Corinna Berndt (Australia) is a Melbourne-based multi media artist working with digital art, sculpture, collage and video. Interested in the tension she observes between physical and digital experiences, her works trace interactions between objects and beings, thematizing techniques of translation, editing and image manipulation in the process.

Berndt’s layered videos explore multiple possibilities of manipulating the image space of the screen. An ongoing focus of her work is the concept of the video screen as an experimental space for the experience of time, space and the image in relation to humans.

Undertaking a three month artist residency with SomoS from June to August 2019, Berndt researched and revisited digital Western popular culture of the 1980s and 1990s. Working with video, animation and 3D Scanning, she considered how seemingly outdated Utopian “cyber myths” of the past might parallel contemporary hopes and fears. Communication, the limits of the body, subjectivity, and the virtual are themes that influenced her work during her time at SomoS, as she drew from influences about human/machine relationships in popular science fiction narratives such as The Ghost in The Shell, Terminator and Star Trek.

As Corinna Berndt states,

Contemplating my own experience of growing up in the late eighties and nineties, digital technology and its rapid advancements already informed my understanding of a promised “techno future.” A popular companion image that re-emerged in different forms was that of the cyborg as well as the threat of the machine becoming ever more human-like… These fictional and at times mythical imaginings of the relationships between human/machine/technology in the future also shaped the imaginaries that govern my personal idea of cyber space, the body in relation to technology and how I physically relate to digital technology as a female artist, which may differ from the subsequent generation which (in the Western world) is assumed to have grown up already fully immersed in digital technology. As such, during my residency, the focus of my work was on re-articulating ideas relating to digital promises, cyber-myths and techno Utopias, examined through a generational lens.

 
Berndt recently completed a Masters of Fine Arts with First Class Honours at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia (2015-2017). She recieved a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Auckland, New Zealand (2003-2007).

Her works have been presented at various galleries and project spaces in Melbourne, including Anna Papa’s Gallery, West Space, Kings Ari and C3 Contemporary Art Space. Selected solo exhibitions have included Collision Level, FeltDark, Adelaide (2018); Invisible Vision & Superimposed Rhubarb, Kings Artist Run (2017); To Move in Non-Linear Dimensions at Trocadero Art Space in 2016, and Activities for Small Hours at Seventh Gallery in 2015.
Group shows include Our selves, Ctrl+Shft Collective, Oakland, USA (curated by Frances Fleetwood, 2017); Hobienniale, Hobart (2017), MCA ARTBAR, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (curated by Julia Gorman, 2017); and Five Cents Cinema, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Melbourne Town Hall (curated by Paula van Beek, 2016).

Awards and grants she has received included the Felt Space Philanthropic Fund (2017); Fiona Myer Award for Excellence (2016); and VCA & MCM Faculty Small Grant in 2016. She completed a twelve-month studio residency and internship at Five Walls Projects in 2017.

Corinna Berndt’s work is represented in the Artbank Melbourne private collection, and the National Gallery of Australia.

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During her Berlin stay, the artist has researched the local contemporary art spaces of Berlin, and used the framework of her SomoS residency to enter into a dialogue with a community of other artists during her stay, taking part in P2P Sessions, events and visiting exhibitions.

Her solo exhibition “Streaming Data Is The Ultimate Trust Exercise with The Moon,” presented at SomoS in August 2019, impressively demonstrated Berndt’s creative and intellectual inventiveness.

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Also read: Reflections on Digital Life – Corinna Berndt SomoS Interview

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Corinna Berndt homepage

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Corinna Berndt’s artist residency at SomoS has been kindly supported by the The University of Melbourne, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music.