cmielewski & starrs
downstream installation: performance space, sydney 2009
Leon Cmielewski and Josephine Starrs are artists whose long term collaboration has produced a variety of screen-based installations. Their work often uses play as a strategy for engaging with the social and political contradictions inherent in contemporary life. Their work has been exhibited in Australia, Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Recently they carried out a 3-week residency at Performance Space Sydney, and created Downstream, a media art installation that responds to the issues of climate change in ways that are mythical, biblical and chemical. Panos Couros collaborated with them on the project’s sound.
downstream installation: Australian Embassy Gallery, Washington DC, USA, September, 2009
This work has been further developed for Impact By Degrees, an exhibition on show now at the Australian embassy in Washington DC, USA, where various artists respond to climate change in different ways.
Impact By Degrees website
downstream installation: Australian Embassy Gallery, Washington DC, USA, September, 2009
Cmielewski and Starrs’ past projects include Seeker, winner of an Award of Distinction at Ars Electronica 2007, Plaything which featured video clips of young women responding to questions about game culture, Floating Territories, an installation combining distributed printed cards, swipe card reader and abstract screen based games, Dream Kitchen, an interactive stop-motion animation featured at Transmediale, Berlin and the European Media Arts Festival, Osnabruk, Germany, and Trace, which used sensor techology to explore biometrics, installed at Sydney Records Centre, 2002. Bio-Tek Kitchen, a modified computer game was exhibited in Experimenta’s House of Tomorrow exhibition, Melbourne in 2003 and the Seoul New Media Biennale, 2004.
Both artists have been recipients of Australia Council New Media Fellowships. Cmielewski lectures at the School of Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney, Starrs is a senior lecturer at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney.
photo: alex davies