MEDIA SOUVENIR:
Travel and Tourism in Contemporary Art Video
Tuesday June 30th, 9pm
Arts Court Courtyard
65 Nicholas Street
Ottawa, Ontario
The seeking out of new places and experiences inevitably pushes us out of our comfort zones and asks that we be open to whatever may come our way. Even as our world becomes increasingly homogenous, travel can still remind us of what it means to be lonely and alien.
- Media Souvenirs Catalogue
Media Souvenir is curated by the Centre for Art Tapes' programming committee in Halifax, Nova Scotia. SAW Video has invited James MacSwain, Programming Director at CFAT to present the works of 12 Canadian-based video artists who have explored the theme of travel and tourism. These artists explore notions of identity when re-visiting memories from past travels, and observe the effects of cultural difference and the role of the tourist. The program's catalogue states: "Some [videos] are first person accounts of going places, both new and once-familiar, while others explore the vaster implications of tourism on the environment. Some choose to tell travel tales by documenting the mundane - from hairstyles and laundry rituals, to the exotic foods we meet along the way. From generic motel rooms and hitchhiking, to fantasy airports, Media Souvenir becomes a sort of video scrapbook, documenting a very unusual journey, indeed". A timely screening on the eve of July 1st, Media Souvenir points to the myriad backgrounds of Canadians, how we travel to experience culture, and also how our culture travels closely with us.
Following the Media Souvenir screening, join us for hot dogs and beverages in the Arts Court Yard for a summer party with the DJ musings of VJ Daisy and DJ Chris International, who will help us ring in Canada Day.
Weather permitting, this is an OUTDOOR EVENT!
PROGRAMME
Huamangua - Claire Hodge - Halifax - (2007) 2 min.
Lavandaria - Catherine Bussiere - Oxford - (2007) 4 min.
Taste of Taiwan - Angela Thibodeau - Halifax - (2008) 16:18 min.
A Bad Hair Day - Meesoo Lee - Vancouver - (2004) 7:20 min.
The Moon's Pyram - Venus Soberanes - Mexico - (2003) 8:30 min.
Sky Ranch - Sheridan Shindruk - Winnipeg - (2000) 4 min.
Vietnam - Khanhthuan Tran - Toronto - (1997) 8 min.
Itinerary - Philip Jonlin Lee - Toronto - (2004) 5 min.
You are Here/We are There - Erika MacPherson - Winnipeg - (2006) 2:08 min.
Motel to Motel - Ryan Stec & Véronique Couillard - Ottawa - (2006) 6:25 min.
Rules of the Road - Deborah VanSlet - Montreal - (2005) 11:47 min.
Moonshot - Meesoo Lee - Vancouver - (2004) 4:34 min.
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
In 2005 Khanhthuan Tran (a graduate of SAW Video's Youth Program in 2001) resolving that he had taken a misstep, ceased training as an air traffic controller and returned to video. By the end of 2005 he produced Vietnam, 1997, a short documentary that has screened at numerous festivals and galleries. He is currently a resident at the Canadian Film Centre and in development on a new video through the assistance of the Ontario Arts Council.
Catherine Bussiere is a 2005 graduate from the NSCC Screen Arts Program. Since graduation she has been the recipient of a Canada Council Grant for an animation entitled Skipping School. For the past four summers she has been holding film camps for youth at her country home near Oxford, Nova Scotia.
Angela Thibodeau grew up in Halifax in an Acadian family. She has a BFA from Mount Allison University and has spent a lot of time hanging out at Struts Gallery. In 2003 she visited Taiwan for three months. She has spent the last four years waitressing in Chinese food restaurants in Halifax.
Claire Hodge has been a practicing artist since 2002 exhibiting works locally and abroad. She specializes in video, installation and interactive art. She is currently enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts program at NSCAD University.
Erika MacPherson, from her home in Manitoba, uses video and electronic media to investigate the intricate relationship of choice and chance. Her visually poetic non-fiction narratives explore the phenomenal circumstance of being human. As a community activist, her artistic vision is to interpret the narrative inherent in the most profound determinants of survival.
Deborah VanSlet, is a Montreal video artist primarily interested in the social relevance of art. Her work is based on the tradition of storytelling and she has been strongly influenced by her years of travel and her role as a mother.
Meesoo Lee started making short videos using a camcorder and 2 VCRs, inspired by the DIY ethos of zines, "lo-fi" music and underground cinema. He is old enough to remember when music videos were something new and exciting, before the proliferation of VCRs, camcorders and neighbourhood video store. His work has been shown at the Western Front and Images Festival Toronto.
Born in Mexico, Venus Soberanes currently lives and works both in Mexico City and Vancouver, Canada. Her formal education includes a BFA, major in Film Production at Concordia University, a Fine Arts degree with a specialization in photography at the Center for the Arts University in Mexico City, and a variety of multimedia, video and film hand processing courses. She teaches Super8 hand processing workshops and is a promoter of experimental cinema.
Philip Jonlin Lee is based in Toronto, Canada and London, UK. He is a graduate of the Goldsmiths College Fine Art programme (2004) where he completed his M.A. He completed his undergraduate studies in 2001 at the University of Toronto with a speciality in Visual Studies and a major in Fine Art History. Some of his video projects have involved animations as well as live-action literary narratives - often regarded as confessionals.
Véronique Couillard and Ryan Stec have been collaborators on projects in design, photography, installation, video and live performance for several years. Their backgrounds and individual practices complement each other and create balance between stylized technological influences and more unplanned and simple compositions. Both based in the nation's capitol Véronique Couillard is the Public Programs Coordinator for The Ottawa Art Gallery and Ryan Stec is the Artistic Director for the electronic media arts center Artengine.
Sheridan Shindruk is an artist working primarily with video and digital imagery. After years of educational and creative experience in Winnipeg, he is currently pursuing a Master's degree at Concordia University.
James MacSwain was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia. He received a B.A. in English from Mount Allison University and studied theatrical arts at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. After traveling and living in Europe he settled in Halifax where he began a career in theatre and arts administration. Since 1980 he has been working in lm and video, receiving Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Nova Scotia Arts Council grants as a media artist. As a visual artist he works in photo-and collage-based images that he has exhibited in Halifax and nationally. He is an honorary member of Live Art Dance Productions and the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative. He has been a former board member of the Nova Scotia Arts Council, the Independent Film and Video Alliance the Linda Joy Media Arts Society and the Canadian Conference of the Arts. Presently he sits on the Exhibitions Committee of Visual Arts Nova Scotia. He now works as the Director of Programming for the Centre For Art Tapes.
