Kori Miles (They/She/ia)


BIO

Brief Bio:

Kori is an interdisciplinary and process-based takataapui artist, currently working and living on sacred Wurundjeri land in Naarm/Melbourne. They are of Maaori (Ngaati Raukawa, Ngaati Ahuru, Tainui/Waikato), Italian, Scottish & Anglo-Celtic descent, but born and raised in so-called Australia. They predominantly utilise performance, installation, sculpture, photography, video and poetry as mediums to explore/articulate ideas, knowledge and stories.

Kori’s practice is guided by the stories of Maaui—the trickster demigod of Maaori mythology—and how Maaui’s clever wit combined with the powers of shape-shifting and interdimensional travel are used to undermine structural authority and cause a paradigm shift in power distribution - a social and systemic change that benefits those with less privilege and access. Kori’s practice manifests visions that confront the ongoing damage of colonial and heteronormative social structures, whilst concurrently fostering a space for contemplation on transgression, eroticism, liberation, humour, healing, regeneration and resilience.

Extended Bio:
Kori is an interdisciplinary and process-based takataapui artist, currently working and living on sacred Wurundjeri land in Naarm/Melbourne. They are of Maaori (Ngaati Raukawa, Ngaati Ahuru, Tainui/Waikato), Italian, Scottish & Anglo-Celtic descent, but born and raised in so-called Australia. They predominantly utilise performance, installation, sculpture, photography, video and poetry as mediums to explore/articulate ideas, knowledge and stories.

Kori’s current practice spurs from an enquiry into the correlations between trickster archetypes in ancient knowledge systems and contemporary queer performativity, attitudes, actions and resistance tactics. Kori holds a particular interest in the stories of Maaui—the trickster demigod of Maaori mythology—and how Maaui’s clever wit combined with the powers of shape-shifting and interdimensional travel are used to undermine structural authority and cause a paradigm shift in power distribution - a social and systemic change that benefits those with less privilege and access.

Kori applies simplistic, punk and immediate methods of transformation to at-hand materials and environments as a means to reveal the transformative potential of our everyday make-up. These ritualistic and alchemical-like processes produce objects, costumes and spaces for ceremony to be activated by performance, as an attempt to ~ revive suppressed, reveal hidden and/or generate future ~ folklore.

Inspired by gothic horror and speculative fiction,
Kori’s practice manifests visions that confront the ongoing damage of colonial and heteronormative social structures, whilst concurrently fostering a space for contemplation on transgression, eroticism, liberation, humour, healing, regeneration and resilience.


CV

Select Exhibitions
2022, ko kori toku ingoa, Blak Dot Gallery, Melbourne
2021, Killing Time, Issue 44: Time, Runway Journal
2021, The Seventh Seal, SEVENTH Gallery, Melbourne
2020, 226 [with Bon Mott], 226 Gertrude st, Melbourne
2019, Ahi Mahana [with Renee Cosgrave], Sutton Projects, Melbourne
2018, Sulfur Kiss, SEVENTH Gallery, Melbourne
2015, Altered Perspective, First Site Gallery, Melbourne

Select Group Exhibitions
2022, After us, everything, RM Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2022, WHOLE SELF, Midsumma Festival, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
2022, Code Blak, Midsumma Festival, Blak Dot Gallery, Melbourne
2021, THIS., Rising Festival, The Substation, Melbourne
2021, Testing Nights, Testing Grounds, Melbourne
2021, TOYS-’R’-US: Your Teapot is Listening, 2SP Second Space Projects, Melbourne
2020, Hauhake, Objectspace, Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand
2020, A Showing of Works by Bon and Sean [with Bon Mott], 226 Gertrude, Melbourne
2020, Shifting Centres, NextWave’s ASSEMBLE!, Testing Grounds, Melbourne
2019, Circular Art Prize, AWARDED SECOND PLACE, Blak Dot Gallery, Melbourne
2019, Playing with Matches, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
2019, Pearlescent Verse, SATELITE - Blindside ARI, Victoria, NSW, Auckland
2019, Midsumma Post Art Prize, AWARDED SECOND PLACE, No Vacancy, Melbourne
2018, B-SIDE, Blindside ARI, Melbourne
2018, Queer Blak Futurisms, Blak Dot Gallery, Melbourne
2018, Cattle and Cane, The Dirty Dozen (Campbell Arcade), Melbourne
2017, Connectedness, Blak Dot Gallery, Melbourne
2017, Home Alone, Fairy Floss Real Estate ARI, Melbourne  
2016, Revision, George Paton Experimental Art Space, Melbourne
2015, Colour Sample, Meyers Place Art Space, Melbourne
2014, RMIT LIGHTSCAPES, White Night, Melbourne

Select Performances
2023, Sun-Tide Arts Festival, Arts Mildura, Mildura, Victoria
2022, OPEN STATION, Neighbourhood Festival, The Substation, Melbourne
2022, Thin Red Lines, Poetry Reading, Brunswick Artist Bar, Melbourne
2022, ko kori toku ingoa, Blak Dot Gallery, Melbourne
2022, birdsongs, A Space is Held, Trcadero ARI, Bluestone Church Arts Space, Melbourne,
2022, Out, in, out, in, out, in, out, in, out, in, Out, in, out, in, out, in, out, Out, out, out, out, Performance Review presents: CONTACT HIGH, Gertrude Glasshouse, Melbourne
2021, THIS., Rising Festival, The Substation, Melbourne
2021, A Showing of Performance by Bon and Sean, 226 Gertrude st, Melbourne
2020, FEVER DREAMS [with Manisha Anjali and Suki Florence], OneOnOne, Instagram LIVE performance
2020, I’M A VEGETARIAN BUT SOMETIMES I EAT RICH PEOPLE [with Manisha Anjali], OneOnOne, Instagram LIVE performance
2020, Ngā mata o te ariki, o Tāwhirimātea [Revised], Performance Speech for Bon Mott’s exhibition Intergalactic Plasma: A Way Back to go Forward, Richmond Town Hall
2020, Ngā mata o te ariki, o Tāwhirimātea, Side Gate ARI, Melbourne
2020, Raising Hell [Iteration no. 2], Kings ARI, Melbourne
2019, Raising Hell [Iteration no. 1], Moana Nui-a-Kiwa, Firstdraft, Sydney
2019, Weird on Top [with Bon Mott], Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
2019, Hybrid Festival with Kotare + Ngati Kangaru, Melbourne
2019, Is My Body Out of Date? The Drag of Physicality in the Digital Age - Episode 3 + 4, with Elly Clarke, Bon Mott & Sergina, Body of Knowledge Conference, Deakin University, Melbourne + Cambridge University, UK
2019, Powertrip [Performance intervention with Bon Mott], Gasometer Hotel, Melbourne
2019, Kai a te ahi!, Sutton Projects, Melbourne
2019, Kereru, No Vacancy QV, Melbourne
2018, SINKHOLE by Jess Gall, Rebecca Jensen & Arini Byng, RMIT Design Hub + Irene Rose Gallery
2018, Atlas of the Living World by Alicia Frankovich, RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne
2018, Sulfur Kiss, SEVENTH Gallery, Melbourne
2017, Kanohi ki te kanohi by Tyson Cambell, RMIT School of Art, Melbourne
2017, Standard Length of a Miracle by Goldin + Senneby, ACCA, Melbourne
2016, Untitled (Fountain), VCA Student Gallery, Melbourne

Workshops
2023, ROPETIMES with Luke George, Temperance Hall, Melbourne
2021, Knowledge of Wounds - Course: IndigiQueer Poetics: Desire, Flesh, Memory. Facilitated by Ellen van Neerven, Joshua Whitehead, Joseph M. Pierce, S.J Norman
2020, [Re]Imagining Indigenous Futures: An Education Program Towards Revolution, Kei Te Pai Press, Online
2019, Time, After Time: A Reenactment Workshop with Camila Galaz,  Facilitated by Free Association for Channels Festival, Schoolhouse Studios, Melbourne
2019, Makeshift: Writing & Dance Workshop with Nayuka Gorrie and Bhenji Rah, Artshouse, Melbourne
2018, Neutron Star with La Pocha Nostra, 2SP Second Space Projects, Melbourne

Residencies
2023, TAiR (Travelling Artist is Residence), WatchThisSpace ARI, Mparntwe/Alice Springs
2022, ADAM Artist’s Lab, Taipei Performing Arts Centre, Taiwan
2021-22, Emerging Creative Leaders Program, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne
2020, Creative Development Program, Testing Grounds, Melbourne
2020, Dual Existence, Online Instagram Residency facilitated by Kate Stodart
2019, Bundoora Homestead Arts Centre Studio Residency, Melbourne

Writing
2023, Incantation for Revolt, Tell me Like You Mean It, Cordite Poetry
2022, Birdsongs, No no no mag 2. published by No More Poetry
2021, THIS., Rising Festival, The Substation, Melbourne
2020, Revolting Smells [Excerpt from Workshop], SEVENTH Gallery Mailout Project, Melbourne
2020, YOUVE_GOT_ME_:), Chainmail dispersed from NextWave’s mailing list for ASSEMBLE!, Online

Curatorial Projects
2020, Strange Uncertain Times, Grey Gardens Gallery
2020, Rain Dance ¬  A Bushfire Relief Fundraiser, Grey Gardens Gallery

Education
2016, Bachelor of Art (Fine Art) (Honours), Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
2014, Bachelor of Art (Fine Art), RMIT University, Melbourne
2010, Certificate III in Media, NMIT, Melbourne