A Journey

Kirchberg Hospital, Luxembourg

September 1 - October 20

2024

by Benny J

Benny J is an innovative artist whose practice spans multiple mediums though specialises in Metal print Photography and Poetry. This exhibition “A Journey” comes from his major project, a diary on Instagram where he documents his life through photography, involving themes of identity, living with a rare disease and the human experience from living with chronic pain throughout his body, exploring as much as his body allows. Benny's technique is simple at first glance, though delve a little deeper and see the codes and structures behind the work, and a unique style emerges.

Benny’s career is unique, becoming an artist at 40 after a lifetime of trying different careers, spanning container ships in Papua New Guinea, a Bus driver in Sydney Australia, and a 10 year stint within financial services. His art is finding its own market and connecting with people who have overcome challenges in life and was first invited to exhibit permanently in his Doctors waiting room. From there, a 6 month exhibition that combined performance art with his metal prints and poetry, his exhibition journey is just beginning, all under an umbrella philosophy called Project 117, an ambitious goal to live to 117 years.

Benny’s influences are diverse, taking experiences from previous activities to format his own style and finding his own eye to express how he sees the world. His art reflects a deep engagement with the world around him, making each piece a commentary on modern society's complexities as well as the emotional ones that come from life with a rare disease. With a growing number of exhibitions and opportunties, Benny continues to push the boundaries of artistic expression, building his reputation as a dynamic and influential artist.

All works on show come from his daily pain diary posted on Instagram and Facebook. You are invited to follow him (insta) @bennyj_artist or via link at bottom of page.

Exhibited artwork

“Night Stream”

“Open Blinds”

“OBSTACLES”

“Defy Gravity”

"Perseverence"

“Stretches"

"Deeper"

"Slowly Setting"

"Sources of Light"

"Alone in a colourful world"

"Nerg"

"Ease"

"Reality Check"

"Rewarded"

"Time = Disorder”

"Time Witness"

"Crafted Curves"

“Adapting Expectations”

"Glacial Remains"

“Feedback”

*All artwork is for sale. Some pieces are display only and will take 2 weeks to be ready from order.

Other works

Routine

Body scan meditation

Chronic Pain Diary Feed from Instagram:

Resilience diary- pain today: 6/10. Photo: "Şħípÿǎṟḏş" Occasionally I would join dad on one of his work trips up or down the coast to one of the most intimidating places on earth, a shipyard. I remember one up near Newcastle that was just the biggest piece of infrastructure I'd ever seen. The docks had dozens of ships and boats that ranged in size from tugs and big little boats to container and other cargo ships measuring hundreds of meters long. Dad in this job would do the annual or other periodic checks of these behemoths signing off on their legal and safety right to sail. I didn't know this at the time, I was just bored and didn't understand how incredible dads work was probably because his level was beyond phd level and I was a 12 year old who couldn't count. The ships were mostly out of bounds for me though and so usually I'd be left on the bridge or galley to occupy myself with no book or phone for a few hours as dad did his thing. I never connected to ships the way dad did which is a bit of a shame as no one knows them better and has I ever managed to study would of had a great teacher. I am inspired by his passion for them though, they've given him a full life with incredible stories, all one can ask for i guess. #project117 #shipyards #bored #cold #huge

Resilience diary- pain today: 5/10. Photo: "Fłåṯ" One of my first hikes was in the blue mountains and the blue gum forest. The blue mountains are unique in their formation whereby most infrastructure is on the top as the valleys are mostly dead ends and traps. The hike world start by train from home, changing in the city for a line out to Blackheath where a short walk of a couple of km's brings us to the start of the trail. Short at about 14km the hike takes two days because 12 of those km are either falling down one side of the valley or attempting to scramble up the other side. It's hard work and the downhill was always my least favourite as would cause my knees the most pain whereas up hill was just stamina, which i had back then. The campsite was at Acacia flat not far from the forest of blue gums. Coming home after a trip like that is like leaving a dream. The bush and nature a place to find peace with everything. #project117 #nature #views #hiking #childhood

Resilience diary- pain today: 6/10. Photo: "Ħēâvëņ&scaron;"

I enjoyed getting older and have always wanted to be old though I've never really questioned why. I guess i see it as a measure of success in what is a form of a surviv

Resilience diary- pain today: 6/10. Photo: "Ħēâvëņš" I enjoyed getting older and have always wanted to be old though I've never really questioned why. I guess i see it as a measure of success in what is a form of a survival game and being old is a way of winning the game though I'm sure my mind will change on that if i delve into the matter. What aging also gave me which i thrived on, was new ways to view the world. I was starting to watch the news on tv sometimes and read the weekend paper and starting to see and hear about things I've been lucky enough to never experience such as war or dictatorships. I really started questioning religion the older i got as it just didn't make sense to me, i got much of it and edited the community bit but a year out from my bar mitzvah I was being drawn away from temple and into the bush with scouts. That's where i fell in love with life and things started to make sense to me. I had a place where I could safely test out ideas whilst doing adventures, a lucky time. #project117 #beliefs #heavens #thoughts #community

Resilience diary- pain today: 5/10. Photo: "Čōñṯǐŋûõǔş" Today is the beginning of the fourth year of this diary. For someone who tends to start and stop things on a regular basis in quite proud I've kept this up for the past 1461 days. I have no plans to stop as it has become a nice anchor to my day and I'm enjoying looking back at my life and trying to work out how i became who i am. I would love to find out how I have been mentally sitting when I've needed to be so i can both use it more often and to share it however i feel it's really an independent thing that one needs to build the right environment around them to give the opportunity. The best thing i learnt from my youth was (eventually) to not care what others say about me, i can't stop them, so just do me and what's best for me and surround myself with people who support that and enjoy that life. I'm interested to see where this diary ends up or talks about but so far the journey has been extensive 😂 thx for those joining me on the way. #project117 #anniversary #time #continuous #diary

Resilience diary- pain today: 5/10. Photo: "Měḏíțâṯīòńş" I think what i enjoyed most as i fell down the philosophy well was the multiple ways to answer the same questions and they could sometimes all be correct even if they contradicted each other. By age twelve I had worked out that some solutions are not the only ones and the idea that a whole world existed where questions could be explored without end seemed fun to me. I started to have all sorts of wild thoughts about meaning and then got thrown a curve ball as ethics was thrown into the mix and that just amplified my thinking. I started having trouble overthinking it going to deep such that i would scare myself at the brevity and depth of what i was feeling that could not be out into words. I loved this freedom of search without limits except those you restrain yourself within. That idea spoke to me as all i seemed to do is figure out how to get my body to do what i wanted even though it didn't. Those deep thoughts would sometimes go to far and I'd temporarily be paralysed from the existential thoughts rushing around me but gradually i got used to the signs of going to far and then distract myself out of it before trying again later. Eventually life got too busy and filled those thoughts with other things but recently with time to breathe I'm returning there and it's so interesting. #project117 #philosophy #thinking #answers #questions