Steina Vasulka
dal 11/2/2008 al 14/3/2008
Segnalato da
11/2/2008
Steina Vasulka
Evo Gallery, Santa Fe
The exhibition presents two installations by the pioneering video artist. Trained as a concert violinist who performed with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Steina weaves the language of musical composition with both digital and analog media through her minimalist imagery.
EVO Gallery is pleased to present two installations by the pioneering video artist
Steina. Born in Iceland, Steina immigrated to New York in 1965, and currently
resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Trained as a concert violinist who performed with
the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Steina weaves the language of musical composition
with both digital and analog media. Her minimalist imagery, built up from
audio-video signals and waveforms, emphasize the qualities of the electronic media
employed, exploring the phenomenology of video. Chance, experimentation, and
performance are also central to her creative practice.
The centerpiece of the show, ...Of the North (2001) is comprised of a grid stack of
nine Sony Trinitron monitors, with each screen projecting variations of a computer-
generated sphere. The images evoke macro and microscopic crystalline forms, steep
canyons, ocean surf, or clouds on a planet's surface. With constant kinetic
permutations, the orbs appear to variously rotate on axes, turn inside out, or spin
slowly in space. The imagery is paradoxically digital and organic, yet clearly
referencing natural phenomena. As Richard Tobin noted,
For all the visual draw of these stunning images, the result is more than
mesmerizing. Steina succeeds in transforming the electronic moving image into video
metaphor. It is almost immaterial whether viewers' thoughts turn to global warming,
the Kyoto Accords, or the first time they peered through a telescope. What is
material is the act of thinking: the movement from passive response to active
reflection. ( see http://www.vasulka.org )
"Trevor" (1999-2000), a single-screen video, focuses on the head of a singer in a
recording studio. His abstract vocals mesh with the expressive alteration of his
visage, which takes on a highly distorted, Francis
Bacon-like aspect.
Steina has exhibited globally for twenty-five years including at the Icelandic
Pavilion of the 1997 Venice Biennale. She collaborated for many years with Woody
Vasulka, with whom she co-founded The Kitchen in New York in 1971.
EVO Gallery
554 South Guadalupe St - Santa Fe
Free admission