Imagine with me?

My story begins as a bubba-seedling in Australia. Solidly working class no matter which way you look at it.

Be an artist, no one ever said.

Be what you want to be, my mother did always say.

I value the feminine power imbedded in my blood, truly understand that education is a human right and queer solidarity is the joy of the now, and into our best future.

  • The threads of my childhood wonder flow through me. Time scales are flexible. Remember the moment that stretched? Remember the bliss that blinked away in a moment? I chase these to communicate, to you, the wonder of the world.

  • I listen for the language that is silent. The pause after a full stop. The eyes that go quiet with wonder. The way people speak, text + communicate tells you a huge amount about a person. The people around me are mirrors of me, and windows into the soul of the culture that surrounds.

  • Dream a while of bubba-Caitlin as a faery-pirate princess. Yes the pink dress - but it's all home-made by my seamstress-grandmother-on-a-budget-with-love and I have stomping boots on. Magical.

  • Imagine our future in this world where be the artist you want to be is our norm. Everything is artistry when you live life with radical love as your motive. Loving care in all forms + tending the garden are wildfire to my soul.

  • Mad Violet Studio is a world of radical treats, restful discovery + transformational studio practice that is the joyful life of creativity, learning & play. A joyful way to be.

ABOUT

Voids speak aloud.

Caitlin Kozman is the conceptual artist of photomedia, feminist performer and writer - drawn to silent thresholds, the space between words, the pause that holds more significance than verbal language.

The fragile. the glitch, the beautifully unresolved; to find resonance in the stillness of disruption. What we see with our retinas is never the whole truth, what we hear part of the whole, what we feel - a snap of remembering. Art to reauthor the stories we tell ourselves, to refresh in hindsight, storage, residues, trace.

Contact the artist

artist statement

Silent actions are prompts used to describe the void.

I observe the creases in the world, the pause after a full stop, more profound with meaning than the sentence itself.

Photomedia is broadly understood as a realistic medium which depicts truth. This is a fallacy we are all becoming more aware of, yet even back in the day, photographs were never truth, a process of curation; what to frame, omit, how the light alters, refracts, how the bias of the maker alters the final image.

What is it that our eyes can say that words alone cannot? What is tone, and inflection and the sound of language but the story our reality has told us. When we step into being aware of our actions, move through narratives that have shaped us, who can we then become?

I begin my process with writing fragments. The language I shape into visual form, capturing life that has informed my past to reauthor with present hindsight. My photographic darkroom printing is intuitive and relies on altering lore of the process. Action alters the image. Light drawings of form, steeped in the process of erasure, obscurity, abstraction, performance.

Nothing is precious or guarded. Everything can be bruised.

bio

Caitlin Kozman bruises photomedia to evoke erasure, disconnects, residue and art as a worn, loved provocation. They are the conceptual artist of photomedia, feminist performer and writer.

Taking influence from the poetic technique of automatic writing, intuition and curiosity informs their artistic practice. Kozman often relies on self-portraiture because they believe the relationship between consent, and subjects of art and models of photographers, is complex.

Kozman’s exhibition at Wollongong Art Gallery saw them work in collaboration with Liam Benson (2022). They have exhibited in Australia; Gaffa Creative Precinct Sydney (2018), Platform by Canberra Contemporary (2017), M16 Artspace Canberra (2016), Queensland Centre for Photography Brisbane (2013) and the National Museum of Australia (2012).

They have worked; in the peer workforce (health sector), facilitation of workshops (Melbourne Museum & health sector), nomadically in hospitality (internationally), and as an archival assistant and studio assistant to artists in Australia.

They hold a Master of Arts Management (2023) from RMIT University (The Dean’s List and Vice Chancellor’s Excellence Award) and Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours from the Australian National University (2017).

CV

solo exhibitions

2023               Untitled Time, Sandbox Studios, Melbourne, Australia

2018               Intact, Gaffa Creative Precinct, Sydney, Australia

2017               Between Wash Cycles, Platform by Canberra Contemporary, Australia

2016               Dry, M16 Artspace, Canberra, Australia

Group Exhibitions

2023               The Big Queer Show, Unassigned Gallery, Brunswick, Australia

2022               there’s a crack in everything…, Wollongong Art Gallery, Wollongong, Australia

2020               Suggestive Terrain, Tributary Projects, Canberra, Australia

2017               Industrial Zone: Art About Sex, Tributary Projects, Canberra, Australia

2016               Graduate Exhibition, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

2016               The Postgraduate and Research Students’ Association Pop Up Gallery, Australian National University, Australia

2014               Springboard Award Exhibition, Belconnon Community Arts Centre, Canberra, Australia

2014               Graduate Exhibition, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

2014               Australian National University Drawing Prize, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

2014               Random, Australian National University Gallery, Canberra, Australia

2013               Random, Australian National University Gallery, Canberra, Australia

2013               The F Word, Photospace Gallery, Australian National University, Australia

2013               #Bombala, Bombala Train Station House, Bombala, Australia

2013               #Bombala, Queensland Centre for Photography, Brisbane, Australia

2013               #Bombala, Australian National University Gallery, Canberra, Australia

2013               Art School Ball Silent Auction, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

2012               Dust to Dust, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, Australia

2012               Friday on my Wall, Painting Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

2012               Friday on my Wall, Painting Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

2012               Art School Ball Silent Auction, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

2011               Random, Australian National University Gallery, Canberra, Australia

2011               Friday on my Wall, Painting Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

2011               Friday on my Wall, Painting Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

2011               Friday on my Wall, Painting Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

Education

2022 - 2023 Master of Art (Arts Management), RMIT University, Australia

2015 - 2015 Honours of Visual Arts, Australian National University, Australia

2011 - 2014 Bachelor of Visual Arts, Australian National University, Australia

Awards

2023 The Vice Chancellor's Excellence Award, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

2023 The Dean's List, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

2014 Springboard Award (Winner), Belconnon Community Centre Springboard Award, Belconnon Community Centre, Canberra, Australia

2014 Drawing Prize (Finalist), Australian National University Drawing Prize, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia