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"Bits and Pieces" at Hyde Park Art Center curated by LiveBox

Exhibition and Screening at

Hyde Park Art Center

exhibition March 15 - April 12

lecture and screening April 2nd, 6PM

Hyde Park Art Center
5020 S. Cornell Avenue
Chicago, IL 60615

“Lilly”, 6:30 min, 2007, Jodie Mack

"Bits and Pieces" coincides and celebrates Mary Lou Zelazny's retrospective at the HPAC. LiveBox is pleased to announce that a collaboration between the HPAC and Around the Coyote will also bring "Bits and Pieces" to the ATC Gallery. Exhibition dates for HPAC and ATC to follow.

Collage never completes the story; instead it leaves openings for multiple interpretations. Mary Lou Zelazny

The principle of collage is the central principle of all art in the 20th century in all media. Donald Barthelme

The use of appropriated materials and collage is so widely used today that we are unaware of its dissemination in every aspect of society. Everyday we are bombarded by sounds, images, ideas and communications on the web. We are not only overwhelmed by this fragmentation, we create our own realities from it and contribute to the phenomenon through our own interactions on line.

The first techniques of collage have a long history, appearing in China with the invention of paper around 200BC. A break from the use of collage as a decorative method to a conceptual tool came in the early days of modernism. Picasso and Braque, the Dada artists, Duchamp, the surrealists, Rauschenberg, the fluxists, and Pop Artists, are just a few of the artists and movements which brought collage into the lexicon of American culture. The concepts of collage are integral, not only to the visual arts, but to all contemporary art mediums, including film, music, architecture, theater, performance art, and dance. Within Pop Culture, “cultural collage” can be evidenced in the lyrics and riffs of hip-hop and rap music, or the remixes of films and other media found on YouTube.

One could simplify much of video art today as a collage of images, sound and time. Furthermore, the abundance of editing tools available to artists creates a seductive pull to fragment images and sounds hoping to escape convention. The artists participating in “Bits and Pieces” use the technical tools in a liberating dance, avoiding redundancy and mediocrity by creating fresh formal and conceptual visions. Participating artists: Gregg Biermann, Sean Capone, Valerie George, Henry Gwiazda, Ellen Lake, Jodie Mack, Ruth Pringle, Michael Szpakowski, and the ManosBuckius Cooperative.

Program:

“Orpheus”, 1:56 min, 2005, Michael Szpakowski, from a series of dream diaries. Szpakowski deploys simple drawings and collaged objects to “record” moving dreams, creating an on-going journal. www.somedancersandmusicians.com/vlog/ScenesOfProvincialLife.cgi

“Lake”, 2:12 min, 2006/7, Sean Capone, an experimental sketchbook, created using imagery shot solely with a cell phone camera, and edited in collaboration with audio artist Caural (Zach Mastoon). The piece references the Surrealists’ method “derive” used to create abstract mappings of city areas by random urban wondering. In this case the psycho-geographical traces were recorded by a cell-phone camera and manipulated by a laptop computer wondering. In this case the psycho-geographical traces were recorded by a cell-phone camera and manipulated by a laptop computer. www.thesupernature.com/specialprojects.html

“Happy Again “, 5:00 min, 2006, Gregg Biermann, the signature scene from the Hollywood musical "Singing' in the Rain" is split into seven layers. Each layer is moving at a different speed and is visible equally in superimposition. At the temporally central point all visual and audio elements coalesce in a single frame. The result uncovers a new cinema, music and dance that are buried within the familiar iconic sequence. uncovers a new cinema, music and dance that are buried within the familiar iconic sequence. www.greggbiermann.com/

The MBC @ The Gallery”, 13:00 min, 2007, ManosBuckius cooperative, the piece considers modes of exhibition (specifically the pedestal), traditional standards of exhibiting art, and the implied conformism of such standards. In video performance, the MBC appropriates pedestals, transforming them into cohorts in a series of video studies focusing on spontaneous movement, primary color, organic and inorganic shapes, and the relationship between the animate and the inanimate. Each video work became part of a larger video “quilt” of simultaneous, yet independent parts - a colorful, ecstatic display of patterned chaos. http://playgallery.org/videos/editor-picks/256/

“Watch us go”, 4:06 min, 2008, Valerie George, filmed in front of the Mission District Police Station in San Francisco under the department’s surveillance cameras. Valerie George’s work observes social cultural phenomenon where public and private spaces converge. www.valeriegeorgeart.com

“Lost Gas Station”, 8:14 min, 2006, Ruth Pringle, was first a public art installation in Illinois which was edited into a film. The artist discovered the lost gas station as a photograph in a junk store. The piece collages images of the station with recordings of individuals answering an ad about the gas station. www.ruthpringle.com/

“hanging……words”, 6:35 min, 2004, Henry Gwiazda, explores video and spoken word relationships. The artist collages both the sound and image components of the piece and then juxtapositions these fragments to create fresh impressions and suggestions. http://gwiazda.u4eassp.com/?cat=15

“Downtown”, 1 min, 2008,
“Let’s not keep score”, 1 min, 2008, Ellen Lake, two shorts from a series combining 16 mm home movies from the 1930s and 40s with cell phone and digital media today. Lake uses film and video, past and present, to investigate ideas about personal diary, collective memory, nostalgia, time, technology, preservation, and the place where private and public experiences converge. www.ellenlake.com/

“Lilly”, 6:30 min, 2007, Jodie Mack, 16mm, film negatives and animation tell the tale a WWII tragedy. An explosive collage of images and sound, and voice that compels the viewer to discover the story. http://flavorpill.com/covers/yard-work-is-hard-work

 

 

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