Robyn Backen

Biography

Robyn Backen is an interdisciplinary artist whose work makes connections between art, science and philosophy. Her installations actively engage with the spaces they inhabit, whether gallery, landscape or building: the site provides the structural and associative framework for both formal and conceptual elements. Backen has a poetic approach which includes topics such as randomness and pattern, body and language, borders and connections, distance and proximity. Backen investigates patterns of language and rhythms of nature to build works which engage with physical space.

Research

Backen's teaching draws upon more than 20 years of research into technology and materials. She has examined the phenomena of change in society and created artworks that often engage with the languages of communication

Significant Exhibitions

Night Watch, Brisbane CBD Commission, (in progress), 2012-13

Last Word 2012, Bundanon, NSW, 2012

Whisper Pitch, Dimension Crossing, Performance Space, Carriageworks, Sydney, 2012

Can you hear me?, TarraWarra Biennial 2012, Sonic Spheres, Tarrawara Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria, 2012

Eye for an Eye, Daya / Kindness: Australia-India a cultural exchange, Habitat Centre, New Delhi, 2012

Sookmyung Women’s University Gallery, South Korea, 2011

Last Word 2011, Bundanon, NSW, 2011

Exposure, Rejmyre, Sweden, 2011

Connecting You, Canberra Contemporary Artspace, Canberra, 2010

Mirror<>Mirror: Then and Now, Institute of Modern Art Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide, Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, May 2010, April 2010, December 2009

Walls that Whisper, Museum of Australian Democracy, Camberra, 2009

Delicate Balance, Ballast Point Sydney, Sydney Foreshore Authority, 2009 - 2006

It's me … I'm here … where're you, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 2007

Yours, Mine, Ours: 50 years of ABC TV, Archive Project, Lewers Bequest, Penrith, 2007 - 2006

Vinculum (Collaboration with John Tonkin), Artspace, Sydney, 2005

Rice Talk, Echigo-Tsumari Triennial, Japan, 2003

Imagining Prometheus, Palazzo della Ragione, Milan, 2003

Weeping Walls, Sydney International Airport, 2000

Awards & Grants

2011 Australia Council for the Arts: Fellowship 2012-14
2008 Australia Council for the Arts: New Work
2001 National Association of Women in Construction – Acoustic Logic Consultancy, Award for Achievement in Art in the Built Environment
2001 COFA, UNSW: Research Development,
1998 Asia Link Residency, Delhi
1997 Australia Council for the Arts: New Work
1994 Australia Council for the Arts: Professional Development
1985 Australia Council for the Arts: Project
1982 Scholarship Award Salzburg Sommeracademie
1981 Australia Council for the Arts: Overseas Study

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