Donna Szoke

On display in Jazz Winnipeg’s Arthur St. window space (100 Arthur St.)

November 10 – December 8, 2006

MEET THE ARTIST
Artist’s Talk and Opening Reception
Friday, November 10, 2006
8 PM
Video Pool Studio (3rd Floor)
100 Arthur St. (Artspace)
Winnipeg, MB

Refreshments will be served

Reasonable & Senseless: The Technical Disaster is a multi-channel video installation presented on 20 tiny, four-inch monitors displayed in rows, on two shelves.  Historic footage depicting a famous disaster is displayed on each monitor, while one animated letter apears and disapears –superimposed as if writen in smoke – on top of each clip.   Seen together they spell out the words “reasonable & senseless.”

Of course the Hindengburg exploded.  How could it have done otherwise? With that much hydrogen, static electicity, idealism, promise, and live coverage, what else could have happened? – Donna Szoke

Donna Szoke looks back at catastrophes of the past and sees them, not as accidents, but as the culmination of human  desire and technological experimentation uncheked by ethics.  She makes use of historic footage – replayed and looped – to reveal an uneasy relationship between the horror and infatuation inspired by catastophic events.  Seen as a logical progression, disaster finds it’s
conclusion in documentation by the media.  The hypnotic images of spectacular disasters, created by media coverge, often produce a sense of wonder, obscuring from view the disaster’s causes.  Reality, is far less pictureque.  Logic, Szoke points out, when cut off from out hearts, is a dangerous tool.

Donna Szoke is originally from Winnipeg, and resides in Vancouver. She holds a BA, a BFA, and is currently an MFA candidate in the Interdisciplinary program at SFU. Her work investigates narrative, and the relationship between language, or absent language and the haptic reception of art. Her art practice includes video, installation, sculpture, and kinetics.  On occasion, she will curate and write as a means of visual / conceptual research. In 2004 she received a Media Arts Commissioning Grant (Canada Council) with the Orchid Ensemble band to create a responsive, immersive media environment for live performance.  Her video work screens internationally.