About
Bishop and Reis have worked in collaboration for 20 years as artists, and in curatorial and production roles together on major public art and gallery based projects.
Cameron Bishop (PhD) lectures at Deakin University and has written extensively on public art, for which he has won awards for research and industry engagement. While making work with Reis for over 20 years, since 2013 he has initiated, curated and produced numerous large-scale temporary and permanent public art projects such as the Treatment Public Art Project (2015, 17 and 23) with City of Wyndham, Melbourne Water and multiple other stakeholders including Scienceworks, as well as Six Moments in Kingston, Sounding Histories at the Mission to Seafarers, Front Beach Back Beach and in 2019 and 2024, Venetian Blind and Venetian Bind (with European Cultural Centre in conjunction with the Venice Biennale). He is a founder and co-director of the Public Art Commission at Deakin University with David Cross, with whom he devised many of the projects above and researches and writes in public art and cultural strategy (eg. Metro Tunnel Creative Strategy, 2017).
Simon Reis is an installation artist and engineer. He is the Production Manager for the Public Art Commission, having worked on all of the projects mentioned above. As an artist he has been the recipient of multiple public art commissions and awards including Australia Council and Creative Victoria grants. Shortlisted – with Bishop (and the collaborative group, Bozo Ink) – three times for the McClelland Gallery Outdoor Sculpture Award. Bishop & Reis’ ongoing interest in new and old media technologies, protest and monuments saw them awarded a City of Melbourne Arts grant in 2019/20 to produce the public artwork, Wonder Room for One. For this iterative artwork they researched the protest histories of Melbourne, and built a mobile museum case, inside of which was a treadmill powering a tape player and speaker system. The audience stepped into the museum case and activated a soundtrack (the speed and volume of which was dictated by the pace of the person walking) to play audio from particular protests from five sites around Melbourne, on the date, at which they occurred. It is an indicative work that speaks: to their capacity to work with a variety of stakeholders; to their inventiveness, to their interest in the relationship of the archive to site; and to their interest in the affective and critical power of public art.
Bishop & Reis, Combined CV
Cameron Bishop, born 1973, Melbourne
Simon Reis, born 1972, Melbourne
Key Links: http://www.publicartcommission.com/
Education:
Bishop: 2010 – PhD, Deakin University; 2002 – Monash University, Master of Arts 1998 – Monash University, Honours (1st Class); 1997 – Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art)
Reis: 2018 – Masters of Fine Art – Art In Public Spaces, RMIT, Melbourne; 2015 – Advanced Diploma of Engineering, Mechatronics Robotics, Swinburne University, Melbourne; 1998 – Certificate III Engineering (Mechanical), Barton College of TAFE, Melbourne
Selected Major Artworks and Commissions – Bishop and Reis, and Bozo Ink
2024 -
2022 - A Few Appliances and Avatars Talk about Climate Change, Bishop and Reis, Fivewalls Gallery
2019/20 – Wonder Room for One, Bishop & Reis, public art commission from City of Melbourne (various sites)
2019 – X Marks the Spot, with Annie Wilson, Geelong Arts Centre – commissioned work for Reflex Symposium
2018 - Groundplane Opera City, White Night Geelong with Annie Wilson
2017 – On the Beach, Sounding Histories, Bishop & Reis at Mission to Seafarers, Melbourne
2016 – Bishop & Reis, “Zero Monument”, in Morbis Artis, RMIT Gallery
2016 – Lost Objects, Bishop & Reis, Counihan Gallery
2016 – Fugue Frames, Young People and the Digital Symposium, ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image)
2016 – Leisureland, B & R at Seventh Gallery
2015 – Coordinator and Associate Curator Treatment Public Art Project, Western Treatment Plant, Werribee
2015 – Ruin and Viewin’: Transpanorama, B & R, View of Geelong Public Art Project, City of Greater Geelong Commission
2014 – McClelland Gallery Sculpture Survey and Award – Bozo Ink
2013 – Heteromania, The Academy Gallery, UTAS, Launceston, Tasmania
2012 – The Max Bell Gallery (Gallery X Series), Bishop & Reis (Simon), Geelong Regional Gallery, Geelong
2012 – Bunker-de-Bunk 2012, with Bozo Ink, The McClelland Gallery Sculpture Survey and Award finalists,
2011 – Gallery X2, Bishop & Reis, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne
2010/11 – X is not the same as X, Bishop & Reis, West Wing Gallery (West Space), Melbourne
2009 – Glacial Matters, with Bozo Ink, 6a Gallery, Hobart
2008 – The Room That Was, West Space, Melbourne
Major Projects – Curation and Production
(Reis was production manager on each of these projects and Bishop had a curatorial role)
2024 – Greening the Pipeline Commission, co-curator and producer (Bishop) and production manager (Reis) – Kait James commissioned artist for major permanent artwork
2023 – Co-director and Co-curator (Bishop) and Production Manager (Reis) of Treatment 3 Public Art Project, involving 14 separate artworks across Melbourne’s west
2022 – Artistic Director, Front Beach Back Beach, Commissioned by Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery to devise, lead, and curate with David Cross and Danny Lacy, a 15 site temporary public art project (Bishop); Production Manager (Reis)
2021 - VACANTCitY - 1000 Years Back / Forward, Co-curated with A. Wilson and M.Lozanovska, public art project for City of Greater Geelong
2019 - Venetian Blind, co-curated with David Cross (Public Art Commission), at European Cultural Centre, Venice in conjunction with Venice Biennale
2019 – Six Moments in Kingston, co-curator with David Cross (Public Art Commission), Public Art Project in City of Kingston
2018 - Groundplane Opera, a VACANTGeelong performance for the Mountain to Mouth Festival
2017 – Co-curation with Annie Wilson, Sounding Histories, at Mission to Seafarers, Melbourne
2017 –Treatment: Flightlines Public Art project at Western Treatment Plant
2017 – Curation, VACANTGeelong, Open Studio & National Wool Museum
2015 – Producer and Associate Curator Treatment Public Art Project, Western Treatment Plant, Werribee 2015
2013 – Curation and Production Management, Projections 13 event, a collaboration with Courthouse Arts Centre, Geelong, Deakin University and the World Congress on Communication and Creative Arts
Relevant Projects – Simon Reis
2018 – The Geo-facial Node, Testing Grounds, Melbourne
2016 – Unnamed Laneway, Unnamed laneway, RMIT City Campus, Carlton
2016 – Down By His Luck, Urban Laboratory: Carlisle Street – Port Phillip
NB: Many of these projects/exhibitions have been supported by grants and commissions from Ausco and Creative Victoria, as well as local councils, City of Wyndham, City of Greater Geelong, City of Melbourne and other organisations like Melbourne Water and Westgate Tunnel.
Selected Recent Commentaries
2023 –Radio National Arts show feature story on Treatment 3; Afternoon Show Interview
2023 – Evenings, with David Astle
2022 – Saturday Morning Show interview Alice Zavslavsky & Friday Review
2019 – ABC TV, The Mix, May 25; RRR Smart Arts Radio interview May 16; ABC Radio interview Friday Review May 17; Bay FM Radio interview May 24 – for Six Moments in Kingston
2019 – The Age & Sydney Morning Herald, The streets of your town, feature article in Saturday sup. May 2019
2019 – Arts Hub Feature on Public Art Commission and Venetian Blind
2017 – Cameron Bishop, Curator and Zoe Scoglio, artist, in conversation with Books and Arts Radio National presenter, Sarah Kanowski http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandarts/art-event-at-werribee-treatment-plant/8362498
2017 – Brooke Boland, Our Collective Waste, in Overland Journal https://overland.org.au/2017/06/our-collective-waste/ 2014 – McClelland Gallery Sculpture Survey and Award Catalogue, Penny Teale (Curator) 2016 – Sam Leach, ‘The Ghosts in the Machine’, Review of RMIT Gallery exhibition ‘Morbis Artis’, in The Article, December 2016 http://thearticle.com.au/2016/12/the-ghosts-in-the-machines-morbis-artis/
2013 – Exhibition Review, World Sculpture News, Summer, 2013,
Commissions, Grants and Awards
2023 – Wyndham City Greening the Pipeline curatorial and production commission; 2022 – Westgate Tunnel Community Fund Grant for Treatment Public Art Project in 2023; 2022 – RISE grant with Mornington Peninsula Art Gallery for Front Beach Back Beach Public Art Project; 2020 – City of Geelong Arts Grant with Mirjana Lozanovska and Anne Wilson for VACANTCitY project; 2020 – Commission for Public Art Strategy Consultation, City of Ballarat, with David Cross; 2019 - Bishop & Reis City of Melbourne Grant for Wonder Room for One (2019); 2018/19 – commissioned by City of Kingston to produce and co-curate public art project Six Moments in Kingston; 2017 - City of Greater Geelong Grant for VACANTGeelong; 2017 - Shortlisted and funded to develop concept for Geelong Performing Arts Centre major Public Art Project; 2016 – Commissioned to write, with PAC, Melbourne Metro Tunnel Project Creative Strategy; 2016/17 – Australia Council Project Development Grant – Project funding for Treatment 2017 from Melbourne Water and Wyndham City; 2016/17 – Creative Victoria Project Grant for VACANT Geelong (curator on ongoing project); 2014/15 – Public Art Commission for Transpanorama permanent public artwork – City of Greater Geelong; 2014 – Wyndham City, project funding TREATMENT public art project; 2014 – Finalists’ fee, McClelland Gallery Sculpture Survey and Award; 2013
Selected Recent Publications and Conferences
2023 Article, Pangrazio, L. Bishop, C. Lee, F. Old Media, New Gigs: The Discursive Construction of the Gig Economy in Australian News Media, in Work, Employment and Society, Volume 37, Issue 3, SAGE; 2019 Article, Bishop, C. & Cross, D. A pleasant coach journey across the political frontier: Public art and suburban dissensus, Art & the Public Sphere, Volume 8, Number 2, 1 December 2019, pp. 147-161(15); 2018 Book Chapter, Bishop, C., 'Art, the Academy, and Strategy', in eds. Kumar, M. & Pattanayak, S., Positioning Research: Shifting Paradigms, Interdisciplinarity and Indigeneity, SAGE, London, pp. 55-70; 2017 Journal Article, Bishop, C. & Pangrazio, L. ‘Art as Digital Counterpractice’, in eds. A & L Kroker, Ctheory Theorizing 21C Journal https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ctheory/article/view/17 034/7275 ; 2016 Book Chapter, ‘New Strategies for Old Practices’, in P.D.Marshall et al. (eds.), Contemporary Publics, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2016; 2016 – Book Chapter, ‘Occupying Conversations: Art, the Academy and Strategy’ (local and/or global) in Margaret Kumar et al. (eds) Positioning Research print for publication with SAGE.