Janice Kuczkowski

As my heart beats faster

2011-09-27T06:34:00.003+10:00

'As my heart beats faster... (experiments in instinctive reaction)' 2008

For more info visit previous blog post - http://janicekuczkowski.blogspot.com/2008/04/as-my-heart-beats-faster-experiments-in.html

Meditations on landscape

2011-08-26T11:33:00.005+10:00

Jan moving to Canberra - studio sale

2010-04-05T13:55:00.005+10:00

Cocoon: Stories of Survival #5, 2008

Experimentation in limits of tolerance #6 (mixed portrait), from Electric Shock Series, 2008

Experimentation in limits of tolerance #5 (mixed portrait), from Sneezing Series, 2007

Experimentation in limits of tolerance #1.1, 2006

Tickled Pink

2009-09-20T18:47:00.004+10:00

7 – 31 Oct 2009

Artereal Gallery, 747 Darling Street, Rozelle, NSW

In association with Breast Cancer Network Australia - An exhibition of works by invited artists including those who have been personally affected by breast cancer.

Opening night drinks with the artists, 6-8 pm Wednesday, 7 October
http://artereal.com.au

Showing off

2009-07-12T20:24:00.004+10:00

SHOWING OFF
Curated by Daniel Kojta

BATHURST REGIONAL ART GALLERY
7 AUGUST – 20 SEPTEMBER 2009

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Keith Armstrong
Ella (Rose) Barclay
Kirsten Bradley
Cash Brown
Ben Denham
Leah Heiss
Soda Jerk
Janice Kuczkowski
Somaya Langley and Alex Gillespie
Sophie Loizou
Jordana Maisie
Peter Newman
David O’Donohue
Jasper Streit & Renee Christen
Justene Williams

http://www.bathurstart.com.au/exhibitions/comingup/130
http://www.bathurstart.com.au/

Curated Incognito

2009-05-19T21:19:00.001+10:00

The College Gallery Presents: Curated Incognito.

Alumni artists and gold coast Griffith University curatorship students have collaborated to explore the concepts of identity.

13th May - 24th May 2009. All welcome to celebrate with us on opening Night - 6pm Friday May 15th opened by Richard Blundall

QCA Alumni: Alicia King, Anna Gonzalez, Ben Byrne, Bianca Beatson, Catherine Chui, Christian Flynn, David Spooner, Di Ball, Gail Cowley, Janice Kuczkowski, Veronica Heard, Zoe Porter

QCA Curators: Yam HoeChee, Annie ORourke, Susan McAlister, Malldry Holland, Danica Larkin, Adam Zelinski, Anna Carey, Tara Luckhurst, Renee Paxton, Dianne Cecil, Kadee Webber, Megan Sneeesby

College gallery: 15 Tribune Street Southbank Wed-Fri 10am-4pm Weekends 12-4pm

Artist Talks - MSSR @ GCAC

2009-05-17T14:59:00.005+10:00

Janice Kuczkowski
“COCOON: Stories of survival #5”
2008 Digital video Single channel DVD 2:40min

Artist talks by Chris Bennie, Nicola Chatham, and Janice Kuczkowski - Saturday 16 May 2009, 2-4pm free

MSSR Orebro International Video Art Festival Show Reel - screening at Gold Coast City Art Gallery - DARK ROOM 20 April - 7 June Gold Coast Arts Centre, Bundall Rd, Surfers Paradise www.gcac.com.au

Go Figure

2009-03-14T09:23:00.006+10:00

Experimentation in limits of tolerance #1 (Paul), 2006, digital archive print, 128cm x 50cm.

Go Figure
25 March - 18 April 2009

Aziz + Cucher (USA)
Christopher Bucklow (UK)
Alex Chromicz
Janice Kuczkowski
Tatjana Plitt
Sylvia Schwenk

Images based on the human figure with cryptic or implied narrative elements.
Opening night drinks with the artists 6-8pm Wednesday 25 March 2009

ARTEREAL
747 Darling Street, Rozelle NSW 2039
T 02 9818 7473
http://www.artereal.com.au

Orebro International Video Art Festival

2008-10-13T17:53:00.001+10:00

MSSR will present a selection of Australian Video art at the Orebro International Video Art Festival in Sweden in October 2008. The festival is organised by Swedish art collective Art Video Screening in coorporation with Bio Roxy, Orebro Konsthall and Orebro Lans Museum. Countries also represented in the festival include Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Serbia, Norway, USA, Bosnien and Herzegovina, Russia and Germany. Artists included in the show reel include Peter Alwast, Denis Beaubois, Chris Bennie, Nicola Chatham, Janice Kuczkowski, CLair Robertson, David M. Thomas and Jemima Wyman.

24th October
curated by Chris Bennie
http://www.orebrovideoartfestival.se/about.htm
http://www.mssr.net.au

Off The Wall - Sydney

2008-10-13T17:47:00.004+10:00

Discover The Undiscovered at Off The Wall
Off The Wall, the emerging artist showcase, is the perfect opportunity to see and buy work from new, up-and-coming artists from around the country selected by a panel of leading art experts.

The Weekend Australian Art Sydney
24-26 October 2008
Royal Hall of Industries
Moore Park
Sydney

http://www.artoffthewall.com.au/artistListing_as08.asp

I will be exhibiting video and photographic work in Art Sydney 08 as part of the Off The Wall section.

"Janice Kuzkowski's videos and photographs could be seen as 'extreme portraiture', exposing the instinctive responses of individuals pushed to their extremes. The artist employs mild forms of torture including pressurised air and electric shocks to generate intuitive and primal facial expressions in her subjects. The strength of the works lies both in this unique process as well as the stark visual quality and ambiguity of the final portraits. Some of the most shocking and enigmatic media images of recent history have been 'torture portraits' of a far more sinister kind, so it is timely to pose the question - What part of ourselves are expressed in the extremes of human venerability?" Lionel Bawden

Photo courtesy of Tatjana Plitt

All The Beauty You Will Ever Need

2008-10-13T17:36:00.003+10:00

Four important new artists
SIMON COLLINS
KIRRILY HAMMOND
MICHAEL MORAN
JANICE KUCZKOWSKI
14-25 October 2008

Iain Dawson Gallery
72a Windsor Street
Paddington NSW 2021
http://www.iaindawson.com

Group exhibition - Brisbane - 'Open Daze'

2008-08-13T10:15:00.002+10:00

Open Daze exhibition
as part of Griffith University OPEN DAY, Sunday 10 August 2008

OPEN DAZE features artforms that address artist and viewer thresholds, and invites you to stay comfortable and relaxed!
Ways by which we can be manipulated by feeling and emotion, at the hands of an artist, are central to the understanding of perception, and what lurks beneath it.
On show are drawings, paintings and moving image work that interrogate a bewildering range of emotions and reasoning.
In the case of several works it is the confessional, self-deprecatory or physical extreme of the artist that tests our limits.
From coolly detached candour, comic book, or dreamlike states, to direct admonishment or unease sourced from real events, several of these artists will leave you dazed, but not confused, about art’s profound agency.
They raise the possibility of not only having an automatic reaction to such work, but of knowing whether that reaction has certain objectives.
Featuring recent graduates of Queensland College of Art, and works from the Griffith University Art Collection:

JANICE KUCZKOWSKI TONY ALBERT DAVIDA ALLEN
RICHARD BELL GORDON BENNETT AARON BURTON
DALE FRANK SUE GUILFOYLE VERNON AH KEE
BEA MADDOCK MATT MALONE EMMA McLEAN
TRACEY MOFFATT MIKE PARR BRETT WHITELEY
PAUL WRIGLEY JAY YOUNGER

Exhibition open 23 July - 17 August
DELL Gallery @ Queensland College of Art
Griffith University | 226 Grey Street | South Bank
Open: wednesday-friday 11-4 | weekends 12-4 | FREE
http://www.griffith.edu.au/centre/artworks/content_gallery.html

'Experiments in instinctive reaction' at Turbot Street Party

2008-07-19T09:51:00.000+10:00

Janice Kuczkowski's
Experiments in instinctive reaction at
Turbot Street Party
Turbot Street Underpass (between George and Roma Streets)
5pm Saturday 19 July
FREE. No bookings required.
All ages. Drug and alcohol free.
Featuring live bands, performers and artists, Turbot Street Party brings together Brisbane's mots exciting creators in a celebration of counterculture for all ages. Be a part of Brisbane artist Janice Kuczkowski's interactive artwork, which will capture your portrait as your sensations are awakened. Turbot Street Party transforms the urban 'underworld' into a musical and visual playground in the heart of the concrete jungle.

Presented as part of Brisbane City Council's Inhabit: Ideas For Better Living program

http://www.museumofbrisbane.com.au/Exhibitions/Current/Current/tabid/66/Default.aspx?ItemId=19

Images by Roger Phillips

COCOON @ MSSR

2008-06-05T09:15:00.006+10:00

Photo courtesy MSSR

COCOON
An exhibition of new work by Janice Kuzkowski
Friday 6 June 6-8pm

MSSR
105 Moreton Street
New Farm QLD
www.mssr.net.au

“COCOON: Stories of survival #5”
2008, Digital video, Single channel DVD, 2:40min

Self-portrait as an artist. …vulnerability, suffering, isolation, seclusion… death… struggle, identity, purpose, existence... responsibility… apathy. Cocoon: to envelop or withdraw into a protective case, whether real or metaphorical.

documentation of exhibition available at http://www.mssr.net.au/pages/MSSRProjectsKuczkowskiocumentation.html

The Churchie National Emerging Art Exhibition

2008-05-29T08:26:00.003+10:00

www.churchieemergingart.com
@ Morris Hall, Churchie, Oaklands Pde, East Brisbane

Thursday 29 May, Friday 30 May and Sunday 1 June 10.00am – 2.00pm
Saturday 31 May 10.00am – 4.00pm
Go check out the Churchie this weekend.
This year 105 works have been selected from 780 submissions.
I am fortunate to have two works selected for the exhibition.

'Experimentation in limits of tolerance #6' from Electric Shock Series

2008-05-22T07:50:00.008+10:00

The Weekend Australian Art Brisbane 30 May - 1 June 2008

Come check out the Off The Wall section of the Brisbane Art Fair - where I'll be exhibiting my latest series 'Experimentation in limits of tolerance #6', from Electric Shock Series - video and photographs. I will also be exhibiting a show reel of previous works.

Artist Statement:
Through my art I aim at extending and critically questioning the genre of portraiture. Utilising the ‘truth’ of the photographic and moving image mediums I present individuals in their raw forms by documenting the face in a state of instinctive reaction - using electricity, water, air, inertia, and other stimulation to facilitate a response. In effect through capturing the instinctive and intuitive motions of the face, the daily façade has been removed, and replaced by an unmediated representation of self.

Open Days
Thursday 29 May 2008 (First Night)
Friday 30 May 2008
Saturday 31 May 2008
Sunday 1 June 2008

This is a ticketed event - please visit the below links for ticket information:

www.artbrisbane08.com.au

www.artoffthewall.com.au/artistListing_brisbane.asp

As my heart beats faster... (experiments in instinctive reaction)

2008-04-28T20:17:00.005+10:00

Ipswich Mall. April - July 2008
Video Installation

Shop 4: as part of the 'Watch this Space: Art in the Mall Project' presented by the Ipswich Art Gallery in partnership with the Ipswich City Council.

"I wanted to create a site-specific artwork – a portrait of the people of Ipswich. To do this, I set up a shoot in the Ipswich mall and approached passers by to be my models. The volunteers were presented with a ‘jack in the box’. An authentic portrait emerged from documenting the state of anticipation (the winding of the ‘jack in the box’), and the instinctive reactions to the popped ‘jack’."

Experimentation in limits of tolerance #5 (Andrew)

2008-03-12T20:20:00.002+10:00

Extract from Experimentation in limits of tolerance #5 (Andrew),
2007, digital video

Experimentation in limits of tolerance #5 (Janice)

2008-03-12T18:08:00.004+10:00

Excerpt from Experimentation in limits of tolerance #5 (Janice),
2007, digital video

Postcard from the Redlands

2008-02-17T20:24:00.001+10:00

Postcard from the Redlands exhibition
15 February - 6 April 2008

Redland Art Gallery, Cleveland

Cnr Middle and Bloomfield Streets,
Cleveland Q 4163

Monday to Friday
9am - 4pm
Sunday
9am - 2pm

Artist statement:

Janice Kuczkowski
Video Art Project: Portrait of Redlands Teenagers
monologues from the unconscious mind
January 2008
17.40min Digital Video

“That which we experience in dreams… is in the end just as much a part of the total economy of our soul as is anything we 'really' experience.” Friedrich Nietzsche*

Towards the end of 2007 the Redlands Art Gallery asked me to create a video portrait of the Redlands teenage community for Postcard from the Redlands: A Redland Art Gallery 5th birthday celebration exhibition. In order to capture the footage needed to complete the project, I held three separate film shoots throughout December 2007 – the first at Capalaba’s Redlands Youth Plaza during the Concrete Carnival, the second at the Victoria Point Library, and thirdly at the house in Victoria Point where I grew up. With the help of the Redlands Art Gallery and the participating film shooting venues, flyers were distributed advertising the filming dates and venues, calling for teenagers aged from 13 – 18 years living in the Redlands Shire to participate in the project. The resulting video documents 17 teenagers alternately sitting in a derelict lounge chair in the centre of the film frame, directing dream monologues straight into the camera.

The absurdity and uniqueness of dreaming intrigues and inspires my current art practice. By asking these teenagers to talk about the content of their dreams, I was asking them to share a genuine expression of their individuality. For me, a dream is a collection of information from the unconscious processes of an individual, like a handful of treasure from the depths of one’s mind. The young men and women of the Redlands were not simply reading a story from a book. They were recalling a unique and inimitable experience in their lives. In the process this provided an opportunity to capture them intimately trying to handle their unconscious mind. Thus, an authentic portrait emerged.

Through my art I aim to contribute a different dimension to the genre of portraiture by portraying new representations of the self. I primarily use video as a medium because of its immediacy, its ability to instantly absorb the senses, and because of the relevance of video and the moving image in today’s culture.

*http://koti.mbnet.fi/oneira/nietzs1.htm

Schmik - Hand crafted art and design store by Brisbane artists

2008-02-17T20:10:00.001+10:00

A team of Brisbane's most talented artists are sailing into - Portside - Brisbane’s latest social hub with a temporary artist space selling hand-made, one-of-a-kind jewellery, paintings, photography, fashion, digital video, fashion, artist books, purses, and body products.

Schmik opened on Saturday 8th December. Schmik allows savvy Brisbanites the chance to buy something extra special for a friend or family member which has been hand-crafted and designed byBrisbane’s most talented artists.

Schmik will include:
Jewellery and Gift cards by Marisa Molin
Photography by Romy Willing
Body Products by Annie Burns
Artist books by Hiromi Tango
Jewellery by Eliza Tee
Digital Video and Photography, + Brooches by Janice Kuckowski (see above images)
+ more artists to be announced.

Schmik, Shop 2 (ex ’Licious store) The Fresh Food Market,
Ground Floor Portside Wharf
will be open Daily from 11am-4pm

Organised by Romy Willing: romywilling@yahoo.com.au 0419 758 618

Young Brisbane Artists Exhibition 2007 @ Metro Arts

2008-02-02T14:05:00.002+10:00

EXPERIMENTATION IN LIMITS OF TOLERANCE #5

Sneezing was once thought to involve an individual’s heart stopping and their soul escaping through their mouth and nostrils. Working from this myth, Janice Kuczkowski attempts to capture the soul of her subjects in Experimentation in the Limits of Tolerance #5, a series of digital video portraits.

Against a black backdrop, Kuczkowski’s subjects are split from the upper torso diagonally, horizontally or vertically; the remaining half is then mirrored on the other side of the screen. Each of the five subjects are filmed as they attempt to sneeze. In anticipation of the oncoming sneeze, their bodies convulse and their eyelids pull shut; before they are able to execute a sneeze, however, their movements are replayed at varying speeds and the sequence is ruptured by jump-cuts. Frames cut between moments of the subject’s bodies preparing for the expulsion of breath and the changing of the angle at which the screen is split.

In these physically demanding moments, Kuczkowski presents us with the possibility – perhaps never to be realised – of capturing the true subject. In doing so, Kuczkowski echoes concerns expressed by artists such as Bill Viola – with whom Kuczkowski shares formal similarities – and Francis Bacon. As the sneeze momentarily takes hold of the subject, they lose their self-consciousness before the camera, analogous to the loss of the heartbeat in the myth of the sneeze. No longer self-conscious, the subjects of Kuczkowski’s portraits appear to drop their veneer, letting their unmediated self (soul) escape temporarily. Kuczkowski’s subjects, like Bacon’s, are presented in their fervent and visceral form. What Kuczkowski envisions, however, is the movement which takes place between Bacon’s violent lines. Kuczkowski’s careful editing draws the viewer’s attention to the barely visible movements of the subject’s flesh clinging to their bones in tense anticipation.

Not only a contemplation of the possibility of portraiture, Kuczkowski’s Experimentation in the Limits of Tolerance #5 references its own medium. Moving image feeds the viewer’s anticipation of the next frame, akin to the way in which Kuczkowski’s individual tries to anticipate when their oncoming sneeze will finally arrive. Just as the finial event of sneezing brings relief after the build up, so does the last frame of a film. In Experimentation in the Limits of Tolerance #5, however, the subjects never reach this moment of full release. Moreover, the viewer watching the video’s subjects is also left without reprieve since the images play before them on loop.

WORDS: Ellie Buttrose