In celebration of Lights On Tampa, Wendy Babcox and Shawn Chetham independently curated a series of video installations throughout the channel district. The 10 video installations run through January 13th. Download Map
Site: The Florida Aquarium
Artist: Peter Segerstrom
Title: CADILLAC BEACH
Cadillac Beach is a public sound installation that investigates how cars physically and sonically occupy space. The work consists of several Cadillac Escalades parked in a public space. Audio recordings of whale-song are slowed down to approximate the bass of urban dance music. These field recordings play back through custom built sound systems designed for maximum bass response. The piece uses sound to recast parked cars as sonic objects. Composing music with whale sound for Escalades is a way to playfully conflate how the automobile occupies physical space and and the impact it has on the natural and urban environment.
Peter Segerstrom is a musician and visual artist living and working in New York. He received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. His work plays with the ignored and vacuous elements of the everyday. http://flatflat.org
Site: The Place
Artists: John Orth & Alan Calpe
As the collaborative, Wilderless, John Orth and Alan Calpe use their site’s proximity to the Tampa Port Authority as provocation. Their video deconstructs the pleasure cruise experience into a series of vignettes highlighting the signifiers of this journey. Broken champagne bottles, backstage preparations of sequinned performers, towering edible centerpieces (amongst other things) are re-imagined and taken out of context to reveal both their absurdity and inherent charm. Wilderless imposes its own fantasy onto the meticulously constructed fantasy that is the modern pleasure cruise.
John Orth splits his time between Gainesville, Florida, where he tends to a succulent garder and a band named Holopaw on the Subpop record label and Brooklyn, NY where he fleshes out his many creative projects. On any given day, his house is give over to various whittlings, delicate stippled drawings and stacks of song lyics scrawled on Steno pads. http://www.cindersgallery.com/johnorth/johnorth.html
Alan Calpe is a video artist living in Brooklyn, NY and Gainesville, Florida. His work combines digital and hand-oriented animation to emphasize the body’s presence (both materially and conceptually) in the creation of the fantastic. Narratives are propelled by disruptions into the imaginary, equating physical transformations to psychic negotiations with culture at play in queerness. Its performance is ambivalent, occupying desires for “fitting in” while suggesting its incompatibility. http://www.alancalpe.com/
Site: The Place
Artists: Yoko Nogami & Maria Saraceno
Title: Dreams: Untitled
We all have dreams. Whether it be a dream one dreams at night, day dreams,
dreams for the future. How do our dreams differ or are they so different from one
another? This project documents, interprets and presents the different faces of
our dreams. Some dreams inspire, some haunt and many guide the way people
construct their lives. Our sources are diverse, from our homeless population to
our affluent neighbors. Their identities remain anonymous.
The stories we collect are told visually through video footages and also in a
handwritten text. Stories differ in interpretation when they are presented in a
different manner. The different nuances of each medium open up the possibility
for more dialogue and interpretations from people of all ages. We want to hear &
share these stories.
The people we have encountered have shared with us many of their candid
stories in how their dreams shape their lives. Our project relies on process of
growth and change. As we exhibit, we urge our audience to reflect then share
their own stories in a form of a hand written note to be part of our exhibition. As
an ongoing project in different locations, we plan to create an independent
website which documents the dreams as handwritten text. http://www.yokonogami.com/
http://www.mariasaraceno.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJFPbNrnQso
Site: Alex Levy Building
Artist: Meg Mitchell
Meg Mitchell's video installation uses ostrich feathers as a projection screen for their own genetic code. Her work addresses the divide between different systems of representation, using a physical material as a vehicle for the conceptual description of itself.
Meg Mitchell creates work in diverse media from video, to performance, digital media and interactive installations. She uses humor to subvert modernist beliefs, and to play with the boundaries between the conceptual and the physical spaces her work occupies. Mitchell borrows from a diverse range of sources such as Greek drama, contemporary advertising, camp, cinema, art history, and media representations of technological progress. Her collaborative exhibition last year at the DC Art Center entitled "Ian and Jan: the Undiscovered Duo" was widely praised in the press including reviews in the Washington Post. She is currently a faculty member in the Department of Art at Florida State University. http://www.megmitchell.com
Site: Tampa Port Authority
Artist: Gregg Perkins
I will present an approximately seven minute video projection in one of the windows at the Port Authority that depicts animated images of a ship moving across the sea. The video will also include subtitles that narrate both the voyage across the sea, and the ship’s arrival in America. The text will be taken from accounts of Ponce de Leon, Hernando de Soto and other early travelers to the Tampa Bay area. The text will vividly describe the voyage, the traveler’s early thoughts upon arrival, and the dense vegetation of the bay area. The narrative will stop short of the moment when the voyagers make landfall, and will loop back to the beginning – where they are again traveling across the open ocean.
Site: Ventana
Artist: The Fluff Constructivists /Ethan Kruszka
Title: The Sea of Our Empty Hearts Here Manifest
The Sea of Our Empty Hearts Here Manifest is a site-specific video installation created for the Satellite exhibition. The work features a large window video projection of the interior of the vacant space in which it is to be installed. In the physical interior space behind the video projection on the ground is a large intermittently illuminated “T”-shaped object on the floor.
The work is an exercise in simple illusion. The work is also an illumination of fragility. The devices are obvious and yet subtle. The window becomes a trompe l’oeil video window, effectively heightening the oddity of the mundane tableau of absence (the vacant space). The object in its intermittent illumination becomes a visual fissure or crack in the video window signaling a fragility of illusion and an opening into the absence of the physical space. The “T”-object is both significant and meaningless in that it carries many associations: words beginning with the letter T (notably Turner {William}, Tampa, Torch, Theater, Team) minimalism, holiday decoration, advertisements and religious symbolism while being absent of any complete suggestion.
The work is a torch song, an elegy and a memorial. The work is a celebration and a party and the celebration of ending a party.
The Fluff Constructivists (St.Paul,MN/Tampa,FL/Nagano,JAPAN) work in a markedly diverse manner with an emphasis on quiet activism and public provocation with the intent of restoring the fragile yet transformational sheen of fiction in everyday life. http://www.thefluffconstruct.com/
Site: Grand Central
Artist: Mike Reynolds
In the midst of one of the largest recessions in history, money is on all of our minds. This work’s aim is to provide a series of solutions for what to do with our money after it has become completely worthless. The video projection will be centered on the formal elements of the movement and destruction of U.S. currency. Filmed in a non-linear manner, the 2 channel video projection will catalog the unique flight, folly, and fall of 100 one-dollar bills. The film will highlight 100 different methods to dispose of/reuse of a dollar bill, acting as instruction for all US citizens who will need new and creative ways to dispose of their money after it becomes completely worthless.
Mike Reynolds makes interdisciplinary work, often in the public eye, in the hopes of engaging people in a dialogue that is socially relevant and entertaining. He lives and works in Tampa, FL.
Site: Grand Central
Artist: Joe Griffith
Title: Thunderstorm Machines 1,2 and 3
The three sculptural objects that I propose are rarified embodiments of the natural processes present in the typical electrical storm. Great amounts of energy are unleashed every time such a storm occurs and in our geographical location this is not unusual. The installation therefore represents a common event with extraordinary implications, often overlooked because of the local frequency of such storms. The three anvil shaped sculptures will randomly flash and continuously pour out negative ions ( an often sited source of mental well being and cleanliness). These sculptures, hung in a darkened store front will be an exciting visual display for the passing observer and promote a pleasant mind set for those who linger.
Joe Griffith lives and works in Tampa, FL. He received his BFA from Parsons School of Design/ New School for Social Research in 1994. Since 1995, the artist has shown projects nationally and internationally at institutions including the Tampa Museum of Art, Diverseworks (Houston, TX), and Locust Projects (Miami, FL). In 1997, Griffith founded the research group and artist collective Experimental Skeleton, Inc. Projects with the group include stage props for the band The Genitortureres (Machine Love Tour of Japan) and the Lotus Fire Sculptures (2000-2001) commissioned by the City of St. Petersburg. In July 2005 Griffith founded Flight 19, an Experimental Skeleton project. Flight 19 is a curatorial laboratory in partnership with the city of Tampa which has gained a reputation for cutting edge exhibitions and collaborative framework. Currently, the artist is researching the migratory patterns of turkey vultures to propose a monumental sculpture/roost for the City of Tampa. http://www.cryptovisual.com/
Site: Grand Central
Artist: Wesley Wetherington
Title: A Song from the Everyday
A Song from the Everyday is an existing work from his Zoetrope series. Developed in 2008, this piece repetitively glitches its way to a gestural stopping point- breaking up and transforming the narrative thread of its original source such that it becomes a meditation on the recursion of everyday life.
Wesley Wetherington is an emerging Video artist known for his work dealing with the structural re-arrangement of both time, space and gesture. His work is indicative of current trends in New Media including the involvement of non-linear editing and a general proclivity towards working with the aesthetics of post-production. While often drawing comparisons with such influences as the video artist Paul Pfeiffer and the pre-eminent American composer Steve Reich, Wetherington seeks to break new ground, taking the repetitive, rhythmic loops typical of both Pfeiffer and Reich and transforming them into a larger scheme. Dealing with both the residual effect of film convention and the traumatic staccato of short gestural loops, Wetherington creates a new composite whole from sources that are
not the least bit random but are, in fact, entirely intentional. While perhaps pawing at the now somewhat static notion of appropriation, Wetherington develops his pieces as something other then dry, self-referential critique in favor of a new, embodied gestalt.
A Song for the Everyday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73iGe85br8A
Site: The Towers
Artist: Anat Pollack & Robb Fladry
Title: The Artist
A larger than life projection of the hands honors the manual trade of the original citizens of the city of Tampa. The repeating of the hand rolling cigars mimics the amount of cigars each "artist" completed on a daily basis. The audio of the voice as “El Lector” reveals the curiosity, intelligence and engagement of the Cuban, Italian and American workers.
Anat Pollack is Professor of Digital Video and Electronic Arts at the University of South Florida. Anat Pollack is an installation artist living in Tampa, Florida USA. She is interested in interactivity through real-time digital processing in the installation setting. Combining old technologies with new, she is interested in engaging memory/nostalgia with the present.Time in relation to memory is a constant theme in her research as she works to simulate the human experience using digital and mechanical systems. She is specifically interested in the way that our memory functions, and the difference between human and machine information processing. Recent shows include the NewMediaFest 2007, Cinematheque, Cologne/Germany, directed and curated by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne; New Forms Festival, Vancouver British Columbia, Canada; Data Poesis, Snow Mass Colorado; The Bridge Art Fair at Miami Art Basel; M.I.A.D Venado Tuerto 2006 Muestra Internacional de Arte Digital, Argentina; SPARK Festival, Weissman Art Museum, in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Showtel in Palm Beach, Florida; the VII Salon de Arte Digital, at the Centro Pablo de la Torriente Brau, Havana, Cuba and RSVP Words, Images, and the Framing of Social Reality Conference, New School, Manhattan, NY. http://www.anatpollack.net
Robb Fladry is a new media artist working with video and sound in a variety of ways, including installation, performance and live improvisation. Fladry has been called “one of the most prominent up and coming artists coming out of the Tennessee area,” and his work was recently featured in the Frist Center for the Visual Arts exhibit Future/Now in Nashville. His video work has been included in the Perpetual Art Machine in New York City, the BEA Festival for Media Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada, FILE: Rio in Sao Paulo, Brazil and the Digital Fringe Festival in Melbourne, Australia. Fladry holds a BFA in Studio Arts from Austin Peay State University, and a MA in Communication Arts/Theatre from the same institution. Fladry performs in the VJ duo [ fladry + jones ] <http://fladryplusjones.info/> with Barry R. Jones and the audio/video experiment Synesthesia <http://synesthesialive.com/> with Aaron Hutcheson. Robb currently resides in Tampa, Florida with his wife Shelley and their cat named Trinket. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Electronic Media at the University of South Florida.
