calendario eventi  :: 

X

11/2/2009

Two exhibitions

CCNOA Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art, Bruxelles

Alexandra Dementieva

Alexandra Dementieva (1960 in Moscow; lives and works in Brussels) studied journalism and fine arts in Moscow and Brussels. Her main interests focus on social psychology and perception and their application in multimedia interactive installations. Her videowork integrates different elements including behavioral psychology, developing narrative using a ’subjective camera’. Her interactive installation projects attempt to widen the mind’s potential for perception using different production materials: computers, video projections, soundtracks, slides, photography, etc. By making certain historical, cultural and political allusions, her exhibition locations create the frame within which the idea develops. The projects explore the spectator’s depths of perceptual experience and the interaction of the individual spectator with the exhibition as well as with other visitors. The subject of an installation or its production method becomes less important to her than the mind of the user. Thus the latter becomes the center of the project or the main actor in the performance.

Alien space

Interactive video installation / Programming MAC: Bart Vandeput / Programming PC & sound: Adam Kendall / Sound objects: Ludo Engels / Set design: Marcus Bering / 3D animation: Real Reality / Production: Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds - www.vaf.be / Nadine vzw - www.nadine.be / CCNOA center for contemporary non-objective art - www.ccnoa.org / Adem vzw

The installation consists of 800 transparent, pearl-colored latex balloons forming two corridors (each around 3 m long) leading to a central circular space. The balloons are reminiscent of living cells, futuristic buildings, laboratories, children’s rooms at Halloween… The installation generates mixed feelings of curiosity, attraction and repulsion at one and the same time. The shining metallic surface is threatening and the fragility of the thin balloon disturbing. When the visitor moves through the narrow corridor, from time to time he accidentally touches the balloon wall, triggering mumbling noises and an occasional weak light shining from inside. When he reaches the central space, his movements effect changes in the audio and video environment. The closer he approaches the opposite wall, the more it is populated by blurry images and creatures. A few steps further on and he can clearly recognize the creatures – television newsreaders interspersed with images of robots and blurry androids. When the visitor is in the middle of the space all the images and faces are clear and bright (as much as they can be on such a surface) but the sounds become loud and irregular, creating noises that are difficult to bear. If the spectator moves close to the wall, the cacophony of voices decreases, creating a place for one or two images. They stay visible; it is possible to understand what they are talking about and recognize what they are. This piece uses images from news bulletins broadcast by various international television stations. They will be recorded over a period of 2 to 3 weeks. The short films (which were first processed journalistically) will be collected and some of them will be reworked and a new soundtrack created. The sequences are regrouped and combined in a 40-cell navigation system. The installation exposes the visitor to staged virtual life while at the same time placing him physically and emotionally face-to-face with a worrying reality filled with accidents, potential destruction, dramas and love stories...

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Michael Duffy

Michael Duffy was born in Dublin and lives in London where he works at the Slade School of Fine Art. His portfolio includes solo video works, multi-screened installations, performance based works and avant-garde theatre. From The Ting-Theatre of Mistakes in the UK, and The Ping Chong Company in the USA, he has collaborated with groups presenting conceptual and multimedia events in locations such as The Serpentine and Hayward galleries in London, La Mama and The Kitchen in New York, and Teatro Della Salle in Milan. Michael’s earlier solo performance works explored the male gender role by examining the barber shop ritual and the machismo of national flags were presented at Acme gallery in London, The Arc Gallery in Chicago, and PS1, Art Galaxy, PS 122 and SUNY in New York. In 1981 he was awarded a British Commonwealth scholarship to study in Canada but opted to attend the School of the Art Institute Chicago and join the Whitney Independent Study Programme in New York.

The works shown at CCNOA are exercises in photographic framing and the use of multiple devices to present motion from a sequence of single images. Here there is a dual approach. On the left screen are examples of shots from a video camera confined to capturing an interval of time, in this case a fraction of a second, then programmed to repeat over another interval of time. The result is a light drawing of just enough information and motion to make sense and little enough information to form an abstraction. The right screen consists of single images captured from a digital SLR, sometimes motor driven and sometimes single frame. The same rules of conventional stop frame animation are applied - 2 to 4 frames are copied from each single image and placed in a sequence to produce motion of a specific kind. Using the higher resolution capability of SLRs, Michael captures predefined fractions of motion; a sequence of stills, achieving a higher quality image than with a standard video camera. The process in this work is evocative of the early Mutoscope, which worked on the same principle as the flip book. Imagine these moments as images mounted on a huge Rolodex.

Image: Alexandra Dementieva

Opening: 12/02 @ 18h

CCNOA Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art
Blvd Barthelemylaan 5 - Brussels

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