konuk.julian@gmail.com
@video___jockey
About
Julian Konuk is a transdisciplinary artist and writer based in London. His work emerges from an experimental and trans poetic approach, drawing on themes of bodily abjection in relation to movements of/toward/away from home and the non-linear temporalities that such notions evoke. How might queer bodies be/come oriented in (a) space(s) not subject to a majoritarian cultural ideal of temporal linearity and biological lineage? In asking this question, the artist utilises collage; visually, materially, and sonically, in order to investigate the haptic potential of the screen and its relation to the transcorporeal body. Exploring themes of queer monstrosity, Julian Konuk creates works that haunt and diffuse through disruptive and illogical narratives; he strives to examine and question hierarchical structures and disintegrate boundaries that seek to confine us. Often engaging with archival material, his short films and collages explore tenuous intimacies, playing with voyeurism and tenderness in queering and transing the past, in order to invoke speculative futures and fantastical modes of communication and language. Julian Konuk argues that an autobiographical trans poetics can provide a methodology for inhabiting a queer entanglement of desire and kinship not necessarily predicated on unitarian identities and singular, heteronormative modes of belonging.
Julian Konuk’s work has been shown internationally throughout the UK, Japan, France, North America, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Brazil. Recent notable exhibitions and screenings include Rio Cinema (2024), Somerset House (2023), the Barbican (2022), Ugly Duck (2024), Pushkin House (2024), Les Rencontres d'Arles (2023), and Fringe! Queer Film Fest (2020-2023). Selected writing pieces and photographic imagery were recently published in Der Greif, A Feeld Magazine, T’ART Press, in Mourning, with Sticky Fingers Publishing, Carrion Press, as well as the limited edition art book, “With No Orbit.” He holds a masters degree in photography from the Royal College of Art, where he was the recipient of the New Photography Prize 2023, judged by Hana Noorali with the support of Simon Bishop. He is the founder and editor of “Sexy Trans Calendar,” a limited edition calendar successfully sold out in several countries. He also has multiple short films included in Otherness Archive.
Selected Group Screenings
Trans Video Buffet - The Feminist Library - London - 2024
Official Selection, Transforma Film Fest, Center for Arts, Design, and Fashion - Santa Catarina, Brazil - 2024
Trans Video Buffet - Rio Cinema - London - 2024
MT Queer Premia 2024 Official Selection - Cine Teatro Cuiabá - Cuiabá, Brazil - 2024
Sci-Fi Meets Reality, Scottish Queer International Film Festival - Centre for Contemporary Arts - Glasgow - 2024
Transfire 2: Scorching Summer, Exposures, Sala Rossa - Montréal, Canada - 2024
Generic Corporate Event, Kawaii Agency - London - 2024
Visions du Réel - VdR Film Market - Nyon, Switzerland - 2024
MicroActs 16, Corner New Cross - London - 2023
Unleashed Reverie: Fluidity in Motion, Fringe! Queer Film Fest, Rich Mix - London, 2023
Trans Day of Joy, Somerset House - London, 2023
Miss Ellaneous, The Yard Theatre - London, 2023
Tuff & Tender, Avalon Cafe - London, 2023
Dykes Out, L’Oeil Club - Paris - 2023
Rebel Dykes, Avalon Cafe - London, 2023
Otherness Archive: Packed Desire, Barbican - London, 2022
Portals Cruising, Matchstick Piehouse - London, 2022
Live Art Club, VSSL Studio - London, 2022
The Voices Film Series, Bermondsey Project Space - London, 2022
Hearts and Crafts, Fringe! Queer Film Fest, Rose Lipman Building - London, 2022
Group Exhibitions
Der Greif 17, Zero Art Space - Tokyo, Japan - 2024
Eden Transcends Reality, Pushkin House - London - 2024
Elevenses with Five Fold, Ugly Duck - London - 2024
Borders and Phantoms, De Nieuwe Anita - Amsterdam, NL - 2024
Uncensored Trans Queer Anti-Art Exhibition, Bureau of Silly Ideas - London - 2024
Open Wide III, 205 Deptford High Street - London - 2024
RCA Graduate Show, Truman Brewery - London - 2023
Off-RCA Photo, Les Rencontres d'Arles - Arles, France - 2023
Third Floor Gallery, Royal College of Arts - London - 2023
Tendrils, Queer Youth Art Collective, Queercircle - London, 2022
UAL Open Studios: Final Degree Show, Camberwell College of Arts - London - 2021
Don’t Panic, Southwark Park Galleries - London, 2021
WorkShops/Readings
Anecdotes from the Edge of a Hole Book Launch, Photobook Cafe - London - 2024
Sissy Anarchy Fundraiser for “Trap Unfolds Me Greedily,” SET Social Peckham - London - 2024
FDBNHLLLTTFMOURNING Issue Launch, The Glory - London - 2023
Transmissions x Otherness Workshop and Screening, VFD - London - 2021
Awards
New Photography Prize - judged by Hana Noorali with the support of Simon Bishop - 2023
Group Publications
AFM A Feeld Magazine Issue 001 - 2024
Der Greif 17 — One day soon - 2024
t’ART Press Summer Edition 2024
Sexy Trans Calendar - 2023-2024
Queer Responses to Dante’s Inferno, Carrion Press - 2023
Mourning, Sticky Fingers Publishing - 2023
With No Orbit, Royal College of Arts - 2023
Education
MA Photography, Royal College of Arts - 2023
BA (Hons) Photography - Camberwell College of Arts - 2021