Sunday, February 12, 2012

Exhibition closing event St Brigid's Art Center- Ottawa Febuary 17th 2012


Anne Katrine Senstad: On Kinesthesia for Saint Brigid

In the following excerpt, Norwegian artist Anne Katrine Senstad provides us with the history and conceptual origins of her site-specific installation, Kinesthesia for Saint Brigid.  Senstad’s stunning piece will be on view February 15th, between 5-8pm and finally, as part of thePreternatural Closing Event on Friday February 17th5-8pm at St. Brigid’s Centre for the Arts. Anne will give a talk at 6pm on the 17th and artists Andrew Wright, Marie-Jeanne Musiol and Adrian Gollner will also be present to take questions from the audience.

Installation view: Kinesthesia for Saint Brigid, St Brigid’s Center for the Arts, Ottawa, 2011-12. Single projection, video, sound. Music by JG Thirlwell.
In dialogue with the deconsecrated church St Brigid’s, the site, sound and time-specific installation Kinesthesia for Saint Brigid creates an environment of projected colors and sound engulfing the church organ, Romanesque  columns and vaulting, in the architectural space.
The video piece Kinesthesia for Saint Brigid consisting of ever changing colors and the beautifully haunting sound composition by JG Thirlwell, enveloping the interior experience by transformations and references to the transcendental in art; that which cannot be described other than through one’s own experience. As the title refers to the condition of kinesthesia; the awareness of one’s own movement, we think of the transitional nature of the projected colors onto the space, transforming the space itself into variations of depth, lightness, shapes, a juxtaposition of the sensorial phenomena of light and color  – an artificial transformation of space and time.
The poetry and polysemy of the site-specific projection brings the viewer into the authenticity of the church’s architecture. We are brought into an experience of the internal, the meditative and physically engulfing visions of pure color and sound. The kinesthesia of this dialogue, a constant movement and transportation of light through space – continues to change the church interior through time and as viewers engage with their presence.

Installation view: Kinesthesia for Saint Brigid, St Brigid’s Center for the Arts, Ottawa, 2011-12. Single projection, video, sound. Music by JG Thirlwell.
In the tradition of minimal light, space and time art, the video and sound projection installation is about creating life in a space by inserting colors, sound and light. A dissemination through the aesthetics and phenomena of the perceptive and retinal. In an attempt to understand and translate the experience of the video projection installation, it can be related to Dan Flavin’s church installation in Italy consisting of fluorescent light tubes in green, pink, gold and ultraviolet, where the statement of creating ‘living space’ in the church and merging with the architecture is key to perceiving the work.
Don Giulio Greco, priest of the Red Church (Chiesa Rossa) in Milano wrote to Flavin in May 1996 : “I’d be delighted if someone like you could help us to find an ambiance in our church. By ‘ambiance,’ I mean a living space, a place inhabited by the Word”.
Other early light and space artists that can resonate in language and objective to the video projection installation at St Brigid’s Center for the Arts, are artists such as James Turell, Douglas Wheeler and Robert Irwin amongst others, who relate the sensorial experiences of space with immersive environments, directing the flow of natural light, embedding artificial light within objects or architecture, or by playing with light through the use of transparent, translucent or reflective materials.
The transformative is a vehicle to the artwork and perceptive experience.
By inserting The Word in Don Giulio Greco’s letter to Flavin, we are reminded of the original usage of the space, here a non-de-consecrated church, a church dedicated to devotion and the spiritual. St Brigid’s center for the Arts is devoted to the arts, be it performance, installation, sound or the visual arts and is a former church, de-consecrated. The purity of site-specific work based around color, light and sound in the tradition of the light and space artists, merges the elements of art for art’s sake and restores a sense of experiential states of being; awareness and the perceptive, which is in direct dialogue with the original use of the church. The bridge between historic content, time, and space.
The installation Kinesthesia for Saint Brigid is the third projection installation in the series. The two first projection exhibitions took place in Buenos Aires in September 2011 at ThisIsNotAGallery with the solo exhibition, The Infinity of Colour, and in Norway in October 2011 at Utsikten Kunstsenter, also a solo show, entitled Kinesthesia in Kvinesdal. The exhibition Kinesthesia for Saint Brigid at St Brigid’s Center for the Arts in Ottawa marks the cornerstone for the trilogy. All installations have been unique and variable in execution with multiple projectors, 4 channel surround sound, fabrics, wind machines and video sequences projected.  All music for the installations has been composed, performed and produced by JG Thirlwell. ( www.foetus.org)

Installation view: Kinesthesia in Kvinesdal. Utsikten kunstsenter, Norway. 2011.  Multiple projectors, surround sound, wind machine, fabric. Music by JG Thirlwell.


Installation view: Kinesthesia in Kvinesdal. Utsikten kunstsenter, Norway. 2011.  Multiple projectors, surround sound, wind machine, fabric. Music by JG Thirlwell.

Installation view: The Infinity of Colour. ThisIsNotAGallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2011. Multiple projectors, surround sound, fabric. Music by JG Thirlwell.

Installation view: The Infinity of Colour. ThisIsNotAGallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2011.  Multiple projectors, surround sound, fabric. Music by JG Thirlwell.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Exhibition opening - Kinesthesia for Saint Brigid - A Site-Specific installation




PRETERNATURAL PRESENTS

Kinesthesia for Saint Brigid
By Anne Katrine Senstad

Music by JG Thirlwell

Curated by Celina Jeffery

Jan. 29th  – Feb 17th 2012 , 4-7 pm

St Brigid’s Centre for the Arts
310 St. Patrick Street

Ottawa ON K1N 5K5

Canada




Anne Katrine Senstadʼs site-specific video and sound projection installation Kinesthesia for Saint Brigid examines the phenomenology of light, color, sound, ocular perceptionsand spatial relations in dialogue with the deconsecrated church, St Brigid in Ottawa, Canada.The installation piece is meditative, pulsating and hypnotic in its investigation of the sensorial andexperiential.As such, Thirlwellʼs score corresponds with the journey of pure light and color projections andfrequential wavelengths in the former cathedral space. Thirlwellʼs composition careens betweensoft plucked interludes to musiq concrete visions to cinematic mind fields, with a meticulous marriage of samples and live instruments, distressed sounds of mysterious unknown quantities.


Exhibition catalogue published by Punctum books, Brooklyn, NY


Contact: info@preternatural.ca

For further information please visit www.preternatural.ca

With Generous support from:

The Royal Norwegian Embassy Ottawa
St Brigid's Center for the Arts
The Canadian Museum of Nature
Canadian Arts Council
University of Ottawa
















Thursday, December 15, 2011

Grand opening of The Wolfe Center for the Arts at BGSU with Public Art Commission THE ETERNAL



Grand openining of The Wolfe Center for the Arts at BGSU, Ohio December 9th 2011. Unveiling of public art commission for the lobby wall entitled The Eternal - funded by Ohio State Arts Council, Percent for the Arts Program.


BGSU mens choir perform at the grand opening






With Craig Dykers and Elaine Molinar from Snøhetta Architects NYC who designed the Wolfe Center for the Arts.


External view of lobby entrance with view of lobby art work

Sunday, December 4, 2011

THE ETERNAL - Lobby art for the Wolfe Center at BGSU, Ohio






Public Art Commission for The Wolfe Center for the Arts at BGSU in Ohio. Art work title is:  The Eternal. Size 28x86 ft and consists of 39 photographic pieces, aluminum and plexiglas. The Building is designed by award winning architectural firm Snøhetta.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid

Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid - International film and video festival
The Locker Plant Projections - w music by JG Thirlwell. 

8.20 min. single channel video,stereo version, 2011 - The Locker Plant Projections will be screened :
Saturday, November 19 - 4 pm



Centre Pompidou, Cinéma 2
Place Georges Pompidou - 75004 Paris
Rencontres Internationales will take place in Paris from November 18 to 26, at Centre Pompidou and Gaîté Lyrique. 









CENTRE POMPIDOU
Place Georges Pompidou - 75004 Paris
Subway: Hôtel de Ville, Rambuteau, Les-Halles



Program Saturday November 19th:


[SCREENING] 
16:00 | CINEMA 2

HYPERCINEMA

Anne Katrine SENSTAD : The Locker Plant Projections| Experimental video| hdv| couleur| 00:08:21 | Norvège / USA| 2011 [+]
Fred WORDEN : Possessed| Film exp.| hdv| noir et blanc| 00:09:20 | USA | 2010 [+]
Norbert PFAFFENBICHLER : Conference (Notes on film 5)| Film exp.| hdv| noir et blanc| 00:08:00 | Autriche | 2011 [+]
Georg TILLER : Vargtimmen - Nach einer Szene von Ingmar Bergman / Vargtimmen - After a Scene by Ingmar Bergman| Film exp.| 16mm, hdcam| noir et blanc| 00:06:20 | Autriche | 2010 [+]
Volker SCHREINER : Pair of| Film exp.| betaSP| noir et blanc| 00:04:38 | Allemagne | 2011 [+]
Eli CORTIÑAS HIDALGO : Confessions with an open curtain| Vidéo| hdv| couleur| 00:05:25 | Espagne / Allemagne| 2011 [+]
Max Philipp SCHMID : Das Gespenst des Glücks, the ghost of hapiness| Vidéo| hdv| couleur| 00:10:20 | Suisse | 2011 [+]
Gregg BIERMANN : Labyrinthine| vidéo| dv| couleur| 00:14:40 | USA | 2010 [+]
Keith SANBORN : Oh, David, you know what colors I like| Vidéo| hdv| couleur et n&b| 00:01:37 | USA | 2011 [+]






The Sugarcane Labyrinth Film

The Sugarcane Labyrinth will premier as part of the exhibition Preternatural, curated by Celina Jefferey at The Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. December 9, 2011, to February 12, 2012.



Exhibition catalogue is available for purchase from Puntum Books December 2011.





The Sugarcane Labyrinth by Anne Katrine Senstad

Soundtrack composed and performed by JG Thirwell as both 4:1 surround sound and stereo versions. 


A short film about the making and experience of The Sugarcane Labyrinth located in Theriot, Louisiana. The Sugarcane Labyrinth is a 1,4 acre Time, Site and Process specific Agricultural Land Practice piece created through 2009. The piece was made in collaboration with sugarcane farmer Ronnie Waguespack, Triple K & M Farms - Thibodaux and agricultural economist Alexandre Vialou.


11.22 min
HD Video


Funded by : Norwegian Visual Artists Remuneration Fund/Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond 
©annekatrinesenstad 2011


Preternatural

Curated by Celina Jeffery
Dec. 9th, 2011 to Feb. 17th, 2012, Ottawa, Ontario

The Museum of Nature:
9th Dec., 2011 to 12th Feb., 2012
Marie-Jeanne Musiol, Mariele Neudecker, Anne Katrine Senstad, Sarah Walko and Andrew Wright

St. Brigid’s Centre for the Arts:
Adrian Göllner, 10th-17th Dec., 2011
Avantika Bawa, 7th-19th Jan., 2012
Anne Katrine Senstad, 29th Jan. – 17th Feb. 2012

Patrick Mikhail Gallery:
Shin Il Kim, 4th Jan. – 7th Feb., 2012


The natural, unnatural and supernatural collide in an exhibition of contemporary art that will be launched at the Canadian Museum of Nature on 9 December. Preternatural will span three venues over three months and include artists from Ottawa, Hull, UK/Germany, USA, Norway, India and Korea.

Une série d’expositions qui prend pour objet l’en delà du monde naturel sera inaugurée le 9 décembre 2011 au Musée canadien de la nature à Ottawa. Préternaturel se déploiera dans trois lieux en plusieurs temps et présentera des artistes d’Ottawa, de Gatineau, du Royaume-Uni/Allemagne, des États-Unis, de la Norvège, de l’Inde et de la Corée.



Talks and Catalogue:

Talks with the artists and curator Celina Jeffery are planned throughout the course of the exhibition, full details will be available from the website www.preternatural.ca.

An accompanying catalogue will be published by publisher punctum books and will feature essays by curator Dr. Celina Jeffery and philosopher Levi R. Bryant.

Des discussions avec les artistes et la commissaire sont prévues pendant la durée de l’événement et les détails seront affichés sur le site web www.preternatural.ca. Le catalogue de l'exposition sera publié sur demande par l’éditeur punctum (punctumbooks.com) et comprendra des textes de la commissaire Dr. Celina Jeffery et du philosophe Levi R. Bryant

Friday, October 21, 2011

Exhibition Catalogue : Preternatural

Punctum Bookspunctum books ● brooklyn, ny

Preternatural


The preternatural, as explored by these artists, disturb the ontological boundaries of art, nature and metaphysics. They exist within the folds of classificatory thresholds: both beyond and between nature and supernature; human and animal; vegetable and mineral; living and dead. The confusion between animate and inanimate is a primary concern, a surreality which unites with the preternatural’s love for reveling in the mysterious: bizarre fragments, unreadable words, objects of absurd scale, and distortions of the relativity of time and space flourish throughout this exhibition.
Preternatural is the catalogue for a multi-site art exhibition (9 December through 17 February, 2011, in Ottawa, Canada) that draws from the idea that art itself is a form of preternatural pursuit, in which the artists participating explore the bewildering condition of being in between the mundane and the marvelous in nature. It questions a world that understands itself as accessible, reachable, and ‘knowable’ and counters it with a consideration of this heterogenous proposition.
At St. Brigid’s, a deconsecrated church Adrian Göllner (Canada), Avantika Bawa (India/USA) and Anne Katrine Senstad (Norway) explore the preternatural as a phenomenological condition through the investigation and exploration of perceptual illusions, the appearance of apparitions, and synaesthetic effects. In Adrian Göllner’s site-specific installation, puffs of white smoke appear and then dissipate in time with Handel’s Messiah from the ornate vaulted ceiling, gesturing at an ethereal presence. Avantika Bawa seeks to subvert, tease and create a play of artifice in an otherwise unique and extraordinary place with her interventions that involve the placement of yellow plastic wrapping along the pews, a yellow ramp on the altar, and the playing of the musical key of ‘e’ from a ‘boom box.’ Anne Katrine Senstad further investigates the tradition of mystical melody with The Kinesthesia of Saint Brigid, a video projection which frames the organ at the rear of the church.
At the Canadian Museum of Nature, there is both reverence and mystery in Mariele Neudecker’s (UK/Germany) works which capture, invert, and re-make nature. Informing Neudecker’s work is the preternatural’s ability to subvert the logic of that which is both strange and familiar, a condition which is shared by Andrew Wright (Canada), who addresses the landscape of the Arctic as a heterotopic space that is disorienting, bewildering, and curious. Marie-Jeanne Musiol’s (Quebec, Canada) electromagnetic photographic technique is used to create a herbarium, in which spectral images reveal microcosmic concerns through tiny particles of light that emanate through the darkness. Sarah Walko’s (USA) It is least what one ever sees is a highly intricate installation that comprises many hundreds if not thousands of tiny, disparate sculptural and live objects that seek to exist outside of ‘natural’ logic. In The Sugarcane Labyrinth, a video by Anne Katrine Senstad (Norway), we encounter the making of a labyrinth on a farm in Theriot, Louisiana, USA which engages with local farming strategies in an act of sustainability, recovery, and rejuvenation. Lastly, Shin Il Kim’s (Korea/USA) work at the Patrick Mikhail Gallery bridges the spectral inquiry at St. Brigid’s and the subversions of the natural world at the Museum of Nature exhibit.
This exhibition retains the preternatural’s engagement with prodigies: the exceptional and wonderful in the context of the natural, while acknowledging its critical unravelling of nature as art and art as nature.  As such, it accepts the bizarre and incongruous nature of its etymology, in which art, nature, and comprehension collide and asks: what may be the experience of the preternatural in contemporary art?
The catalogue includes a Foreword and an Introduction, “Beyond Nature,” by Celina Jeffery, as well as an essay by Levi R. Bryant, “Wilderness Ontology.”
FORTHCOMING in December 2011.
Celina Jeffery is an art historian, curator and educator. She received a Ph.D. in Art History and Theory from the University of Essex (2002), is Associate Professor of Art History and Theory, and the Chair of the Visual Arts program at the University of Ottawa. She is the co-editor (with Gregory Minissale) of Global and Local Art Histories (2007) and the co-founder and editor of Drain Magazine: A Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture (2004-present). She has curated more than fifteen international exhibitions, including: Lines of Flight, at Hunter College, NYC, 2007; Afterglow (featuring Ghada Amer, Alfredo Jaar and Bill Viola, among others) in Lacoste, France, 2007; Wangechi Mutu: The Cinderella Curseat the ACA Gallery, Georgia, USA,; and Hold On, co-curated with Avantika Bawa at Gallery Maskara, Mumbai. Her research interests include globalization, navigation and cartographies, the ‘spiritual’ experience in art, and the history and practice of curating. She is currently compiling the edited anthology The Artist as Curator, to be published by Intellect.