Staging the Gap

Robert Hengeveld's exhibition Staging the Gap was presented at Video Pool's studio (3rd Floor, 100 Arthur Street).

Winnipeg, MB (July 2, 2008) – Video Pool Media Arts Centre was pleased to present Staging the Gap, a provocative media installation by Toronto-based artist, Robert Hengeveld.

Staging the Gap is a miniature model of a concert stage with silently animated lights and smoke. The work explores the relationship of fact and fiction in a technologically mediated world. Hengeveld critically reflects on the mechanisms used to deliver popular culture by focusing on how visual effects – stage lights, pyrotechnics, and dry ice – are used at concerts to shape our understanding of what we hear. Ignoring society’s desire for the spectacle of performance, the stage created by the artist remains empty while a precisely orchestrated light show plays out.

Accompanying the miniature stage was a series of headphone each playing a different audio track specifically composed in response to the orchestrated light show. This inverted the traditional relationship of audio and visual experience in concert settings and addresses the role of audio in shaping our understanding of the world.

Hengeveld's model stage measured 2.5m2 to establish a scale at which viewers are encompassed by the work, yet still feel slightly detached. Hengeveld also coaxed audiences from their suspended disbelief into his alternate reality by offering a familiar space and encouraging them to relate in a familiar manner. This subtle slip from the norm created a situation that challenged preconceptions while fostering a reevaluation of our spatial environments and our positions within them.

This exhibition ran from July 29 – August 21, 2008 and was available weekdays from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Video Pool's Studio (100 Arthur Street, 3rd Floor).

The exhibition launch was on Friday, July 25
Artist talk began at 6:00 p.m. in Winnipeg Film Group's Studio; Reception
followed at Video Pool – both venues are on the 3rd floor at 100 Arthur Street.

ARTIST BIO:

Robert Hengeveld completed his MFA at the University of Victoria
in 2005 and received a Fine Arts Diploma and Certificate from Georgian
College, and an AOCAD from the Ontario College of Art and Design. He
has exhibited his work across Canada and internationally, and has
participated in artist residencies in both Canada and Scotland. He is
currently living and working in Toronto.

These exhibition is presented thanks to generous financial support from: