Kailum Graves is an artist and binary archivist critically obsessed with the artifactual digital object. Through artworks, writing, and curatorial projects he investigates the hidden and invisible structures of power. He does this by contemplating themes as diverse as economic inequality, the algorithmic nature of digital photography, the bombardment of media imagery, the politics of fear and the threat of otherness, the shifting boundaries between bodies and technologies, photographic manipulation and its representation of reality, and celebrity culture. While this interest stems from very personal experience and is a way for him to begin to understand, accept, and deal with his own post-traumatic stress disorder, angst, anxiety, and depression, his work addresses ideas, metaphors, images, themes, (dark) humour, feelings, and symbols which are universally shared (the nuances of human existence). Kailum majored in art history and philosophy at the University of Queensland, graduating in 2011 with an Honours dissertation focused on American Internet-based activist group The Yes Men, Russian collective Voina, and international hacktivist group Anonymous as a way into discussing the wider practice of culture jamming, and to question the efficacy of political art under the hegemony of multinational capitalism. Career highlights include being exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; international exhibitions in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Switzerland, China, Brazil, Denmark, Iceland, Russia, Portugal, Poland, Malaysia, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, and the United States; being a finalist in numerous international and national art awards; participation in an international conference in Mexico City; residencies in Skagaströnd, Berlin, Beijing, and Changsha; speaking engagements at the 2018 Critical Animals Creative Research Symposium; winning the inaugural BigCi and Red Gate Gallery artist residency exchange program; being awarded a funded residency, commission, and exhibition at PLAN8T; being featured in Digital America; receiving Arts Queensland and Australia Council funding; winning the 2016 Clayton Utz Art Award; and being acquired by the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery’s permanent collection. He was the founder and totalitarian head honcho of An Evolving Thesis—a website established to investigate and debate the cultural economy—and was the Director and Dictator of The Goodwink Conspiracy, an online residency program and curatorial platform.
STATEMENT
Kailum is critically obsessed with the Web and born-digital content. He is particularly interested in image-rich technologies and the way global media communication—a landscape controlled by a handful of multidimensional oligopolistic corporate-run networks—can be sampled, organised, and considered in new philosophical, sociological, and political terms. Nonetheless, while these issues are political and economic in nature, Kailum believes anti-capitalist art offers no real alternative to the economic and ideological discourses of multinational capitalism. In its place, he is interested in examining the politics of the image and the construction of truth. To do this, he uses the Internet, which has normalised the act of collecting and compiling information, to preserve and curate found images and raw material. The aim is to engage with the cultural space and aesthetics of the Internet—and the vast amount of digital information it contains—as a subject, material, and tool of artistic production.
To do this, Kailum investigates different media and photographic methods—from appropriation to pixel and data manipulation—to create still and moving image projects that reflect the influence of technology on the photographic medium and sit resolutely within the context of future movements of contemporary photography. One of the most convincing aspects of his approach is the way he urges the viewer to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship to a position where they must actively reflect on the various roles of technology in our media-driven age. However, rather than openly expressing socio-political criticism, Kailum takes a gentler ‘hint-at-the-direction’ path which invites the viewer to a process of reflection. On the surface his work might seem easy to read, but on closer inspection a viewer will find that he draws upon a myriad of artistic, philosophical, scientific, theoretical, and cross-disciplinary approaches to achieve his highly refined poetic ends.
Kailum’s research delicately exists in a space between photography, Internet art, algorithmic art, and digital performance. He uses a laptop the same way a photographer uses a camera to document, record, and manipulate the world—which for Kailum is born-digital artefacts—to explore the disappearance of clear boundaries between culture, environment, and technology. He is particularly interested in the way humans use technology to transform, manipulate, and transcend natural environmental limits. There isn’t a one-way correlation; instead, a culture develops a technology, such as agriculture, to change the environment, and this technology, in turn, changes the culture and society that created it. Kailum explores this closed loop by creating large-scale still and moving images that play with the ubiquitous dichotomies between physical and digital existence.
CONTACT
MrKailumGraves [at] gmail [dot] com
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Art History, The University of Queensland (2011)
Bachelor of Arts, Art History and Philosophy, The University of Queensland (2008)
COMPLEMENTARY EDUCATION
Bachelor of Photography, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University ~ graduated early with a Diploma of Photography, Southbank Institute of Technology (2013)
Diploma of Business, Southbank Institute of Technology (2005)
Anatomically Modern Human experiencing the ultimate concerns of human existence: birth, childhood, the search for meaning, nihilism, sadness, loneliness, pleasure, drugs to help with misery, lovemaking, travel, euphoria, mortality salience (1984-)
CHARITY
2021
Out From The Mist [curated by Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia], One Arts Gallery, Gold Coast, Australia (December – January)
Anonymous Art Feeds Brisbane, Brisbane, Australia (December)
Out From The Mist [curated by Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia for Mental Health Week], Superordinary, Brisbane, Australia (October)
EXHIBITIONS
2023
Arte Laguna Prize, Edition 16, Arsenale of Venice, Venice, Italy (March-April)
2022
Clayton Utz Art Award, Clayton Utz, Brisbane, Australia (August-August 2023)
Lake Art Prize, Museum of Art and Culture, Lake Macquarie, Australia (September-December)
Festival Internacional da Linguagem Eletrônica, Galeria de Arte do Sesi, São Paulo, Brazil (July-August)
Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, Muswellbrook, Australia (July-August)
BELONGING [curated by Ash Hagerstrand in collaboration with The Layered Onion and Culturable], Chronically Online Gallery, New York, USA (May)
ALC Videoart Festival, MOTHER CLUB, Alicante, Spain (May)
Brisbane Grammar Art Show, Brisbane Grammar School, Brisbane, Australia (May)
SUPERCUT, Outer Space, Brisbane, Australia (April-May)
2021
Clayton Utz Art Award, Clayton Utz, Brisbane, Australia (September-September 2022)
Gosford Art Prize, Gosford Regional Gallery, Gosford, Australia (October-January 2022)
Emerging Scene Art Prize, Gallery Van de Goudenberg, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (November-December)
Traces of the Future [curated by Anna Petelenz & AP KunstArt Fund], Momentum Gallery, Krakow, Poland (November-December)
Brisbane Portrait Prize (hosted by Metro Arts and West Village), Ice Cream Factory, Brisbane, Australia (November)
ROMBAK 2021: Symposium on Catalysts of Creative Practitioners, Multimedia University, Selangor, Malaysia (November)
Fonlad Festival [curated by José Vieira and Sérgio Gomes], Festival of Digital Arts, Coimbra, Portugal (November)
Brisbane Portrait Prize, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane, Australia (September-October)
Digital Art Gallery (public art display on LCD screens), Dubai and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (November)
Pitch (collaborative audio-visual NFT performance), Intervals Festival, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia (August)
BBA Artist Prize, Kühlhaus Berlin and BBA Galley, Berlin, Germany (June-July)
Lethbridge 20000 Art Award, Lethbridge Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (June)
Brisbane Grammar Art Show, Brisbane Grammar School, Brisbane, Australia (June)
Lethbridge Landscape Prize, Lethbridge Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (April-May)
2020
Die Digitale Düsseldorf, Weltkunstzimmer, Düsseldorf, Germany (October-November)
16th Athens Digital Arts Festival – Technotribalism (online special screenings), Athens, Greece (July-September)
16th Athens Digital Arts Festival – Technotribalism, Athens, Greece (physical festival postponed due to COVID-19)
The UMW Media Wall, Hurley Convergence Center, University of Mary Washington, Virginia, United States (March)
2019
The Wrong New Digital Art Biennale – Big or Biggest curated by 60Seconds, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Denmark (November-February 2020)
The Wrong New Digital Art Biennale – Hysterophimia pavilion curated by Foteini Vergidou (November-February 2020)
The Wrong New Digital Art Biennale – Big or Biggest pavilion curated by 60Seconds (November-February 2020)
Rewind, 2019 PLAN8T Retrospective, PLAN8T, Changsha, China (December)
By The City | 在城边, PYRA Festival 2.0 ‘The City of Post-Humanity’, PLAN8T, Changsha, China (September-October)
After Hiroshima, B#SIDE WAR & IoDeposito, Anti-Aircraft Shelter of Piazza | Maggio, Udine, Italy (September)
Brisbane Grammar Art Show, Brisbane Grammar School, Brisbane (July)
Milburn Art Prize, Brisbane Institute of Art, Brisbane (May)
2018
Clayton Utz Art Award, Clayton Utz, Brisbane (October-September 2019)
Open Studio, Red Gate Gallery, 798 Art District, Beijing, China (December)
JETZT KUNST N°6 – New Media [Curated by Céline Matter & Jetzt Kunst foundation], Max Frisch Bad (Freibad Letzigraben), Zürich, Switzerland (October-November)
unFramed, Cool Art Gallery, Coolum (August-September)
NES Artist Residency 10 Year Alumni Exhibition, Summer Arts Festival, Akureyri, Iceland (July)
Stanthorpe Art Festival, Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery, Stanthorpe (June-July)
NES Artist Residency 10 Year Alumni Exhibition, Skagaströnd, Iceland (June)
BAI Open House (artspring 2018), Berlin Art Institute, Berlin (May)
2017
Clayton Utz Art Award, Clayton Utz, Brisbane (October-September 2018)
After Hiroshima (And Beyond), B#SIDE WAR & IoDeposito [with funding from UNESCO and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum], Treviso (August-October)
Children of Hiroshima, B#SIDE WAR & IoDeposito [with funding from UNESCO and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum], Venice (August)
(dis)placement [curated by Gabriela Davies], Arte Clube Jacarandá, Rio de Janeiro (July-August)
Artist-led: Crates on Wheels [touring exhibition], Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Toowoomba (February-November)
Paramor Prize: Art + Innovation, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (February-April)
(dis)placement [curated by Gabriela Davies], Ugly Duck Off Quay, London (February-March)
Contemporary Art Awards, Online Exhibition, Brisbane (January-June)
2016
Digital Portraiture Award, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra (December-April 2017)
Clayton Utz Art Award, Clayton Utz, Brisbane (October-September)
Incinerator Art Award, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne (October-December)
Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle (September-November)
Contemporary Localised Survey, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne (September-October)
CLICK 2016 Photography Art Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne (September)
Toowoomba Biennial Emerging Artists Award, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Toowoomba (August-October)
Miércoles de SOMA, SOMA, Mexico City (August)
Contemporary Art Awards, Online Exhibition, Brisbane (July-December)
Four Walls [curated by Bethany O’Connor], Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne (June-July)
Art Now Revisited, Kensington Contemporary, Chippendale Creative Precinct, Sydney (June-July)
Stanthorpe Art Festival, Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery, Stanthorpe (June-July)
Chippendale New World Art Prize, Kensington Contemporary, Chippendale Creative Precinct, Sydney (June)
MAMA Art Foundation National Photography Prize, Murray Art Museum Albury, Albury (May-August)
Noosa Art Award, Noosa Regional Gallery, Noosa (May-June)
Moreton Bay Art Awards, Pine Rivers Art Gallery, Moreton Bay (May)
2015
Incinerator Art Award, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne (October-December)
AWARDS & GRANTS
2023
Finalist, Arte Laguna Prize, Edition 16, Arsenale of Venice
2022
Finalist, Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize, The Australian Photographic Society and Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre
Finalist, Clayton Utz Art Award, Clayton Utz
Finalist, Lake Art Prize, Museum of Art and Culture
Funding Recipient, Individuals Fund, Arts Queensland
2021
Finalist, Brisbane Portrait Prize, Brisbane Powerhouse
Finalist, Gosford Art Prize, Gosford Regional Gallery
Finalist, BBA Artist Prize, BBA Gallery
Winner, Emerging Scene Art Prize, Emerging Scene and Elevision Media
Finalist, Clayton Utz Art Award, Clayton Utz
Shortlisted, Artbank Roadshow, Institute of Modern Art
Finalist, Lethbridge 20000 Art Award, Lethbridge Gallery
Finalist, Lethbridge Landscape Prize, Lethbridge Gallery
2020
Funding Recipient, stART Grant Program, Arts Queensland and Metro Arts
Funding Recipient, Resilience Fund (Create), Australia Council for the Arts
2019
Awardee, Funded residency, commission, and exhibition (as part of PYRA Festival 2.0), PLAN8T, Changsha, China
Finalist, The Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation, Brisbane, Australia
Funding Recipient, Individuals Fund, Arts Queensland
Finalist, Milburn Art Prize, Brisbane Institute of Art
2018
Funding Recipient, Career Development Grants Individuals and Groups, Australia Council for the Arts
Finalist, Clayton Utz Art Award, Clayton Utz
Finalist, Stanthorpe Art Prize, Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery
Winner, Inaugural BigCi and Red Gate Gallery artist residency exchange program, Beijing, China
2017
Funding Recipient, Individuals Fund, Arts Queensland
Finalist, Clayton Utz Art Award, Clayton Utz
Shortlisted, John Fries Award (top 40 of 600+ entries), UNSW Galleries
Users’ Choice, Digital Project of the Month, Kunstbulletin 4/2017, Zürich
Finalist, Paramor Prize: Art + Innovation, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre
Finalist, The Wyndham Art Prize, Wyndham Cultural Centre
Finalist, Contemporary Art Awards, Online Exhibition
Showcase Winner, 9th 2017 ArtSlant Prize, ArtSlant
2016
Finalist, Digital Portraiture Award, National Portrait Gallery
Winner, Clayton Utz Art Award, Clayton Utz
Finalist, MAMA Art Foundation National Photography Prize, Murray Art Museum Albury
Finalist, Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award, Fremantle Arts Centre
Finalist, Uncover: Emerging Artist Award, Perth Centre of Photography
Winner, Toowoomba Biennial Emerging Artists Award, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery
Shortlisted, Royal Ulster Academy’s 135th Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum
Finalist, Incinerator Art Award, Incinerator Gallery
Finalist, Chippendale New World Art Prize, Kensington Contemporary
Finalist, Stanthorpe Art Festival Art Prize, Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery
Finalist, Contemporary Art Awards, Online Exhibition
Unanimously Voted Artist, (dis)placement project, London
Finalist, Noosa Art Award, Noosa Regional Gallery
Finalist, Moreton Bay Art Awards, Pine Rivers Art Gallery
Finalist, International Residency, Bitamine Faktoria, Basque Country
Funding Recipient, Creative Individuals Career Fund, Copyright Agency
Showcase Winner, 9th 2016 ArtSlant Prize, ArtSlant
Showcase Winner, 4th 2016 ArtSlant Prize, ArtSlant
Showcase Winner, 3rd 2016 ArtSlant Prize, ArtSlant
Juried Winner, 2nd 2016 ArtSlant Prize, ArtSlant
Showcase Winner, 1st 2016 ArtSlant Prize, ArtSlant
2015
Finalist, Incinerator Art Award, Incinerator Gallery
ACADEMIC AWARDS
Griffith Award for Academic Excellence – Ranked Top 5%, Griffith University (2013)
Commonwealth Government Scholarship, The University of Queensland (2008)
Dean’s Commendation for High Achievement, The University of Queensland (2007)
Commonwealth Government Scholarship, The University of Queensland (2007)
Dean’s Commendation for High Achievement, The University of Queensland (2005)
CONFERENCES & SYMPOSIUMS
Senseless (curated by Helga Franza and Silvia Hell at COSE COSMICHE), Art Weekend Belgrade, Serbia (2021)
Presenter, ‘Culture Jamming’, Critical Animals Creative Research Symposium (This is Not Art), Newcastle, Australia (2018)
Panellist, ‘Value’, This is Not Art, Newcastle, Australia (2018)
SOMA Summer: Archive Fever, SOMA, Mexico City, Mexico (2016)
RESIDENCES
Artist-in-residence, Revolve:R, edition four, open-source collaboration curated by Sam Treadaway and Ricarda Vidal (2021-2022)
Artist-in-residence, PLAN8T AIR, Changsha, China (2019)
Artist-in-residence, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China (2018)
Artist-in-residence, Berlin Art Institute, Berlin, Germany (2018)
Artist-in-residence, NES Artist Residency, Skagaströnd, Iceland (2018)
Artist-in-residence, House Conspiracy, Brisbane, Australia (2017)
Artist-in-residence, NES Artist Residency, Skagaströnd, Iceland (2017)
Artist-in-residence, Rights of Nature Tribunal, Australian Earth Laws Alliance, Brisbane, Australia (2016)
COMMISSIONS
William Jolly Bridge Artwork Projection Program, Brisbane (2020)
William Jolly Bridge Artwork Projection Program, Brisbane (2019)
Public Art Commission, unFramed, Coolum Beach (2016)
COLLECTIONS
Las Cigarreras Cultural Center’s Video Art Collection, Alicante, Spain
Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Toowoomba, Australia
Private Collections, Australia and International
CATALOGUES & PUBLICATIONS
2022
Spring Issue, The New River, Virginia Tech’s MFA Creative Writing program (Online journal)
Transit, Lint Magazine (Second Edition), Lint Art Collective, Gothenburg, Sweden (Magazine)
2021
Issue No. 18, Digital America, University of Richmond’s Department of Art and Art History (Online journal)
Video Sound Archive – Season 1 (Featured artist, archive and interview)
2020
Issue No. 15, Digital America, University of Richmond’s Department of Art and Art History (Journal and interview)
Blank_ 02 ‘Physical-Digital-Physical’, BLANK_ Space, University Centre Leeds, Quarry Hill Campus (Biannual publication)
2019
Icelandic Roads Turned into Art, Vegagerðin (Article/interview)
Artworks on the Roads of Iceland, Fréttablaðið (Article/interview)
Icelandic Roads Benefit from New Art, RÚV (Article)
2018
5 Questions Feature Interview, ArtSlant, International (Interview)
2017
House Conspiracy, Brisbane (Podcast)
Clayton Utz Art Award, Brisbane (Catalogue)
After Hiroshima, Venice and Treviso (Catalogue)
‘After Hiroshima’: gli immaginari inesplorati dell’atomico, Rivista Segno (Article)
In mostra “After Hiroshima” il fungo che cambio la storia, La Tribuna di Treviso (Article)
After Hiroshima, Artribune (Article)
After Hiroshima: gli immaginari inesplorati dell’atomico, arte.it (Article)
(dis)placement [curated by Gabriela Davies], London and Rio de Janeiro (Catalogue)
Digital Project of the Month [curated by Raffael Dörig], Kunstbulletin 4/2017, Zürich (Journal)
In The Uncanny Valley [curated by Domenico Quaranta], International (Research blog)
Contemporary Art Awards, Brisbane (Catalogue)
Under the Radar, ArtSlant (Email/Article)
2016
ARTiculAction Art Review, Anniversary Edition, International (Interview/Publication)
Transilluminating work wins 2016 Clayton Utz Art Award, Clayton Utz, Brisbane (Media Release)
Incinerator Art Award, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne (Catalogue)
Artist-Led, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Toowoomba (Catalogue)
Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle (Catalogue)
Contemporary Art Awards, Brisbane (Catalogue)
D.U.M.P., SOMA, Mexico City (Publication)
MAMA Art Foundation National Photography Prize, Murray Art Museum Albury, Albury (Catalogue)
2015
Incinerator Art Award, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne (Catalogue)
TEXTS
Being David Walsh, The Conspirator, Brisbane (2018)
WORK EXPERIENCE & CURATORIAL PROJECTS
Director and Dictator, The Goodwink Conspiracy, Online curatorial platform (2018-20)
Founder and Totalitarian Head Honcho, An Evolving Thesis, Brisbane (2016-20)
Art Installer (Volunteer), Flying Arts Alliance, Brisbane (2016-17 )
Curator, ‘I Don’t Understand Modern Art,’ @wtfmodernart (2015-21)
![Every Building [Transition] on the [Google Street View] Sunset Strip - A Video Art Artwork by Kailum Graves](/reserved/1/upload/url_immagine_1/69/w410/69483_Sunset Strip.jpg)
