January 6, 2010 - 3:18am
The Nanaimo Art Gallery at Vancouver Island University has something special in store for art lovers – the first video art show series.
Two shows in the campus gallery of the Nanaimo Art Gallery (900 Fifth Street) open Friday. A third show at the gallery’s downtown location on Commercial Drive opens Thurs., Jan. 14.
The show on Nanaimo Art Gallery’s upper floor features the video art work of Judie Price, Fahreen Haq, John G. Boehme, and Jerone Witvlit, all Vancouver Island artists. The show is curated by Grace Salez.
“This is a chance for the public to see how artists from our local island community use their bodies and surroundings to create art without the usual tools of art making,” said Nanaimo Art Gallery curator Fran Benton.
“The video art show concept is something new I came up with because I wanted to create a set of shows that use all the gallery spaces demonstrating an art form we do not often see. It’s designed to appeal to folks at the time of year our interests turn to watching movies and being inside.”
Video art is not film. It is art work that can only be expressed by using the tools that video involves.
“For example, I might want to create a landscape but I do not want to paint it or draw it,” explained Benton. “A way to create that landscape might be to use a video camera to record aspects of nature and then alter that recorded information in some way (often by editing it) to create a work of art about the landscape. This work would then be shown projected on the wall of the gallery or be screened on a TV.”
“The work does not have a narrative structure (storyline) and is free to explore visually the ideas that concern artists. Students and the public will particularly like the installation in the lower gallery where the viewer is taken on a relaxing trip to another planet with a white rabbit as a companion. This piece by Brian MacDonald of Victoria is wildly innovative with some very unusual components to the installation.”
The eclectic show at the downtown gallery features Datastreams 3, the work of a group of instructors, students, and staff associated with new media, media studies, and video at VIU.
“The video art show makes a broad statement,” said Benton. “It's important because all the artists are Vancouver Island artists, and video art is something we do not see often enough in the gallery.”
The shows at the Nanaimo Art Gallery (900 Fifth Street) at VIU open Friday, Jan. 8 from 5 to 7 pm. The show at the gallery downtown on Commercial Drive opens Thursday., Jan. 14 from 4 to 6 pm.
Tags: In the Community
