Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/robyn-backen

Birth Place

Canberra, ACT, Australia

Biography

Robyn Backen is an interdisciplinary and installation artist who works with ideas from science, communications technology and philosophy to make art installations. Her works focus as much on formal and poetic elements as they do on the way the objects make use of the space in which they are placed. Born in 1957, Backen studied for a Diploma of Visual Arts and a Bachelor of Visual Arts (awarded 1979 and 1983 respectively, from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney), and in 2003 she was awarded a Master of Art History & Theory from the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales. While still an undergraduate student, Backen attended several summer schools in sculpture in Salzburg, Austria, as well as receiving a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts to study at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. Early exhibitions reveal her former interests centred on jewellery and sculpture. Subsequently, she attended Summer School at the Australian Network for Art and Technology in Perth in 1997 and a course in 'planning skills for interactive media projects’ at Metro Screen in 2004, for Backen’s art training and practice in the early 1990s revealed a keen expertise in communication technologies. Backen’s work is held in the collections of several Australian institutions including the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), the Powerhouse Museum (Sydney) and the Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth). She uses diverse materials in her sound, light or projected installations where minimalist forms belie complex technological systems. Relatively conventional materials such as wood, aluminium, stainless steel, glass, water, and mirrors, are applied in works such as Azolla (1991), Verge in Rain (1994), Bifocal (1998), Blindfold (1998), Scales of the Sole (1997) and Purdah in the Kitchen (1999). But Backen’s fascination with Morse code and her pioneering experiments with fibre optics mark her practice as one that is comfortable with new technologies in often understated ways. Backen believes that communication is fundamental; it is how individuals connect with the world. For this reason Backen utilizes Morse code generators in her works as a “symbol of the world’s dying languages” to demonstrate that communication is elemental in society and how methods and devices used for communication evolve with time. In works such as Sprung (1990), Dots to Data (1997), Littoral (1998), Weeping Walls (2000) SSO (2001), Rice Talk (2003), Eternal Silence (2003) and Droplet (2004) she wears hers techno-poetic sensibilities lightly. These interests are also evident in her public artworks. Backen’s first public commission was to work on the huge windows at the Casula Powerhouse in south-western Sydney, she not only computer generated a detail from an intriguing Renaissance print, but her Christ Knows (1994) used a shatterproof lexan and adhesive foil technology that both carried the image and reinforced windows to successfully withstand attacks by bored, stone-throwing teenagers. The artwork creatively preserves the history of the site and deals with 'public’ issues (vandalism and destruction of buildings) through the use of contemporary technologies. A high profile piece in Sydney using communication technologies was the two-part Weeping Walls (2000) at the north and south departure gates of Sydney International Airport. In this instance, to counter the dread of non-place suggested by airports, each curtain of flickering fibre optic lights and Morse code generators installed within a metal halide light box was designed to invoke calm at these sometimes stressful places of separation. Following the events in New York on 11 September 2001, however, the artwork was removed to allow better surveillance inside the airport. Being an installation artist has meant that Backen works carefully with the spatial setting. Having produced over 25 artworks, Backen believes it is important to encourage her audience to interact with the art and its surrounding spaces. Whispering Trees (2007, The Hague) is an example of an interactive piece that allows the audience to walk amongst the trees and be led by voices and sounds. As the audience is led through the trees, they hear only one side of the conversation, challenging the audience to consider what is real and unreal. Backen uses codes, light and sound (different languages) to bridge between the old and new communication systems in this installation work. Because Backen draws on the philosophies of art and science in the creation of her works, they are always more than the sum of their technological and formal parts. In her 2006 work Vinculum, developed in collaboration with John Tonkin, for example, she created a darkened space into which the viewer was drawn by both sounds and projected time-based images. The randomised fragments of sounds and images, however, like “raw phonemes of an abstracted linguistic process”, make no sense other than to remind the viewer of sound overload in today’s society, a phenomenon which Backen believes is caused by an increase in sound technologies and communication devices (e.g. mobile phones, mp3s, and iPods). Since 1979, Backen has exhibited widely in Australia and overseas, and has won many grants and awards, including a NAWIC (National Association for Women in Construction) award for Art and the Built Environment (2001). She has been awarded residencies in Cologne, Brisbane, New Delhi, Sydney and Wollongong, and since 1994 has won many public commissions to develop installations and public art. Backen’s work has featured in numerous articles for publications including Art and Australia, Eyeline and Architecture Australia. At the time of writing, Backen was working on a public art project at the Sydney Harbour site; a lecturer at the Sydney College of the Arts and coordinator of the Masters program in Studio Art at the University of Sydney. Writers: De Lorenzo, Dr Catherine Note: Chan, Kitty Note: Date written: 2008 Last updated: 2011 Status: peer-reviewed

Born

b. 1957

Summary

Robyn Backen is an interdisciplinary artist who works with ideas from science, communications technology and philosophy to make art installations that focus as much on formal and poetic elements as they do on the way the objects make use of space in which they are placed.

Gender

Female

Died

None listed

Age at death

None listed