Gillian Kayrooz is an artist hailing from the culture-rich veins of Western Sydney. Her works often transcend the rules of traditional galleries, playing with visual dimensions to create electrifying exhibitions that harmonise community, friendship, and youth. As the winner of the prestigious 2024 Create NSW x Artspace Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging), Kayrooz chats with Lameah Nayeem on behalf of Killdeers Magazine to discuss the methods behind her miracles.

Image credits: Anna Kucera and courtesy of the artist

Lameah Nayeem: Can you talk me through how you navigate the initial stages of conceptualising an exhibition to its completion? 

Gillian Kayrooz: A lot of my work definitely starts from quite humble beginnings. I grew up in Western Sydney, and a lot of the work that I was exposed to wasn't contemporary art in the sense of it being in a gallery, so much of my upbringing was based around music videos, local or online arts, and culture—things that weren't considered traditional art mediums.

My start was more experimental since it was about my friends, neighbourhoods, and my family. I came to photography and creating video work by just having my camera on me when I was a teenager and taking photos of my friends, which is very similar to a lot of people's adolescent years. I always had this ambition to become an artist, but I guess I didn't really know what that meant outside of the traditional mediums of drawing, painting, and sculpture, which I think is still very much embedded as this mainstream idea of ‘visual arts’ in high schools today as well.

When I first started exploring my art practice, I focused a lot on representations of identity and place. I often create work with family, friends, and community members, discussing what art is and addressing stories that are misrepresented or untold. This approach fueled my art practice, shaping the ambitions and stories I wanted to strengthen. It all goes back to being that 16-year-old in Western Sydney taking pictures of my friends. I still feel like I'm there, which is quite nice.

LN: You mentioned that you've always wanted to be an artist. Were there any pivotal moments in your life that solidified the fact that this is your calling? 

GK: It's so tricky because I feel like when you're growing up, you think, I just have to do this course, and then I get this job title, then it means that I'm this thing. I guess when you're an artist, so much of that process is self-prescribed, particularly when you’re working freelance as it's a journey that you most often are undertaking by yourself. It's really hard to find those pivotal moments where you can reflect and be like, oh, I'm here. I'm doing it.

One moment that I really enjoy speaking to is when I was in high school. I remember being introduced by my art teacher to the work of Tracey Moffatt—her incredible video work Night Cries - A Rural Tragedy, 1989 and her ever-moving photographic series Something More, 1989. That was the pivotal point that changed my understanding of what art could be.

Then, in 2022, I had a solo exhibition at the Murray Art Museum in Albury. And in the room next to my show, was a retrospective exhibition of Tracey Moffatt's Something More series. That was one of those pinch yourself moments where I was like, oh shit, I'm here, I’m an artist!