a hat tip to Lucier.”
This four-channel video work was commissioned by the West Projections Festival 2017.

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Beat magazine

2017, ‘Muliebrity & other collaborations’, Beat magazine
“The exhibition features a video work that reflects on feminine identity expression by queer women that I know. […] those women are often ‘read’ as heterosexual – so while their femininity is visible, their queerness is invisible.”

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Beat magazine

2017, ‘Muliebrity & other collaborations’, Beat magazine
“The exhibition features a video work that reflects on feminine identity expression by queer women that I know. […] those women are often ‘read’ as heterosexual – so while their femininity is visible, their queerness is invisible.”

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muliebrity, 2017

“The word ‘muliebrity’ means ‘female qualities’. This 3d video work reflects on feminine identity expression by queer women. It is somewhat of a stereotype that lesbians and queer women express their gender identity in what might be considered as androgynous, masculine or butch. But there are also those that feel most authentic when they express their gender in more traditionally feminine ways. The paradox is that those women are often ‘read’ as heterosexual – so whilst their femininity is visible in the way that their identity is reflected, their queerness is invisible. Working with Jill Soloway’s conception of the female gaze, this work is an encounter with a series of faces that might provoke the viewer to reflect on how they read identity presentation.”
Muliebrity was commissioned by Kingston Arts for the Midsumma Festival 2017.

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muliebrity, 2017

“The word ‘muliebrity’ means ‘female qualities’. This 3d video work reflects on feminine identity expression by queer women. It is somewhat of a stereotype that lesbians and queer women express their gender identity in what might be considered as androgynous, masculine or butch. But there are also those that feel most authentic when they express their gender in more traditionally feminine ways. The paradox is that those women are often ‘read’ as heterosexual – so whilst their femininity is visible in the way that their identity is reflected, their queerness is invisible. Working with Jill Soloway’s conception of the female gaze, this work is an encounter with a series of faces that might provoke the viewer to reflect on how they read identity presentation.”
Muliebrity was commissioned by Kingston Arts for the Midsumma Festival 2017.

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Kingston Arts

Kingston Arts 2017, MIDSUMMA ‘muliebrity & other collaborations’ Alison Bennett

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Kingston Arts

Kingston Arts 2017, MIDSUMMA ‘muliebrity & other collaborations’ Alison Bennett

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Joy FM

Sunday Arts Magazine, Joy FM, 15 Jan 2017

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Joy FM

Sunday Arts Magazine, Joy FM, 15 Jan 2017

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The Guardian

Bennett, A & Kearns, AJ, 2015, ‘Inverto #19’ [photograph] in ‘Best Australian Photographs of 2015’, The Guardian, 31 Dec 2015
“Inverto 19 by Alison Bennett, one of a a series of 24 images taken over a two-year period charting gender reassignment in her subject, AJ Kearns. ‘This was a unique opportunity,’ says Bennett, because ‘the medical team were not aware of another case in which a transman had chosen to delay transition in order to have a baby’. This image was the winner of the CCP Salon portraiture prize in 2015.”

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The Guardian

Bennett, A & Kearns, AJ, 2015, ‘Inverto #19’ [photograph] in ‘Best Australian Photographs of 2015’, The Guardian, 31 Dec 2015
“Inverto 19 by Alison Bennett, one of a a series of 24 images taken over a two-year period charting gender reassignment in her subject, AJ Kearns. ‘This was a unique opportunity,’ says Bennett, because ‘the medical team were not aware of another case in which a transman had chosen to delay transition in order to have a baby’. This image was the winner of the CCP Salon portraiture prize in 2015.”

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New York Times

Maloney, A 2015, ‘AJ Kearns, Australian transgender man, gave birth to daughter amid transition’, New York Times, 20 Aug 2015.

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New York Times

Maloney, A 2015, ‘AJ Kearns, Australian transgender man, gave birth to daughter amid transition’, New York Times, 20 Aug 2015.

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international viral media coverage of Inverto

In the days following the broadcast of Australian Story ‘From Daddy’s Tummy’ on ABC TV, the story went viral and was covered in dozens of languages.

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international viral media coverage of Inverto

In the days following the broadcast of Australian Story ‘From Daddy’s Tummy’ on ABC TV, the story went viral and was covered in dozens of languages.

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ABC News

Cohen, J 2015, ‘AJ Kearns in photographs: The father who gave birth’, ABC News, 10 Aug
“One of the things I like about photography is its capacity to compress time and to very succinctly give a vast, huge story all at once.”

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ABC News

Cohen, J 2015, ‘AJ Kearns in photographs: The father who gave birth’, ABC News, 10 Aug
“One of the things I like about photography is its capacity to compress time and to very succinctly give a vast, huge story all at once.”

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Buzzfeed

Sainty, L 2015, ‘This Man Postponed His Gender Transition To Have A Baby’, Buzzfeed, 10 Aug
“Melbourne artist Alison Bennett documented Kearns’ pregnancy and transition with a series of stunning photographs.”

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Buzzfeed

Sainty, L 2015, ‘This Man Postponed His Gender Transition To Have A Baby’, Buzzfeed, 10 Aug
“Melbourne artist Alison Bennett documented Kearns’ pregnancy and transition with a series of stunning photographs.”

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AUSTRALIAN STORY

ABC TV Australian Story 2015, ‘From Daddy’s Tummy’, 10 Aug, featuring images from Inverto and the story behind the project http://goo.gl/X4zZFc

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AUSTRALIAN STORY

ABC TV Australian Story 2015, ‘From Daddy’s Tummy’, 10 Aug, featuring images from Inverto and the story behind the project http://goo.gl/X4zZFc

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Inverto, 2014

‘Inverto’ is Latin for transform/transfer/transpose, and curiously, ‘invert’ is an old term for homosexual that carries transgender implications. Inverto is a series of photographs taken monthly over two years bearing witness to an individual undertaking the process of physically aligning gender identity with embodied presence. The images demonstrate the impact of hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery following pregnancy over a period of two years. Inverto featured on ABC TV Australian Story ‘From Daddy’s Tummy’ and generated international viral media attention in dozens of languages that included the New York Times. Inverto #19 won the CCP Salon portraiture award and was included in The Guardian roundup of best Australian photographs of 2015. International exhibitions include the FILE Festival in Brazil, Harman Centre Gallery at Bradley University in Chicago and The Wrong Biennale.

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Inverto, 2014

‘Inverto’ is Latin for transform/transfer/transpose, and curiously, ‘invert’ is an old term for homosexual that carries transgender implications. Inverto is a series of photographs taken monthly over two years bearing witness to an individual undertaking the process of physically aligning gender identity with embodied presence. The images demonstrate the impact of hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery following pregnancy over a period of two years. Inverto featured on ABC TV Australian Story ‘From Daddy’s Tummy’ and generated international viral media attention in dozens of languages that included the New York Times. Inverto #19 won the CCP Salon portraiture award and was included in The Guardian roundup of best Australian photographs of 2015. International exhibitions include the FILE Festival in Brazil, Harman Centre Gallery at Bradley University in Chicago and The Wrong Biennale.