Born 1988, Sydney, Australia
Lives and works on the South Coast, NSW Australia
education
2019: PhD in Creative Practice (Performance Studies and Visual Arts), University of New South Wales
2011: Bachelor of Creative Arts (Visual Arts), First Class Honours, University of Wollongong
2007: Certificate IV in Fashion Design and Industry Practices, West Wollongong TAFE
Solo Exhibitions
2022: Loops & Tangles, Village Practice, Wollongong, NSW
2016: Spider, Ideas Platform, Artspace, Sydney, NSW
2015: Actions for Sensory Disruption, Bus Projects, Melbourne, VIC
2012: You Must Follow Me Carefully, performance series at: Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney; Sawtooth ARI, Launceston; Inflight ARI, Hobart; Firstdraft Depot, Sydney, NSW
2011: Dialogues, Gallery 5 Crown Lane, Wollongong Off the Route, Gallery 5 Crown Lane, Wollongong, NSW
2011: Off the Route, Project Space, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023: Threads, Jennings Kerr, Robertson, NSW
2023: Care Structures, M16 Artspace, Canberra, ACT
2022: Summer Salon, Jennings Kerr, Robertson, NSW
2022: quietly, carefully, casually, Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2022: Colour of Puddles, Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, Sydney, NSW
2021: Horizon of Possibility, a cellular phone exhibition
2020: Beginning Again and Again and Again, online and TAEM Gallery, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW
2019: Non-Objective Writing III – l.a.n.g.u.a.g.e., SNO Contemporary Arts Projects, Sydney, NSW
2018: Unfettered, Cullity Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA
2017: Underbelly Arts Lab and Festival, National Art School, Sydney, NSW
2015: To the Lovers of the True and the Beautiful, Twenty Thirty Three, Sydney, NSW
2015: Cat & Mouse, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2015: ‘_____’, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2013: Cat & Mouse, in collaboration with Joanna Downing, Critical Animals, Newcastle, NSW
2013: Director’s Cut: Sarah Miller, Past Tense / Future Present, Performance Space, Sydney. NSW
2013: Public Thinking, 55 Sydenham Rd Marrickville NSW 2204 AU, Sydney, NSW
2013: The Situated Line, Articulate Project Space, Sydney, NSW
2013: Relay, in collaboration with Lauren Brown, performed action at: Exist-ence 5, PACT, Sydney; Performance Space, London; IO Myers Studio, Sydney, PICA, Perth; Alaska Projects, Sydney, NSW
2012: Winner!, curated by Mish Grigor, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2012: Appearing as Process, Sawtooth ARI, Launceston, TAS
2011: Hatched: National Graduate Exhibition, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA), Perth, WA
2011: Intersections, At The Vanishing Point, Sydney, NSW
2011: Paperplanes, The Papermill, Sydney, NSW
2010: Belljar, University of Wollongong Graduate Exhibition - Visual Arts and Graphic Design, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW
2010: In and Around: Negotiations with Time and Space, Project Contemporary Art Space, Wollongong, NSW
AWARDS
2019: UOW Artist-in-Residence at Australian Archeological Institute Athens (AAIA) scholarship, University of Wollongong
2017: Research Degree Research Additional Grant, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales
2017: PRRS Grant to present research at an international conference, University of New South Wales
2013-17: Australian Postgraduate Award
2011: Professor Diana Wood Conroy Award for Excellence
2009: Meroogal Women’s Art Prize, finalist
Residencies
2021-24: AHARP, Arquetopia Foundation, online and onsite residency, Puebla, Mexico & Cusco, Peru (current)
2019: Australia Archeological Institute Athens (AAIA), Athens, Greece
2019: Natural Inks Instructional Residency, Arquetopia Foundation, Oaxaca, Mexico
2017: A Parliament of Owls - Underbelly Project Development, Clothing Store - Carriageworks, Sydney
2016: If they are sleepy, let them sleep, durational performance residency, IO Myers Studio UNSW, Sydney
2015: Artist residency, Bundanon, NSW
2014: Artist Studio Residency, Archive_ Space, Sydney
2012: 3-month artist studio residency program, Firstdraft Depot, Sydney
PUBLICATIONS (as author)
2020: Wake, Caroline and Boni Cairncross. 2020. “Local Archive, Distant Reading: Performance Space at Cleveland Street and Carriageworks.” Australasian Drama Studies 76: 183-210
2019: Cairncross, Boni and Louise Curham 2019. “Extra Visual – instructions for a sense-focused experience of Making Art Public”. Extra! Extra! http://www.extra-extra.press/2019/11/19/extra-visual-instructions-for-a-sense-focused-experience-of-making-art-public/
2012: Cairncross, Boni 2012. “Extending the recent past: Sonorities of Site by Aphids”, Resonate Magazine, 23 August: http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/extending-the-recent-past-em-sonorities-of-site-em-aphids
conferences, Symposiums and artist talks
2022: Soft Actions, panel convenor, AAANZ Demonstrations Conference, Melbourne/Online
2018: From Sole Occupant to Anchor Tenant to Resident Company: The Performance Space at Cleveland Street and Carriageworks, paper co-presentation with Dr Caroline Wake, AusStage Symposium, Melbourne
2017: Cut and Cloth: Touch in Yoko Ono’s ‘Cut Piece’, paper presentation, Performance Studies International #23 Overflow Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2015: Things that are left behind: preserving performance art and performance, panellist, Crack Theatre Festival, Newcastle AU
2014: Sensorial Propositions / Spaces of Resistance: Lygia Clark and Performance, paper presentation, AAANZ Geo:critical Conference, Launceston
2013: Rethinking Participation: The Artist-Audience Collaboration, AAANZ Inter-discipline Conference, Melbourne
2013: From the Grass Roots to the Grand Gesture, Critical Animals Research Symposium, Newcastle
2013: Research and Creative Practice, panel discussion, University of Wollongong, Wollongong
2013: Saturday Session #4 Performance Art, Live Art, Action Art Now, PACT Centre for Emerging Artists, Sydney
2012: Artist Talk, Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Young Ambassador’s Program site visit to Firstdraft Artist Studios, Woolloomooloo
2012: Notes on Emerging, Guest Lecture with Laura Hindmarsh, University of Wollongong, Wollongong
Teaching AND WORKSHOPS
Current: Lecturer - Visual Arts: History, Theory, Practice, School of Arts, English and Media, Faculty of Arts, Social Science and Humanities, University of Wollongong
2022-23: Lecturer - Visual Arts (Career Development Fellow), School of Arts, English and Media, Faculty of Arts, Social Science and Humanities, University of Wollongong
2013-21: Sessional Lecturer (Visual Art - Textile Art), School of Arts, English and Media, Faculty of Arts, Social Science and Humanities, University of Wollongong
2019: Sessional Lecturer (Design - Textiles), Art and Design, University of New South Wales
2017: Felt Making and Action, workshop, Clothing Store – Carriageworks, Sydney
2016: Felt Making - Spheres, Gestures, Powders, workshop, Squiggle Space, Paddington
2016-18: Tutor (Theatre and Performance Studies), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales
Collections
Private collections in Australia.