Remember! Saturday, September 29 is the night to party like a rock star!

Dear people on the internets, especially those in Winnipeg on Saturday night...

The hype is building and we can hardly contain ourselves!

On Saturday, September 29, beginning at 8:00 p.m., Video Pool and Urban Shaman are proud to unleash the hot new exhibition Rockstars and Wannabes!

Get in the mood by dressing like an 80s rock star and join us at Urban Shaman Gallery (203-290 McDermot Ave) for a night of video, performance, music, and fun. Costumes aren't mandatory, but you'll feel more like a star with one on as you strut the red carpet and schmooze with the other luminaries ;-)

This exhibition is curated by Cathy Mattes and features work by Warren Arcand, Kevin Ei-Ichi deForest, Skawennati Fragnito, and Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay. You're going to love it!

Volunteers are invited to participate in a new performance video by Warren Arcand

Can't wait for Hallowe'en? A bloody exciting opportunity has just presented itself!

Volunteers are invited to participate in a new performance video by Warren Arcand. Warren promises that the video shoot will be an "sticky, orgiastic activity!" So bring your towel and wear clothes that can get dirty.

The resulting video work will be featured in the forthcoming exhibition, Rockstars &Wannabes (Sept 29 - Nov 10 @ Urban Shaman Gallery)

When: Sunday, September 23, 2007 from 2:00 pm - 7:00 pm.
Place: Video Pool's 3rd floor studio.
Where: Volunteers are requested to wallow in some fake blood and act out a very straight-forward scenario as directed by Warren.

Please wait in the Artspace Lobby for someone to escort you to the third floor; if you have a swipe card, feel free to come on up.

Bring some friends and enjoy a blood and beverage-filled day with Warren. You'll love it, and we'll love you!

RSVP by e-mail or just show up.

Do you enjoy conversation?

Do you enjoy conversation? Volunteers needed for art project.

"My name is Germaine Koh and I am an artist looking for volunteer participants for an art project running at Video Pool in Winnipeg from 17 October to 16 November.

The project “Call” makes telephone connections between strangers, as a sort of open-ended experiment in how anonymous individuals interact, and a means of making unexpected connections between real people, without pre-determined goals. It uses a telephone that I have modified so that it each time the handset is lifted, the phone randomly dials one of the project participants. The phone will be physically located in the lobby of Artspace at 100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg.

I am looking for volunteer participants in the Winnipeg area who are willing to receive phone calls on your own telephone during the exhibition, and (attempt to) have phone conversations with the stranger on the other end of the line. No particular skills, background or cultural knowledge are required – just a willingness to talk. You may speak whatever languages you can. Your conversations will not be monitored in any way, and your identity will be kept completely anonymous.

The phone will be in operation during gallery hours. Over the course of the exhibition, you will likely encounter a variety of people and personalities. Based on previous presentations and the number of volunteers involved, you will likely receive no more than a few phone calls per day. The amount of time you end up devoting to any conversation depends completely upon your own schedule and inclination, and if sometimes you are unavailable, you should not feel obligated to answer the phone.

The project has been presented a number of times: in 2006 at ISEA (International Symposium of Electronic Arts) in San Jose and in a solo exhibition of my work at the Ottawa Art Gallery; and in 2007 at MKG127 Gallery in Toronto. You can read more about the project and those previous presentation on my website at www.germainekoh.com/call.html.)

To participate or if you have further questions, please email me at website@germainekoh.com or call Video Pool at (204) 949-9134. For more about my work in general you can visit my website, www.germainekoh.com.
















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Please post or pass on to anyone you know who might be interested. Thanks, Germaine

Rockstars & Wannabes

For Immediate Release…
September 20, 2007

Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery and Video Pool Media Arts Centre are proud to present the exhibition

Rockstars & Wannabes

Curated by Cathy Mattes, this exhibition features: Warren Arcand, Kevin Ei-Ichi deForest, Skawennati Fragnito, and Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay.

Dates: September 29 – November 10, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 29, 2007 @ 8 PM
Location: Urban Shaman Gallery – 203-290 McDermot Ave
Mediums: Video and Installation

With the emergence of MTV and Much Music in the early 1980s, a new form of escapism, and role play surfaced for young people. How youth connected with popular singers and bands changed drastically thanks to vee-jays spinning flashy music videos that provided visual narratives to follow along with popular music. In basements and bedrooms across the land, youth held brushes as microphones, envisioned themselves in music videos, and mimicked the music stars they admired…

Rockstars & Wannabes locates artists who examine the impact of the music industry on identity, using music videos, karaoke, and popular TV talent searches as catalysts. Music as an aid in escaping cross-cultural boundaries, the longing for validation or substance in one’s life, and the lengths some will go to locate and express their inner rock star is investigated.

Warren Arcand’s contribution to Rockstars & Wannabes is a video installation that explores “how youth turn to Rock music as a form of magical thinking, or who alternatively may be used by Rock to refresh and revitalize its own iconography. Within this exchange there are many hazards and casualties, not the least of which is boundary control.” – Warren Arcand.

Kevin Ei-Ichi deForest uses Karaoke to out existing stereotypes within popular music and explores the struggle to culturally fit in for those of mixed ancestry. By presenting imagery of Japanese music icons, cityscapes, and the impact of American pop-culture on Japanese youth, his video works expose how cultural perceptions are internalized, while simultaneously reminding viewers about the potential of music to bridge existing gaps.

Skawennati Fragnito locates like-minded adults who grew up in the '80s, and dreamt of being in music videos like those seen on Much Music and MTV. Her video work 80 Minutes,80 Movies, 80s Music, is an ongoing digital-video project which invites Generation X-ers from diverse cultural backgrounds, professions, and locations to live out their 80s rock star dreams in 80 second music videos created by Fragnito. New additions to 80 Minutes, 80 Movies, 80s Music will be featured in the exhibition.

Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay’s video and installation work provide a glimpse of his intimate relationship with certain pop music icons. History, sexuality and identity collide in Audition Tape, a musical monologue inspired by outtakes from American idol competitions. In Jimmy, a heraldic flag and documentation of a performative marathon honours Scottish gay pop hero Jimmy Somerville. Referencing a fan's obsessive sensibility, Jimmy explores the rewriting of narratives about who gets canonized and honoured in popular culture.

Rockstars & Wannabes Highlights:

* Join us at the free public opening reception on Saturday, September 29, 2007, which will include an '80s dance party after 10pm.
* Come to the curatorial talk/karaoke night at Urban Shaman – date TBA

With special thanks to our generous funders:













We wish to express additional gratitude to our friends, volunteers, community, and All Our Relations.

For more information please contact Milena Placentile at Video Pool @ (204) 949-9134 ext.1

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Sample Images - Click for larger versions. More coming soon!

Warren Arcand. Flamingo Killers.














Kevin Ei-ichi deForest. Foxy Lady, 2006.

Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay. Audition Tape.









Biographies

Warren Arcand lives and works in Vancouver, where his artistic output includes performance art, film and video, theatre and text based work. His past performance pieces include “Six Gun Sufi” (cowboy ballads and sexdeath mysticism); “Surgery” (hermaphrodism as a metaphor for Abo identity); and most recently “Superchannel” (audience members received wireless headsets giving them access to 7 channels of selectable audio with which they could mix their own ‘soundtrack’ for Warren’s simple performance task of ‘making eye contact’). He is currently teaching performance art at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.

Kevin Ei-ichi deForest is an internationally recognized visual artist whose practice focuses on the representation of cultural hybridity, specifically with reference to his Eurasian background. Born in Winnipeg, he was part of the fledgling punk rock scene there in the late 70s. In the spirit of his hybrid outlook, his multimedia practice includes painting, installation, video, sound art, and critical writing. He has exhibited nationally as well as in USA, Mexico, Holland, Germany, Italy and Japan. He recently returned to Manitoba as Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual and Aboriginal Art at Brandon University, Brandon Manitoba.

Skawennati Fragnito is an artist, independent curator, and occasional writer. In 1994, Skawennati co-founded Nation to Nation, a First Nations artist collective, whose exhibitions have included TattoNation and the very popular Native Love, which toured Canada. From 1996 to 2005, Skawennati was the director and primary curator for CyberPowWow, the pioneering Aboriginally-determined on-line gallery and chat space. Her most recent curatorial project is an on-line exhibition entitled Grrls, Chicks, Sisters & Squaws: Les citoyennes du cyberspace.

Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay is a Montréal-born artist working predominantly in video, text and sound. Since 2000 his work has brought together song, self-reflexive performance and lyrics from pop music as vehicles for examining the singing voice, the untranslatability of emotions into language and the ways in which emotional expression changes shape when mediated by technology and popular culture. Nemerofsky Ramsay's work has screened in festivals and galleries across Canada, Europe and East Asia and has won prizes at the Hamburg Short Film Festival, the Kasseler Dokumentarfilm- und Videofest and the Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (all in Germany), the Toronto Inside Out Film and Video Festival as well as First Prize at the Globalica Media Arts Biennale in Wroclaw, Poland. He currently divides his time between Canada and Europe.

Welcome to our new blog!

As always, Video Pool is up to a number of very fantastic things! We want you to have easy access to all the information you could possibly want, so we’ve decided to start this blog.

Beginning later today, you'll find news about upcoming exhibitions, events, talks, performances, opportunities, and even social occasions, since getting together, sharing ideas, and celebrating contemporary media art is an important part of what we do. On that note, we will soon begin posting images and other documentation relating to our programming, so even if you’re not in Winnipeg, you’ll still be able to access the excitement. Of course, developing an ongoing archive of activities is always a great idea, as well.

So come back soon, and be sure to visit often! We’ll be burning this feed as soon as possible, but another way to keep in the loop conveniently is to subscribe to this blog through an interface such as Google Reader. Just add http://videpool.blogspot.com and our news will come to you.

And don’t forget: this blog is intended to be completely interactive, so if you have something you want to say to us, and everyone else, please feel free to comment. We’ve set up this blog so you don’t need to be registered with Blogger -- just select anonymous, fill your comment into the field provided, and you’re done!

Coming up next, details about our next exhibition, Rockstars & Wannabes!