Elena Knox is a performing and media artist working across text, sound and image. Her works propose and disrupt embodiments of gender, interrogating how women are performed and perform themselves in the varied media and contexts of our age.
Knox gained her PhD Media Arts from UNSW Art & Design, researching performativity in gynoid robots and presenting her findings in the solo show of video artBeyond Beyond the Valley of the Dolls at UNSW Galleries in January 2015. She teaches Memory & Self and The Mind Lab at UNSW Art & Design, performs in electronic pop duo Actual Russian Brides, and co-directs production house Lull Studios.
Knox’s video, performance and creative writing have been presented at sites such as Athens Video Art Festival, Façade Videofestival Bulgaria, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Sydney Opera House, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, St Kilda Film Festival, Sydney Underground Film Festival, Sydney and Melbourne Writersʼ Festivals, Women and Theater Program (USA), Centre for Performance Research (UK), Australian Poetry Festival, and Art Currents (USA).
As an actor Knox has appeared for La Pocha Nostra (Mexico/USA) and in Jane Campionʼs Holy Smoke. She has written and performed three solo experimental electro-cabarets. In 2012, her Green Room Award-nominated electro-cabaret Bild-Lilli played a 3-week season at The Malthouse, Melbourne.
Nemesis Clock, Coffs Harbour Court House atrium, Coffs Harbour, 2015
Telstra Innovation Fund, campaign direction & public audiovisual installation, State of Origin, 2014
Poem projection, AMP Building Circular Quay, Red Room Company for Art and About, City of Sydney, 2007
Bus, Toilet Doors 2004, Red Room Company, Australia-wide, 2004
Crackle, performance art, Sydney Spring Festival of New Music, 1997
Beyond Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, video art exhibition, UNSW Galleries, Sydney, 2015
Bild-Lilli, 1-hour solo self-devised performance, Tower Theatre, Malthouse, Melbourne, 2012
Fleshed Out: an exhibition of video poetry, video art exhibition, Ariel Booksellers, Sydney, 2011
Lapdog, 1-hour solo self-devised performance, Old Fitzroy Theatre, Sydney, 2007
Dis Miss!, 1-hour solo self-devised performance, Sydney Opera House Studio, 2003
Lull, 1-hour solo self-devised performance, Griffin Theatre, The Stables, Sydney, 2001
Motion, Bega Valley Regional Art Gallery, 2015
Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin, 2014
Film Cunst, Brenda May Gallery, Sydney, 2014
Sync!!, 107 Projects, Sydney, 2014
DisSentience (opening performance), Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney, 2014
Sizzle, Ensemble Offspring, Sydney, 2014
Sydney Underground Film Festival, 2013
International Streaming Festival, Den Haag, 2013
Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin, 2012
Down Under Film Festival, Berlin, 2012
Façade Videofestival, Center for Contemporary Art, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2011
International Streaming Festival, Den Haag, 2011
Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin, 2010
Queerpixels, Sydney Mardi Gras, 2010
World Aids Day public art program, Athens Central Metro Station, 2010
Athens Video Art Festival, 2009
St Kilda Film Festival, Melbourne, 2009
Literaturwerkstatt showcase, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 2009
Sydney Underground Film Festival, 2009
This Is Not Art, Newcastle, Australia, 2009
Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin, 2008
Red Hot Shorts, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne, 2008
Australian Poetry Festival, 2008
Child’s Eye 2030, Art and About, City of Sydney, 2007
Music for the Eyes (tribute to Norman Lindsay), The Studio: Sydney Opera House & Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2006
Music for the Eyes (tribute to Erik Satie), The Studio: Sydney Opera House, 2005
New Media Gallery, Cockatoo Island Festival, Sydney, 2005
The Articulate Practitioner, The Magdalena Project, University of Wales, 2005
The Living Museum of Fetishized Identities, La Pocha Nostra, Performance Space, Sydney, 2004
This Will Only Take a Minute, Phatspace, Sydney, 2004
Prudence Gibson, Review: Elena Knox, Beyond Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Das Superpaper, Sydney, 2015, http://dasplatforms.com/writing/elena-knox-beyond-beyond-the-valley-of-the-dolls
Prudence Gibson, Live like tomorrow doesn’t exist: Elena Knox’s art, in After the Passions: Object Oriented Ontology, Art and Art Writing. Chapter 8. Doctoral dissertation, School of Arts and Media, UNSW, 2014
Christine Moffat, Review: Elena Knox is Bild-Lilli, Theatre Press, July 23, 2012, http://theatrepress.com.au/2012/07/23/review-elena-knox-is-bild-lilli
Liza Dezfouli, Bild-Lilli: Lull Studios and Malthouse Theatre, Australian Stage, July 23, 2012, http://www.australianstage.com.au/201207235635/reviews/melbourne/bild-lilli-%7C-lull-studios-and-malthouse-theatre.html
Robin Usher, All dolled up, this story is one out of the toy box, The Age, July 17, 2012, http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/stage/all-dolled-up-this-story-is-one-out-of-the-toy-box-20120716-226dl.html
Sally Bennett, Barbie's secret history revealed at Malthouse Theatre, June 25, 2012, http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/barbies-secret-history-revealed-at-malthouse-theatre/story-e6frf96f-1226407926070
Artist Profile, Arts Hub, June 25, 2012, http://au.artshub.com/au/news-article/profiles/arts/elena-knox-190093
Dave Bonta, Videopoetry: What Is It, Who Makes It, and Why?, AWP panel: Poetry Video in the Shadow of Music Video—Performance, Document, and Film, March 1, 2012, Hilton Hotel, Chicago, <http://discussion.movingpoems.com/2012/02/videopoetry-what-is-it-who-makes-it-and-why/>
Tamryn Bennet, The Kaleidoscope of Visual Poetry: New Approaches to Visual Literacy, English in Australia, Vol 46.3, 2011
Thomas Zandegiacomo Del Bel, Elena Knox, Poetry Film and ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, Fleshed Out exhibition catalogue, Lull Studios, Green and Gold Press, 2011
Rebecca Conroy, Review: Fleshed Out, The Art Life, January 27, 2012, http://theartlife.com.au/2012/fleshed-out
Bernadette Burke, Review: Fleshed Out, Arts Hub, September 7, 2011, http://au.artshub.com/au/news-article/reviews/visual-arts/fleshed-out-185509
Cristyn Davies, Imagining Otherwise: Performance Art as Queer Time and Space, in Queer and Subjugated Knowledges: Generating Subversive Imaginaries, ed. Kerry Robinson, Bentham Books, 2011
South Sydney Herald, Local Author wins ASA mentorship, December 2007/January2008
Clara Iaccarino, A Diva At Your Service, The Sydney Morning Herald, January 1, 2007
Cristyn Davies, Disturbing the Dialectics of the Public Toilet, Hecate: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Women's Liberation, Vol 33.2, 2007, http://academia.edu/352669/Disturbing_the_dialectics_of_the_public_toilet
Lisa-Maree Botticelli, Music for the Eyes, The Program, June 29, 2006
Cristyn Davies, The Poetics of Hip Hop: Elena Knox in dis Miss!, Southerly, Vol 64.1, 2004
Diana Simmonds, Risky Show Business, Sunday Telegraph, March 2, 2003
Stephen Dunne, Review: Lull & The Golden Mullet, Sydney Morning Herald, May 18, 2001
