INSTALLATIONS | PERFORMANCE INSTALLATIONS
Originally commissioned in 2008 for Toronto's Gay Pride March in the hopes of exposing the abuse of queer people in non-Western nations, this single-channel video installation explores the concept that, as Gonick describes it, "in a human rights abuse, there are no safe words." A visually titillating combination of fast-paced sports program editing, close-ups of muscular flesh and torture porn, this work examines the employment of sexual humiliation tactics in the fight against terrorism. Members of the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds football team are hooded in brightly colored briefs arranged in the order of the gay rainbow flag and "water boarded" in a nod to fascism within the queer community.
Adrian Goycoolea in collaboration with Phillip
This installation physically recreates the East Village apartment of English writer and queer icon Quentin Crisp. Within this space, the artist will be playing family videos starring Crisp, his great-uncle.
The Space Time Modulator (STM) is a kinetic light and video production system. As the mechanism slowly revolves, images from incorporated surveillance systems project divergent imagery on the walls of the space. Additionally, images of traffic cameras throughout New York City (via NYC-TV's Drive cable channel) are projected onto and through the sculpture, casting a second shadow on the wall as well. The STM is an endless tautological system of mechanized self-regard that serves as a kind of moving portrait of our culture. Created from off-the-rack housewares from stores like Ikea and Muji, the STM updates Lazlo Moholy Nagy's "Light-Space Modulator" (1922-30) for the globalized era. The STM is a meditation on the odd trajectory and unexpected material consequences of Moholy-Nagy's utopian ideals. The STM initiates a conversation with the LSM regarding the scale of utopia and the reach of artistic vision in our time.
A series of 3 single-channel 'video sketches'--material culled from the eight-year development process of the performance piece
1. Daedalus rockefeller (5:18) Manipulated footage taken from a video transfer of Building the World Trade Center, a 16mm film produced by the Port Authority of New York to document the construction. A quote by David Rockefeller, the original mastermind of the World Trade Center project, links two rhyming images.
2. Electra (10:00) A squiggle of electrical current and swirling images of a plane's flight map evoke "Electra," the name of Amelia Earhart's plane.
3. Shipwrecks return like Magnets to their Builders (5:18) Video images of a ship manipulated by analogue techniques recall explorations by video pioneer Nam June Paik and the voyage of Henry Hudson.
An array of industrial-themed found objects and various projector screens surround performers, who sit at various stations and follow a strict schedule, switching genders and labor actions in timed incre- ments of "work" and "play." Thread is fed in loops by a female character and received by a male character, who then strings it through an old, broken typewriter. As the concepts of two traditionally "gendered" objects (sewing machine and typewriter) merge, they create an intersexual object that lacks function but is nonetheless abused and manipulated relentlessly by its users.
Friday Nov. 12 at 7:30pm
Saturday Nov. 13 at 7:30pm
In this study of femininity and the performativity of animation, the artist is transformed into a living sculpture.
Seated on a chair, she is hooded and her face replaced with that of an animated doll lip-synching to samples of dialogue from Sunset Boulevard. A live video feed of the performance is projected onto a back wall and the artist interacts with the camera, her gestures becoming increasingly hysterical.
The artist serves at once as the animator and animated; creator and projection screen; self and other.
The queer fruit tree, adorned with figural sculptures and spray painted memento mori, serves as the centerpiece to ritual-based performances throughout the festival. As Radical Faerie drummers create music around the tree, images of the queer past are projected onto performers, creating an interrogation of the relationship between that past and queer future. In times of respite between performances, the audience is invited to create notes to attach to the tree, adding individual intentions to this place of community storytelling.
No Safe Words
Noam Gonick
Originally commissioned in 2008 for Toronto's Gay Pride March in the hopes of exposing the abuse of queer people in non-Western nations, this single-channel video installation explores the concept that, as Gonick describes it, "in a human rights abuse, there are no safe words." A visually titillating combination of fast-paced sports program editing, close-ups of muscular flesh and torture porn, this work examines the employment of sexual humiliation tactics in the fight against terrorism. Members of the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds football team are hooded in brightly colored briefs arranged in the order of the gay rainbow flag and "water boarded" in a nod to fascism within the queer community.
Personal Effects
Adrian Goycoolea in collaboration with Phillip
Ward and the Quentin Crisp Archives
This installation physically recreates the East Village apartment of English writer and queer icon Quentin Crisp. Within this space, the artist will be playing family videos starring Crisp, his great-uncle.
A Portrait of the Human Camera
Kate Huh
An analog-digital hybrid homage to photographer & filmmaker Lindsay Seers. As a child, Seers was unable to speak--possibly due to the intensity of her eidetic recall--which ended the first time she saw a photograph of herself. The installation contains an enlarged photocopy of Seers, her mouth containing a loop of 100 of Huh's images and her eyes existing as mirrors, reflecting back on the viewers and the installation's environment.
Space-Time Modulator (AKA: Ikea Nagy)
L. Shea
2010, USA, housewares, video surveillance system, digital TV receiver, video projectors, motorized turntables, lighting. Dimensions variable.The Space Time Modulator (STM) is a kinetic light and video production system. As the mechanism slowly revolves, images from incorporated surveillance systems project divergent imagery on the walls of the space. Additionally, images of traffic cameras throughout New York City (via NYC-TV's Drive cable channel) are projected onto and through the sculpture, casting a second shadow on the wall as well. The STM is an endless tautological system of mechanized self-regard that serves as a kind of moving portrait of our culture. Created from off-the-rack housewares from stores like Ikea and Muji, the STM updates Lazlo Moholy Nagy's "Light-Space Modulator" (1922-30) for the globalized era. The STM is a meditation on the odd trajectory and unexpected material consequences of Moholy-Nagy's utopian ideals. The STM initiates a conversation with the LSM regarding the scale of utopia and the reach of artistic vision in our time.
Ars(e) Moriendi - Art (Ass) of Dying
Peter Cramer
A chamber of consolation where temptations of sin are illuminated and resolved, this multi-media installation draws from Latin texts and images of the Ars Moriendi ("The Art of Dying"), Apuleius's The Golden Ass and more contemporary weavings on similar tropes. It is about transformations of magic, flesh and spirit. The varying texture of the materials includes altered photographs, wood cut prints, video, audio narration, music, live performance and set elements.Video Sketches for Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
Samuael Topiary
2010, USA, video, color, sound, 21 min.A series of 3 single-channel 'video sketches'--material culled from the eight-year development process of the performance piece
1. Daedalus rockefeller (5:18) Manipulated footage taken from a video transfer of Building the World Trade Center, a 16mm film produced by the Port Authority of New York to document the construction. A quote by David Rockefeller, the original mastermind of the World Trade Center project, links two rhyming images.
2. Electra (10:00) A squiggle of electrical current and swirling images of a plane's flight map evoke "Electra," the name of Amelia Earhart's plane.
3. Shipwrecks return like Magnets to their Builders (5:18) Video images of a ship manipulated by analogue techniques recall explorations by video pioneer Nam June Paik and the voyage of Henry Hudson.
Mal Amis
L. Shea
Mal Amis is a mash-up of gay porn and footage from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan taken from the internet. Watching these fused images of excess, one oscillates from arousal to disgust, or some disturbing intersection of the two. With all the blather about asking and telling it seems we may be missing some deeper and more disturbing complicity. What is it about homosexuality and fascism? It can't just be fashion. Is it simply a victim's pleasure in the abstractions of power? Or is it a scary and unpleasant obverse to our rhetoric of "rights?" Watch and wonder.Will Munro's Dirty Load
Matt Thomas
Underground queer artist Will Munro sheds light on his DIY underwear creations and his legendary queer punk performance haven, Vazaleen.Experiments in the Revival of Organisms
Daniel Pillis
On View continuously, with performances Friday Nov. 9 at 7:15pm & Saturday Nov. 13 at 7:15pmAn array of industrial-themed found objects and various projector screens surround performers, who sit at various stations and follow a strict schedule, switching genders and labor actions in timed incre- ments of "work" and "play." Thread is fed in loops by a female character and received by a male character, who then strings it through an old, broken typewriter. As the concepts of two traditionally "gendered" objects (sewing machine and typewriter) merge, they create an intersexual object that lacks function but is nonetheless abused and manipulated relentlessly by its users.
Out There in the Dark
Birgitta Hosea
Thursday Nov. 11 at 7:30pmFriday Nov. 12 at 7:30pm
Saturday Nov. 13 at 7:30pm
In this study of femininity and the performativity of animation, the artist is transformed into a living sculpture.
Seated on a chair, she is hooded and her face replaced with that of an animated doll lip-synching to samples of dialogue from Sunset Boulevard. A live video feed of the performance is projected onto a back wall and the artist interacts with the camera, her gestures becoming increasingly hysterical.
The artist serves at once as the animator and animated; creator and projection screen; self and other.
Under the Queer Fruit Tree
Blaise Garber
On View Continuously. Ritual on Sunday Nov. 14 at 7:30pmThe queer fruit tree, adorned with figural sculptures and spray painted memento mori, serves as the centerpiece to ritual-based performances throughout the festival. As Radical Faerie drummers create music around the tree, images of the queer past are projected onto performers, creating an interrogation of the relationship between that past and queer future. In times of respite between performances, the audience is invited to create notes to attach to the tree, adding individual intentions to this place of community storytelling.