John Conomos

Biography


John Conomos is an artist, critic and theorist who exhibits
extensively both locally and internationally. His art practice cuts across a variety of artforms – video, new media, installation, photo-performance and radiophonic art – and deals with autobiography, identity, language, memory, post-colonialism and the 'in-between' links between cinema, literature and the visual arts.

Conomos is a prolific contributor to local and overseas art, film and media journals and a frequent keynote speaker and participant in conferences, forums and seminars.

In 2000 Conomos was awarded a New Media Fellowship from the Australia Council. He also co-edited (with Brad Buckley ) The Republics of Ideas (2001) and Rethinking the Contemporary Art School (2009). In 2008 Conomos also published a collection, Mutant Media.

In 2008 Conomos was represented in the 'Video Logic' exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. In the same year Conomos’s commissioned radiophonic essay on Luis Bunuel, 'The Bells of Toledo', for the ABC Radio National was also broadcast.

Conomos’ latest video, 'Lake George (After Mark Rothko)', was exhibited at the Tate Modern, London, in February 2009. He also spoke about his video practice. In 2010 Conomos also spoke at the 'Double Helix (Art and Cinema)' symposium at the Adelaide Film Festival.

In 1998 Conomos was given an award of distinction for his autobiographical video 'Autumn Song' at the Transmediale Festival, Berlin.
He is currently working on an alphabetical essay memoir called 'Milkbar', and several art projects. He is represented by Roslyn Oxley 9 Gallery, Sydney.

Research

Conomos is currently researching the relatively uncharted terrain of the surreal documentary film (Luis Bunuel, Henri Storck, Georges Franju, Humphrey Jennings, Raoul Ruiz, Jean Painleve, Nelly Kaplan, etc) for the puropose of writing a book and essays on these filmmakers. These documentaries are in need of proper critcal recognition and study. They are part of his long-term interest in French surrealism, European avant-garde cinema, and screen theory and studies. He hopes to be able to consolidate his research and artistic interests in this neglected area and articulate a fundamental cartography of it. The intended outcome of his research includes curating a film program around this vital theme as well.

Conomos is also co-chairing and researching (with Brad Buckley) two CAA conference panels for 2011 (New York) on the role of erasure in contemporary art and culture, with the purpose of co-editing an anthology on this critical isssue. Another book project he has been researching is one that explores Chantal Akerman's post-cinema installations of the last two decades.

As an artist and critic/theorist, another vital research issue is the shifting current of ideas pertaining to contemporary art, cultural theory, cinema, video and new media. Conomos is very interested in studying the essayistic in past and contemporary audiovisual culture and production as well, and is concerned (autobiographically and culturally) with cinephilia in (post) classic cinema and our internet era. The exilic imagination in 20th century art, literature and philosophy is another research concern.

Recent Exhibtions

Lake George (After Mark Rothko), Tate Modern, London, originally exhibited at Roslyn Oxley Gallery, Sydney, 2008

Autumn Song – Take Two (video/neon installation), MCA, Sydney, 'Video Logic' exhibition, September–October 2008

Cyborg Ned (video sculpture/installation), Roslyn Oxley 9 Gallery, Sydney, April 2004

Aura (video installation/tape), Roslyn Oxley 9 Gallery, Sydney, July 2002

Album Leaves (video/neon/photo installation), AGNSW, Projects Room, July–August 1999

Autumn Song (videotape/installation), Roslyn Oxley 9 Gallery, Sydney; also at Berlin's Transmediale Festival, Award of Distinction, 1997, February 1998

Night Sky (video installation), Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, July 1995

Museum of Fire (omnibus videotape), Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, August 2008

The Bells of Toledo (radiophonic essay), ABC Radio National, Sydney, August 2008

Cinema of Solitude (radiophonic essay, with Robert Lloyd), ABC Radio National, Sydney, April 2001

Publications

'Rethinking the Contemporary Art School (edited with Brad Buckley)', The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 2009, ISBN: 97809196616493

'Mutant Media', Artspace/Power Publications, 2007, ISBN: 9781920781323

'Republics of Ideas (edited with Brad Buckley),' Pluto Press, Sydney, 2001, ISBN: 186403 1859

'Antikythera Conversations', Armedia Publications, Sydney, 2010, 72 pages,
illustrated by, Peter Lyssiotis, ISBN: 9780980824216

'Kythera Conversations', Armedia Publications, Sydney, 2010, 72 pages,
illusrated by Peter Lyssiotis, ISBN: 9780980824209


'Art, the Moving Image and the Academy, in Buckley and Conomos (eds) 'Rethinking the Contemporary Art School', The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 2010, pp. 106–20, ISBN: 9780919616493

'To See and Hear Differently, or, from Camera-Stylo to Media-Stylo', in Russell Storer (ed.) 'Video Logic', Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2008, pp. 62-66,
ISBN: 9781921034275

'Other Shorelines: Greek-Australian Cinema', in Lambert, Simpson and Murawska (eds), 'The Diasporic Cinemas of Australia', Intellect Books, London, 2009, pp. 110–21

'George Steiner, YouTube and Contemporary Art', Broadsheet, Vol. 38, No. 2, 2010, pp. 141–44, ISBN: 0819677X

'Australian New Media Arts: New Directions', in Philip George and Yu Wei-Cheng (eds), 'Art and New Media', Digital Art Centre, Tainan University and COFA, Sydney, 2004, pp. 147–54

Research Supervision

Warrick Hastings PhD, 'The Bushranger Film.'

Tyrone Janedy MVA, 'Digital Painting in the context of new media arts.

Awards & Grants

2010 Power Institute Research Residency, Early Surreal Documentary cinema: The case of Henri Storck
2009 Australia Council: Travel Grant, 'Lake George (After Mark Rothko)', Tate Modern, London
2008 SCA, USyd: Travel Grant (to Dallas College of Arts Association Conference), Contemporary collaboration practice
2004 Greek Ministry for Arts and Culture: Global Greek Award, Contribition to Greek diasporic arts
2002 Australia Council: New Media Fellowship, Contribution to Australian new media arts
1998 Transmedia Video Festival Award of Distinction, Towards a Cartography of Australian New Media Arts
1996 Australia Council: Studio Residency, Cité, Paris
1996 NSW Ministry of the Arts: Studio Residency, Artspace, Sydney,

Professional Membership

Member of many film, video/new media and cultural organisations since the 1970s. He has been a founding member of numerous art/film/video/new media organisations during the same period, such as the Australian International video Festival and ERA in the 1980s and the journal 'Scan' + (Sydney).

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