Multimedia artist David Rokeby represents Canada at the 26th Sao Paulo Bienal Internacional
Canadian artist David Rokeby will be representing Canada at the 26th Sao Paulo Bienal which takes place from September 25th – December 19th, 2004.
Organized by the Art Gallery of Hamilton (AGH) and curated by Shirley Madill, Chief Curator and Director of Programming, Canada's representation is jointly funded by the Canada Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
Rokeby will be presenting a new media work titled Gathering, an installation that captures, and in various ways, maps and orders human activity in the Sao Paulo Bienal building. The progenitors for the work are two previous projects - Taken and Sorting Daemon. In very different ways, these installations generated representations of an entire history of activities that took place in the immediate area of their locations.
Gathering will use cameras in well-lit locations inside the Bienal building to capture and isolate images of moving people. Images of people are extracted from the background, separated into patches of coherent colour, such as individual pieces of clothing, and then projected inside an octagonal structure. The images will constantly be changing, with the oldest images gradually disappearing under layers of more recently captured images of visitors to the Bienal. Visitors will see themselves embedded in the collage, having been caught somewhere a few minutes or hours before.
"Rokeby's art seizes the imagination and invites – and sometimes coerces – visitors to become an integral part of the installation," says AGH Chief Curator Shirley Madill. "In seizing the opportunity to respond to the theme of Image Smugglers, Rokeby's work instantly came to mind. His work presents media-space as a no man's land that opens new avenues for exploration of the undefined relationship between human beings and the computers that capture and analyze their images."
"I was greatly honoured when the Art Gallery of Hamilton decided to propose my work for the Sno Paulo Bienal," says David Rokeby. "And now, to actually have been chosen to represent Canada at this very important and exciting event is an even greater honour. I am surprised and thrilled! With an audience that mixes everything from elite international art collectors and critics to the warm and exuberant Brazilian public, the Sno Paulo Bienal is a particularly interesting context for an artist like myself, whose work often directly involves the audience as an integral part."
DAVID ROKEBY
David Rokeby is the Canadian artisti who will be representing Canada at the 26th Sao Paulo Bienal Internacional. He participated at the Venice Biennale in 1986. In 2002 he was awarded the highest honour in visual arts: The Governor General prize. In 1988 he was awarded the first Petro-Canada Award for Media Arts and in 1991, the Austria's Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction for interactive art.
He creates interactive sound and video installations with computers since 1982. These installations have been exhibited extensively throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. One of his earliest works "Very Nervous System" (1982-1991) is acknowledged as a pioneering work of interactive art, translating physical gestures into real-time interactive sound environments. Several of his works have addressed issues of digital surveillance. Other works engage in a critical examination of the differences between human and artificial intelligence.
ART GALLERY OF HAMILTON
Representing Canada at the Sno Paulo Bienal marks an important milestone for the Art Gallery of Hamilton (AGH) and its growing international role in the art world. Recently, the AGH loaned works to exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Gallery staff members are also working on an exhibition showcasing Canadian artist Janet Cardiff's work with Denmark's Aarhus Kunstmuseum and another featuring works by Canadian Inuit artists and Finland's Saami Indigenous peoples.
The Art Gallery of Hamilton is undergoing major renovations that will transform an aging building into an international art destination and safeguard its 8,000-plus work permanent collection and visiting exhibitions from the leaks and inadequate environmental controls currently plaguing the building. The AGH will relaunch in May 2005 with two major exhibitions: Lasting Impressions: Celebrated Works from the Art Gallery of Hamilton, featuring the Gallery's significant Canadian works, and Heaven and Earth Unveiled: European Treasures from the Tanenbaum Collection; these exhibitions will then travel to galleries and art museums across Canada. During the construction period, the AGH will conduct workshops, hold events and feature exhibitions at off-site locations throughout Hamilton and area.
Founded in 1914, the Art Gallery of Hamilton is Ontario's third largest public art gallery (and Canada's ninth) and owns one of the finest collections in the country. The Gallery has three fundamental collecting and programming strengths – nineteenth-century European, Historical Canadian, and Contemporary Canadian – and owns one of the finest collections in the country.
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