Black Magic – Karen Asher

Mediations: Media Arts Residency 2018-19 exhibit

Throughout the past year, Karen Asher, Valérie Chartrand, Daniel Shane and Davis Plett have been both expanding on-going personal projects as well as creating new work while participating in Video Pool’s Media Arts Residency program. While approaching their work from disparate origins and aesthetics, these four fabulous artists have found common ground in using technology as a mediating factor in further exploring and understanding the environment and ecology, issues around the fabricated reality / dis-reality as seen through data and the body as centered between the dream world of memory and that of the document.
Ken Gregory – I Remember Falling

Ken Gregory – I Remember Falling

A Greek myth, a contemporary sound artist and a blacksmith walk into a bar. Driven by an ever deepening curiosity, artist and novice blacksmith Ken Gregory reaches into the past to explore the story of the birth of Hephaetus and how it relates to our contemporary society. Using blacksmithing traditions as a foundation for creating an immersive soundscape, Gregory examines how contemporary society has given short shrift to those whose bodies and/or minds don’t fit in to what is considered normal.
Reva Stone – Portal Revisited 2019

Reva Stone – Portal Revisited 2019

Portal Revisited 2019 is a revision of a responsive installation work that was begun in 1999 but wasn’t completed until this year. It uses iPhone 4’s to investigate how networked devices for human communication have dramatically transformed the intersections between our bodies, our consciousness and our machines. The phones are programmed to perform a series of specific behaviours that give them the appearance of sentience.
Helga Jackobson: Shimmer

Helga Jakobson: Shimmer

Queer ecology calls us to reimagine many ways of being and acting, from self expression to defence. An example of this is looking at how some bee colonies in their swarm formation collectivize and defend in a wave-like action which is sometimes referred to as shimmering. Through movements that demonstrate solidarity and strength, the community works together in a stunningly visual display that protects and asserts presence.
Erkia Lincoln: Fugue state

Erika Lincoln

In 2016, the Japanese satellite Hitomi-ASTRO-H spun out of orbit and broke up. The cause of the accident was ascribed to both software and human error. In reading multiple reports on this event, Lincoln was interested in the anthropomorphic language used to describe the satellite’s behaviour just before the breakup. Lincoln began to explore this assigned agency by speculating on what Hitomi’s “state of mind” would be from dealing with the conflicting error messages. The result is an installation of two sculptural works, Aerial Effusions and Hitomi, in a conversation.
Colby Richardson, 2019 Fund recipient

Scott Leroux Fund 2019 recipient Colby Richardson

It is our pleasure to announce Colby Richardson as the 2019 recipient of the Scott Leroux Fund for Media Arts Exploration. Colby will inhabit Poolside Gallery for the month of March and has some ambitious plans for our legacy video equipment that has been faithfully stored and maintained over the years. In addition to employing use of this equipment to develop new work, Colby will host a number of open-studio days and a presentation on the First Friday of April.
Jackie Huskisson / Artist in Residence / Scott Leroux Fund

Jackie Huskisson / Artist in Residence / Scott Leroux Fund

Calgary multi-disciplinary artist Jackie Huskisson, recipient of the inaugural Scott Leroux Fund for Media Arts Exploration is the artist-in-residence for the month of March 2018. Jackie is occupying Poolside Gallery and developing sculptural forms which she is animating via projection-mapping. Her work delves into the psyche through the development of at-times surrealist characters isolated in space. As part of the Fund, we will be holding open houses each Friday throughout March, 1-5 pm in Poolside.