Scott Leroux Fund for Media Arts Exploration
2020 recipient Chukwudubem Ukaigwe
In conjunction with the SLFME, the Winnipeg Film Group and VP Media Arts are co-presenting an online screening of Chukwudubem’s film How High is the Moon through December 22, details below.
Way back in March we announced Chukwudubem Ukaigwe as the 2020 recipient of the Scott Leroux Fund for Media Arts Exploration and that he would take over Poolside Gallery for the month of May. Covid-induced restrictions meant altering the plan and the residency will take place in November and into December with some amendments to the original public-presentation part of the program. As guidelines around public access are changing frequently, some of these may or may not be possible as we move along. Please stay tuned to our channels for updates on seeing the work or other artist-public events.
This annual fund / residency program commemorates the vibrancy that beloved artist Scott Leroux brought to his art. Scott took a unique approach to his multi-faceted works, often bringing a wide variety of artists together under singular projects and could be considered a social artist. Chukwudubem’s iteration of this program will undoubtedly draw parallels to this.
Chukwudubem will undertake his VP residency as a research project. The filmmaker is going to continue to explore + visual-to-auditory + associations and vice versa; by means of merging, tearing apart, isolation, probability, dialogue, echo, media overlap, and interpolation. This media exploration residency will be an opportunity for the Nigerian artist to further research the sonic implications of space – How architecture, materiality, and positioning influences sound, and how these factors could alter or shape visual perceptions of entrapped light (video, photographs). His goal is to insert multiple takes of various narratives or subjects into this research, to discover new languages for specific expressions, and also to contemplate the effect these expressions convey when encountered. Chukwudubem is going to swing to and fro between intuitive and well scripted methodologies.
Artist Bio
Chukwudubem Ukaigwe is a Nigerian born song, dispersed by a transient Atlantic breeze, currently passing through Treaty 1 Territory, so called Canada. He consciously uses a variety of mediums to relay a plurality of ideas at any given time. He views his art practice as a conversation, or a portal into one, and in some instances, as an interpretation of this ongoing exchange. Chukwudubem weighs an occurrence, feeling, or idea on a scale and then creates a narrative in his own language. Chukwudubem operates as an interdisciplinary artist, curator, writer, and cultural worker. Chukwudubem Ukaigwe is the founder of Patterns Collective.
Screening: How High is the Moon
Co-presented with Winnipeg Film Group and in conjunction with Chukwudubem Ukaigwe’s residency at Video Pool, How High is the Moon is the first feature length film from the artist. It screens on-demand at WFG’s CINEMATHEQUE AT HOME.
VIDEO POOL MEMBERS RECEIVE 50% OFF RENTAL FEE. Follow HERE to access.
How High is the Moon analyzes Black civil rights in the ghost of ontology. Filmmaker Chukwudubem Ukaigwe takes an anthropological approach in mapping Pan-African Black resistance, drawing and analyzing parallels between history and present realities, and also speculating future relationships between race, class, and ideological groupings. Music is the bed rock and spine of this film; shaping the narrative, and creating push and pulls, therefore building a progression of tension throughout the film. The film is composed of manipulated videos from archival sources, which are tailored gently with scripted roles/ filmed scenes that were written and directed by the artist.
For more on the film or to watch the trailer and full version, please visit Winnipeg Film Group HERE