EXHIBITION: MEASURE 2023
September 24 – December 10, 2023
Annette S. Lee, Félicie d’Estienne d’Orves, Semiconductor James Nizam, Alan Storey, Matthew Biederman
“‘Measure’ Exhibition offers six artworks by seven international artists that bridge technology, astronomy, physics, biology, nature, and art.”
-West Coast Curated, Oct. 2023
“The work inspires us to get outside during this shift in seasons, to observe, to listen attentively, and, for the artist, most importantly, “to find stillness in motion.”
-Kristin Lim, “New Media Gallery Group Exhibition ‘Measure’ Makes Sense of the World, “West Coast Curated”, Oct. 6, 2023
EXHIBIT CONCEPT:
It has been suggested that time was the first measure. The act of witnessing, questioning and documenting the movement of day into night; the change of seasons; the cyclical movement of sun, moon, and stars…these delineations have connected us intimately to our environment. Even before we were human, this type of phenomenological measure was “written into our biology, hard-coded in our DNA as circadian rhythms….coordinat(ing) each of our bodies to the spin of the planet that is our home”. (1)
We have spent millennia devising breathtaking strategies and tools to measure distance, time, speed, capacity…from the span of the heavens, to the clock, to the internal structure of our planet. Measurements that are increasingly refined, and standardized; subject to the occasional imaginative burst that rocks our world and changes everything. How will technology continue to affect our tangible, corporeal connections with the natural world?
MEASURE reflects on the interconnections of time, light, colour, season, the movement of celestial bodies, and how we perceive the measure of all these things. Seven remarkable artists working at the intersection of science, art and technology capture a measure of the world around us; acknowledging their place in a technologically mediated world, while remaining grounded in the senses and a suggestion of embodied experience.
1) Beyond Measure, James Vincent
Location: New Media Gallery, Anvil Centre, 777 Columbia St, New Westminster, BC V3M 5V2, Canada
OPENING RECEPTION – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
Everyone Welcome – Free Admission
1:00 – 2:30
FOUR 20-minute ARTIST TALKS: Anvil Theatre, Anvil Centre
Join us in Welcoming:
Annette S. Lee (Minnesota) Matthew Biederman (Montréal) Vancouver-based artists Alan Storey + James Nizam
2:30 – 4:00
MEASURE Exhibition Opens to the Public: New Media Gallery, Anvil Centre
Annette S. Lee (Minnesota)
Dagwaagin, Ptanyetu, 2022
Single Channel, Digital Animation/Video
In this work, Lee measures & tracks changing seasons and time through colour, sound, recorded sound (birds, animals, weather etc), & the tracked movement of celestial bodies. In the gallery, we see an animated video + sound installation that captures distance and time as a complex, participatory flow through which we experience the rhythm and changes of seasons.
REVIEWS:
https://westcoastcurated.com/new-media-gallery-group-exhibition-measure-makes-sense-of-the-world/
“At the exhibition which opened on September 23, the first day of fall, Annette S. Lee’s video work, Dagwaagin, Ptanyetu (2022), felt immediately relatable. The artist, who recently began working with video and sound, describes the piece as: “an audio-visual animation in honor of experiencing the sounds and sights, Earth and Sky, of fall in Mni Sota Makoce-Minnesota.” Lee visualizes recordings of various sounds in her environment, from the calls of woodpeckers, snowy owls, and blue jays, to fall rain, sizzling hot dogs and fizzing alka seltzer. Organized into four parts, the video follows a cyclic rhythm created by the various sound recordings that flow from busy, chaotic, crazy, and fun, to quiet, calm and still. In the video, the sounds are depicted visually as animated circles or coloured bubbles of varying sizes, their movement corresponding to the sounds they represent. Interspersed text shows the file name with which the artist has labeled each sound clip. The colours change from turquoise, to golden yellow, to green and brown, representing the changing seasons. …“
The work inspires us to get outside during this shift in seasons, to observe, to listen attentively, and, for the artist, most importantly, “to find stillness in motion.”
Kristin Lim, “New Media Gallery Group Exhibition ‘Measure’ Makes Sense of the World, “West Coast Curated”, Oct. 6, 2023
https://westcoastcurated.com/new-media-gallery-group-exhibition-measure-makes-sense-of-the-world/
