Photo by Megan George - www.megangeorge.photo
Award winning artist Bindi Cole Chocka was born in 1975 in Melbourne, Australia. She studied at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE, Federation University and is currently undertaking a PhD at Deakin University.
Bindi Cole Chocka is a resilient and ingenious Melbourne-born photographer, new media artist, writer and curator who speaks compellingly through her photographs, videos, installations and writing work. Chocka’s work often references her life story and experiences, such as her heritage, the importance of Christianity in her life, and the impact of politics, the law and other power structures on her lived experience and that of her family and community. Her deeply personal and powerful artistic practice questions the way people circumscribe and misconstrue contemporary identity and experience.
Chocka works to expose the questions most are afraid to ask. At times, her artworks are so personal, cathartically imbuing them with a gritty honesty, that the viewer’s experience can verge on voyeurism. Chocka’s work exposes the latent and unspoken power dynamics of global culture in the here and now. She subtly but powerfully reveals some uncomfortable truths about the fundamental disconnection between who we are - the communities and identities by which we shape our sense of self - and how the prevailing culture attempts to place and define us.
In the last 10 years, Chocka has held 25 solo shows and been in over 60 group exhibitions. She has been shortlisted for 18 art prizes and won or placed in 6. In 2010, Chocka was named as one of the Top 100 Most Influential people in Melbourne. Since her first solo show in 2007, Chocka’s work has been widely exhibition in solo and group exhibitions including the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of NSW, Museum of Contemporary Art, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, National Portrait Gallery, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (Brooklyn, USA), Museum of Contemporary Art (Taiwan). Her work is held in various collections across the world. Chocka lives and works in Melton, Victoria, Australia.