Josephine Starrs

Josephine Starrs is a Sydney-based artist known for her thought-provoking projects showcased to audiences both nationally and internationally. Along with Virginia Barratt, Francesca da Rimini and Julianne Pierce, she is the co-founder of the renowned artist group VNS Matrix. The collective’s work includes gallery installations, public artworks, events, lectures, performances and posters distributed through physical and online spaces. Taking their point of departure from a sexualised and socially provocative relationship between women and technology, VNS Matrix’s artworks question discourses of domination and control in ever-expanding cyberspace. They are credited as being the first artists to use the term ‘cyberfeminism’ to describe their practice and are generally regarded as the founders of the international cyberfeminist movement. 

Throughout her career, Starrs has engaged in a long-term artistic collaboration with fellow artist Leon Cmielewski. Together, they have created art installations at the intersection of cinema, mapping, and sublime landscapes. They present the land and oceans as spectacular living organisms, illuminating the profound impact of human intervention on these fragile environments. Starrs and Cmielewski’s immersive audio-visual installation And The Earth Sighed, 2016 re-imagined the relationship between nature and culture, and was exhibited at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 2019. Several VNS Matrix artworks were recently featured in the 24^th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024.