Public Art
In addition to live video performance, our practice also includes work for installation. This ranges from video art to interactive and integrated audiovisual work, as well as 2D and 3D works such as designs for floors, walls and lit sculpture.
While the range of media we work in is diverse and includes both digital and physical processes and end products, there are common themes within our work. The actual form of the work varies a great deal to suit the situation, but whatever artform it is expressed in, it’s very… VJzoo. Some of the common themes we use in our work are memory, the night and a sense of wonder.
We have worked exclusively as a duo since 2003, and before that time, Kat was a painter and studied film-making; Jasper studied photography – although we both do those things as part of our joint art practice now.
Our Art CV can be downloaded here (approx 1 meg .pdf)
Some of our previous work:
CONFLUENCE: ART IN PLACE 2018
Location: Coffee Point, Applecross foreshore and South of Perth Yacht Club
Client: City of Melville
Materials: Projection onto boats and trees.
Size: Two sites, around 100-200m coverage at each.
Budget: $40,000 ex-GST
Installed: Temporary Installation – ran 21-24 June 2018
In collaboration with Noongar artist Kambarni (Kamsani Bin Salleh).
ART IN PLACE is the City of Melville’s new series of temporary public artworks that aim to engage the community by giving residents and visitors unique opportunities to experience and encounter contemporary art in significant and accessible locations across the City.
Perth-based artists VJzoo (Kat Black and Jasper Cook) collaborated with Kambarni (Kamsani Bin Salleh) to deliver the first project for ART IN PLACE. Their artwork, Confluence, was an ephemeral projection-based installation across the body of water and illuminated on a fleet of boats, where the Swan (Derbarl Yerrigan) and Canning (Djarlgarro Beeliar) rivers meet.
Highlighting the historical and contemporary significance of the joining of the two rivers, known to the Bibbulmun people as Gabbi Kowangalup, ‘the place where the water comes out of the hole’.
Community feedback was strongly positive, as evidenced by the formal online feedback done by City of Melville.
INTER/ACTIVE
Location: Perth Children’s Hospital main foyer
Client: Department of Children and Adolescent Health Services, State Government of Western Australia
Materials: Interactive installation with two Kinects and eighteen 55″ Christie Digital panels.
Size: Approx 7m x 2m.
Budget: Approximately $270,000 ex-GST
Installed: 2014-2018 (opened to the public in May 2018)
Five scenes with differing degrees/types of interaction.
- Views from a Moving Vehicle (Kings Park)
- Robot Danceoff – featuring drawings by patients
- The Mermaid and the Diver
- My Butterfly – featuring drawings by patients
- Space Dust
UNTITLED – TRINITY COLLEGE SPORTS CENTRE
Location: Trinity College Sports Centre, East Perth
Client: Trinity College
Materials: Projection, one 20,000 lumens Panasonic projector in Tempest case
Size: Façade approximately 80m x 15m
Budget: A$156,000 ex-GST
Installed: 2017, Runs nightly until 10.30pm
Video Art with a sport theme, abstracted from video footage shot of school sports at the College; Also scenes composited from students artwork.
THE BUNNIES 2013
Location: Key City Worker Housing Project, 111-133 Goderich Street, East Perth
Client: City of Perth
Materials: Spun from HDPE (high-density polyethylene), internally lit with LED
Size: Four sculptures, each approximately 1.5m in diameter and 2.5m high
Budget: $107,000 ex-GST
Installed: June 2013 – see Press Release
This work is in the tradition of artists such as Jeff Koons and Florentijn Hofman in that they are based on childs’ toys at an incongruous scale, but inspired by the uniquely Australian vinyl night-lights of the 50’s-80’s by Combex and Netta.
FAIRLANES 2012
Location: Fairlanes Building Performing Arts Facility at 181 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth. Runs nightly 7-10pm
Client: Finbar
Materials: Video Art with integrated lighting and commissioned music
Size: Space approximately 25m x 25m, screen approx 6m x 2.5m
Budget: $120,000 ex-GST
Installed: 2012
This is permanently installed as nightly projection onto the marble façade of the Fairlanes Building on Adelaide Terrace, with integrated lighting and commissioned music. We collaborated closely with West Australian Ballet and others on this project, which consists of six 8-10 minute pieces. These are diverse in visual style and technique, but common themes have been considered.
AMHERST VILLAGE COMMUNITY CENTRE 2009
Location: Amherst Village Community Centre, Cnr Warton Road and Holmes Street, Southern River
Client: City of Gosnells
Materials: Jet-cut Marmoleum flooring and vinyl wall-prints
Size: Space approximately 25m x 25m, works various sizes around 2m x 2m each
Budget: $50,000 ex-GST
Installed: 2009
Download Final Report (12 pages, 500kb) here.
The original EOI had specified that the artwork would be cut into the Marmoleum floor of the foyer, so we could use our digital art skills in preparation of the artwork, but the final result would be a fixed, 2D artwork. We ended up doing vinyl wall-prints in addition to the floor specified.
The building is used for a wide variety of community purposes, which was reflected in the artwork – all of which showed children and young people engaged in activities in the area, from a small girl dancing at a fair to a DJ playing a set and a teenage girl doing hip-hop.
See Art CV here (approx 1 meg .pdf) for more information regarding our earlier work.