Monday, July 21, 2008

Change of Exhibition Venue!


Robert Hengeveld's exhibition Staging the Gap will no longer be presented at Unit 3 - 300 Main Street. Instead the exhibition will presented at Video Pool's studio (3rd Floor, 100 Arthur Street).

All are invited to enjoy the interactive audio and electronics of this detailed concert stage diorama daily from 12 - 5. The artist will be in attendance for the exhibition opening, Friday, July 25th; the exhibition will run until August 21.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

An Uncomfortable Fascination

This is not a video pool event, but a video event not to be missed! We hope you'll be able to attend...

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THE VIDEO WORKS OF ERICA EYRES:
An Uncomfortable Fascination

Curated By Stacy Abramson
Artist Present

FREE ADMISSION

Friday / July 4 / 7:00 PM
THE WFG'S CINEMATHEQUE,
100 ARTHUR STREET

Her work is dark, eerie and strangely human. She dons costumes to perform in all of her video work creating characters which pushes viewers to the edge. The work of former Winnipeg artist Erica Eyres, who moved to Glasgow in 2002 and received her masters degreee in art in 2004 has been picked up by the Rokeby Gallery in London, England, one of the most trend setting galleries in the UK. She has been developing a name for herself in the European art scene in the past six years. She showed with Bowieart - an exhibition of 16 emerging European artists selected by David Bowie in 2005.

Curator and writer Stacy Abramson said her work is uncomfortable, hilarious, sad and brilliant all at once. We want to laugh, and do, but feel sorry for the characters. We feel guilty about finding all of their misfortune humourous. But this is the reality of human emotions. She is able to shine the harshest light on the dark side of human nature with a strange face of humour. She makes us look at the strange and unsettling reality of these characteristics that we tend to push under the rug. Through each character that she plays in her works, Eyres lets us see that with a critical and brilliant eye. Her total control of the medium of both video and performance are what make her stand-out from so many artists working with the same ideas of humanity."

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Robert Hengeveld's "Staging the Gap"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Video Pool Media Arts Centre presents
Robert Hengeveld's "Staging the Gap"



Robert Hengeveld's exhibition Staging the Gap will no longer be presented at Unit 3 - 300 Main Street. Instead the exhibition will presented at Video Pool's studio (3rd Floor, 100 Arthur Street).

Winnipeg, MB (July 2, 2008) – Video Pool Media Arts Centre is very pleased to present Staging the Gap, a provocative media installation by Toronto-based artist, Robert Hengeveld.

Staging the Gap is a miniature model of a concert stage with silently animated lights and smoke. The work explores the relationship of fact and fiction in a technologically mediated world. Hengeveld critically reflects on the mechanisms used to deliver popular culture by focusing on how visual effects – stage lights, pyrotechnics, and dry ice – are used at concerts to shape our understanding of what we hear. Ignoring society’s desire for the spectacle of performance, the stage created by the artist remains empty while a precisely orchestrated light show plays out.

Accompanying the miniature stage is a series of headphone each playing a different audio track specifically composed in response to the orchestrated light show. This inverts the traditional relationship of audio and visual experience in concert settings and addresses the role of audio in shaping our understanding of the world.

Hengeveld's model stage measures 2.5m2 to establish a scale at which viewers are encompassed by the work, yet still feel slightly detached. Next, he coaxes audiences from their suspended disbelief into his alternate reality by offering a familiar space and encouraging them to relate in a familiar manner. This subtle slip from the norm creates a situation that challenges preconceptions while fostering a reevaluation of our spatial environments and our positions within them.

This exhibition runs from July 29 – August 21, 2008 and will be available weekdays from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Video Pool's Studio (100 Arthur Street, 3rd Floor).

Exhibition Launch: Friday, July 25
Artist talk begins at 6:00 p.m. in Winnipeg Film Group's Studio; Reception will follow at Video Pool – both venues are on the 3rd floor at 100 Arthur Street.

ARTIST BIO -- Robert Hengeveld completed his MFA at the University of Victoria in 2005 and received a Fine Arts Diploma and Certificate from Georgian College, and an AOCAD from the Ontario College of Art and Design. He has exhibited his work across Canada and internationally, and has participated in artist residencies in both Canada and Scotland. He is currently living and working in Toronto.

These exhibition is presented thanks to generous financial support from:



VIDEO POOL MEDIA ARTS CENTRE is a non-profit artist run centre dedicated to advancing the discipline of media art by providing media artists, non-profit organizations and community groups with access to professional video and media equipment, training, distribution and programming. Video Pool strives to be a national leader fostering innovation, experimentation, critical dialogue and advocacy in media arts.

Contact:
Milena Placentile, Programming Coordinator
Video Pool Media Arts Centre
#300-100 Arthur St., Winnipeg MB R3B 1H3
http://www.videopool.org
http://videopool.blogspot.com
204.949.9134 x 1