November 1- November 30, 2019
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Kindly sponsored by:
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Torrington Downtown Partners (TDP) Gallery
Then, What If?
Presented by: NewMediaNewMusicNewEngland
Program Curated by: Gene Gort and Ken Steen
Programming by: Tim Lawless
Program Curated by: Gene Gort and Ken Steen
Programming by: Tim Lawless
"THEN, WHAT IF?” presented by NewMediaNewMusicNewEngland
Media artist Gene Gort and composer/sound artist Ken Steen initiated NewMediaNewMusicNewEngland ten years ago. The effort was a way to organize/curate/promote artists in the six New England states who are working in these genres and to connect them with venues, develop projects, and mostly enjoy the rich work being produced in the region. Gort and Steen have been collaborating professionally since 2006 on multi-media performance projects that have been presented internationally.
“NMNMNE is a loose affiliation of producers which we hope will continue to develop as a network of like-minded folks who share our sensibilities and will likewise promote the dissemination of work in this field. “THEN, WHAT IF?” is a new iteration of “What If?”, a project that grew out of a collaborative teaching experiment we tried in 2007. Students from the “Music Technology” and “Sound/Image/Text”, classes in the Hartt School and the Hartford Art School respectively, generated a number of sixty-second works that we had students combine variously. Then they selected works and intentionally responded to them specifically, by creating either video or sound accompaniments. We noticed that the results of those randomly paired, created much more open and imaginative connections than those selected to “illustrate”, and the group embraced this strategy. “What If?” drew from this approach, curating 60 video clips and 60 sound compositions that are 60 seconds in duration each and paired them randomly using a Cageian model of indeterminacy with 3600 potential variations. The pieces were chosen from an open call from the six New England States and ranged from young producers, to seasoned professionals, to graduate, and undergraduate students.
Originally, we drew our inspiration from "60x60" from VoxNovus in New York City a project directed by Robert Voisey. "60x60" was a yearly call for 60-second sound compositions selected to create a 60-minute fixed media program of sound works that traveled to venues in the US and was published as an annual CD compilation. Our take on this project was to add video to the mix and the random functionality and focus on producers residing in New England. The "60x60" project has also worked with experimental and underground filmmakers, choreographers, experimental photographers, and video improvisers.”
“THEN, WHAT IF?”, like “What If?”, has three iterations; a video screening event, an installation for gallery presentation and a website. For the screening event, to engage in the random activity, audience members select one number each from a video- and audio-designated list as they enter the venue. These numbers determine the evening's program of 60 works resulting in a 60-minute screening. For the gallery installation, a computer with media projection and stereo sound is loaded with all the files and the user selects random pairings or specific pairings for playback. The website, designed and programmed by Tim Lawless, similarly has a random generator scripted into the site and visitors can randomize the pairings or determine the pairings specifically as well. The project has been curated from an international call for entries and includes seasoned veterans with young producers.
For information about hosting this project contact the curators at us@nmnmne.org
Gene Gort – genegort.com
Ken Steen – kensteen.com
Media artist Gene Gort and composer/sound artist Ken Steen initiated NewMediaNewMusicNewEngland ten years ago. The effort was a way to organize/curate/promote artists in the six New England states who are working in these genres and to connect them with venues, develop projects, and mostly enjoy the rich work being produced in the region. Gort and Steen have been collaborating professionally since 2006 on multi-media performance projects that have been presented internationally.
“NMNMNE is a loose affiliation of producers which we hope will continue to develop as a network of like-minded folks who share our sensibilities and will likewise promote the dissemination of work in this field. “THEN, WHAT IF?” is a new iteration of “What If?”, a project that grew out of a collaborative teaching experiment we tried in 2007. Students from the “Music Technology” and “Sound/Image/Text”, classes in the Hartt School and the Hartford Art School respectively, generated a number of sixty-second works that we had students combine variously. Then they selected works and intentionally responded to them specifically, by creating either video or sound accompaniments. We noticed that the results of those randomly paired, created much more open and imaginative connections than those selected to “illustrate”, and the group embraced this strategy. “What If?” drew from this approach, curating 60 video clips and 60 sound compositions that are 60 seconds in duration each and paired them randomly using a Cageian model of indeterminacy with 3600 potential variations. The pieces were chosen from an open call from the six New England States and ranged from young producers, to seasoned professionals, to graduate, and undergraduate students.
Originally, we drew our inspiration from "60x60" from VoxNovus in New York City a project directed by Robert Voisey. "60x60" was a yearly call for 60-second sound compositions selected to create a 60-minute fixed media program of sound works that traveled to venues in the US and was published as an annual CD compilation. Our take on this project was to add video to the mix and the random functionality and focus on producers residing in New England. The "60x60" project has also worked with experimental and underground filmmakers, choreographers, experimental photographers, and video improvisers.”
“THEN, WHAT IF?”, like “What If?”, has three iterations; a video screening event, an installation for gallery presentation and a website. For the screening event, to engage in the random activity, audience members select one number each from a video- and audio-designated list as they enter the venue. These numbers determine the evening's program of 60 works resulting in a 60-minute screening. For the gallery installation, a computer with media projection and stereo sound is loaded with all the files and the user selects random pairings or specific pairings for playback. The website, designed and programmed by Tim Lawless, similarly has a random generator scripted into the site and visitors can randomize the pairings or determine the pairings specifically as well. The project has been curated from an international call for entries and includes seasoned veterans with young producers.
For information about hosting this project contact the curators at us@nmnmne.org
Gene Gort – genegort.com
Ken Steen – kensteen.com
This exhibition contains 60 videos and 60 sound pieces representing The United States of America, Germany, Israel, Japan, France, Brazil, Scotland, Sweden, South Korea, England and Ireland.
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Artists:
Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn Braxton Hood Noah Marconi Kyle Grimm Paul Turano Kofi Oduro aka Illest PREACHA Aric Attas Daniel Maldonado Lys Guillorn Aaron Wyanski Ben Stevenson Landing Collective Joshua Hummel Penumbra Carter Nir Jacob Younessi David Borawski Alan Taylor Gabrielle Zimmermann Mike Lunoe Caleb Portfolio Joungbum Lee Ben Skea Catherine Vanaria George Hakkila Erika Suderburg Joshua Gates Robert Scheuering Raza Kazmi |
Joe Saphire Jason Livingston Ted Efremoff Joseph Hayes Adam Lenz Terrance Regan Claire Barwell Mark Saunders Moran Been-noon Gwendolyn Audrey Foster Lief Ellis James Scaramuzzino Michael Scaramuzzino Chatori Shimizu Caleb Hammond Jake Bell Bob Chaplin Nebulosus Severine Hildegard von Bangin Patrick Kennedy Jamie Wolf Pedro Latas Maria Mykolenko Katt Hernandez Lindsay McIntyre Sarah Rushford Sue Berg Cyril Sancereau |
Brian Heller Algor Jean-Marie Guyaux Ying Ye Kristoffer Raasted Rodrigo Guinski Daryl Jamieson Neely Bruce Jeremy J. Quinn Gaylen Kozikis John Knecht Gregg Biermann Charles Woodman Carmel Barnea Brezner Jonas Nate Schoettle Greene Crawl Space Maximilien Luc Proctor Su Friedrich Sarah Winterbottom Derek Taylor Michele Jaquis Tim Wolf Ron Crowcroft Mark Savoia Laurel Beckman Dani ReStack Sheila ReStack |
East & West Galleries
Expanded Vocabularies
The Five Points/University of Hartford, Hartford Art School Launchpad
Curated by Melanie Carr
Expanded Vocabularies
The Five Points/University of Hartford, Hartford Art School Launchpad
Curated by Melanie Carr
Expanded Vocabularies features the recent artwork of 12 artist members of The Five Points Center for the Visual Arts, Hartford Art School, University of Hartford Launchpad. The work featured in this exhibition is a fresh selection of work that has been produced over the past two years on the second floor of the Water Street gallery. Artists have been diligent in developing their vocabulary while being part of a nurturing and supportive artist community with shared space conducive for growth and experimentation. The work ranges in content from fashion to photography and explores themes such as memory, personal history, self portraiture, sustainability, the body and the rawness of materiality to name a few.
In thinking about how to contextualize this work in a truthful and thoughtful way, I keep thinking about gardening. Gardening, like art-making, is a life-long and ever-changing pursuit. The work on view in this show can be thought of as an early spring garden — emergent, bold, vibrant — and ever changing, both this season and for all the seasons yet to come.
In thinking about how to contextualize this work in a truthful and thoughtful way, I keep thinking about gardening. Gardening, like art-making, is a life-long and ever-changing pursuit. The work on view in this show can be thought of as an early spring garden — emergent, bold, vibrant — and ever changing, both this season and for all the seasons yet to come.
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Emily Albee
Using the animal form as a stand-in for humans, my work focuses on the relationships and connections that we humans have with each other and the world around us. By translating the imagery as if interpreting a dream, the forms take on a lighthearted and surreal air, obscuring a darker or more complicated reality underneath.
In the conscious realm, animals are more naturally themselves than humans. Being uninhibited by the pressures of the human psyche they show everything on the surface without awareness or doubt. I find it interesting then, to use their likeness to examine various moments of the human condition. By conflating animals with humans I find I am more easily able to use their anthropomorphism to investigate ideas of identity, domesticity and gender roles. Just as our subconscious uses more comforting images to speak to us through dreams, I too find comfort in speaking through the animal lense. |
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Jessica Fallis
These works are imagined water forms, constructed through the build up of layers and the application of rules. They reimagine seascapes as liminal spaces, as places void of external environmental factors, such as sky and sand, and are a minimalistic approach to the landscape. Through them, I investigate ideas of balance, dreams, memory, and the tension between stillness and movement.
A commonality amongst these works is the use of layering, whether through the build-up of multiple drawings as in the case of the vellum drawings, or in the layering of rules, as in the single circle drawings. The layers become a metaphor for time, memory, emotion, and dreams through the sense of distance and space created within each piece. The vellum acts as a veil or fog between the layers, softening the lines to create a sense of depth, or of various currents moving together. The use of the circle within these pieces symbolizes the idea of wholeness, or of the cyclical movement central to life and ever present in the motions of water. In this way, I see these pieces as a reflection of my own internal tides and emotions. These suspended places are stillness within movement, an attempt to organize nature in order to make sense of my own internal changes and tensions. With them I hope to find stillness and a moment of calm within a constantly changing world. |
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Aaron M. Flynn
My work creates a space and opens a dialogue around materials and convention while exploring the landscapes of composition and color. I govern components, whether bought or found, to facilitate ideas of composition, color, light, movement, time, and even sound. My work also extends itself into areas of content that I had previously not considered: importance resulting from highly representational materials; duration of the work; the context of the work; the scale; and finally, formal assets that complete and engage the compositions. My latest body of work is exploring color through reflection.
The source of my work is categorically rooted in two disciplines, installation and painting. In the realm of installation, it’s the materials, such as items I purchase from dollar stores or home improvement stores which play a large role in my compositions. Concept and color are also significant in my work. My global objective is not to formulate a new methodology; rather it’s to take preexisting materials and modify them in such a way that new dialogues are initiated. I want my viewers to see techniques as well as methods that call into question established and predictable practices, so that they are touched, moved and inspired by what they see. |
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Karl Goulet
This series is an abstract and dramatic representation of the human body; analyzing the physical mentalities and vulnerabilities associated with skin, flesh and obesity. The flesh-like surfaces are created with aged parchment paper, recycled fabrics and paint that are then forcefully stuffed and stretched into a gluttonous size. Many of the pieces have an emphasis on texture and line formed with strategic pleating that evokes a sense of age fold and wrinkles. These intimate proportions fetishize the body allowing the work to take on a physical and ephemeral life of its own.
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Keri Halloran
I bet burning alive would be beautiful.
Reality is an image of perception that we create to feel a sense of wholeness. It is comfortable to have something that seems tangible. For example, most of society perceives a photograph as “real”, to hold that moment in time over and over again. Regardless it is still completely abstracted from reality; no longer in those brief milliseconds. Within this series, I aim to push the boundaries of what an image can be by combining different printing methods and sculptural elements; expanding off of a photograph always being an abstract object. These images are dedicated to the idea that we live in our own realities. Realities that are shaped by perception and emotional reaction to it. Self awareness can be achieved by compromising those perceptions and emotions. Fighting to compromise will create the opposite. Visually, I aim to push the viewer towards reality as a perception. That life and reality are just an interplay of emotions and sensations, like colors and textures. |
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Nicole Haynes
Trepidation: The feeling or fear of agitation that something may happen.
These pictures were taken before a dramatic change within my life. The sporadic blurriness throughout the photographs, represents the difficulty that arises internally during a metamorphic time. Separately, they express a sudden sense of anxiety, nerves, confusion and fun. But together, each photograph shares its own silent peace. |
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Sydney Morris
In an increasingly digital world, I crave analog. I long for the days spent fumbling in the dark, not knowing what time it is. Hands soaking in a water bath rinsing freshly exposed prints, and that deep smell of fixer that always seems to stick to everything. My process is technical, confusing, yet simple; to challenge the medium, to blur the lines, to break the rules.
I work in a cameraless medium, creating something from nothing, yet somehow still within the realm of photography. It’s my goal to push the boundaries to a point of abstraction that even the medium is questioned. Working primarily in alternative process, I am specifically interested in using photographic chemistry as a medium to “paint” on light sensitive darkroom paper. This process is highly technical, as the chemistry goes on white until it fully develops. I utilize a variety of different photographic development processes to achieve different color combinations. To create these works one must give in to the chaotic nature of process, to surrender to it. |
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Rachel McNamara
Grass is green and flowers are sweet berries are too, some that we eat.
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Tara Nugent
He said he’d come back But he never did”
This serious of photographs focuses on the theme of abandonment, or “Lost Love.” Things left behind, beautiful, but maybe never to be seen again I have always found beauty in the abandoned, as have you Because all we know Is to try and make sense of what we see and feel, and turn it into something to hold on to Or to forget Everything or anyone that has felt abandoned can relate Even if it’s just a memory, it’s worth something The moments encountered To some people may seem ugly, but to others These moments are as fragile and precious as the silence that surrounds us Lost Love |
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Rose Orelup
As an emerging artist of multiple disciplines, I focus on creating awareness for sustainability not only through my life practices but in my physical work. Fashion has been an important inspiration with my latest body of labor, as it is something that affects everyone from different demographics, locations and beliefs. I source my materials ethically and resourcefully, including recycling and re-purposing plastic waste, and up-cycled fabrics. As a sustainable designer, my goal is to create wearable art, that changes perceptions of ethical fashion and the definition of art.
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Amy Ozga
Last year, my grandmother passed away right before Christmas. She had been suffering from dementia for years at this point, and her passing was slow and tough to get through for my family. After her passing, I inherited a lot of beautiful photographs and furniture from her home. My grandmother is featured in three of the pieces in this exhibition at different stages in her life- vacationing in the 60s, hugging my grandfather in a blurry photo, and sitting on a yellow couch next to my mom. At first, I was creating work with my grandmother as the subject just as a way to memorialize her life.
But as I flipped through hundreds of family photos, I found that the images I gravitated towards weren’t the posed photographs that documented what we thought were important life events- such as weddings and birthdays. Instead, I found the most interesting and joyful photos were the blurry ones that displayed a life lived: catching bugs with dad, riding a canoe in the grass with my sister, wearing underwear on my head when I’m five. My work has always celebrated a preciousness in what most call mundane, but going through these photographs has further emphasized this mentality. The images displayed in my handmade photo album show a life lived. The events we think might be the most significant aren’t what makes us who we are. It is the small, out of focus moments that happen in between these milestones that mold us and make us the happiest. |
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Madeline Stenson
In this series, I draw primarily with marker, pen, gel pen, colored pencil, and ink wash on paper. I create textures using layers of line and color, and explore vivid color palettes in surreal, expressive portraiture. Last year, I started to combine my style of portrait drawing, intense repetitive lines, and use of color in my work. I am attempting to visually organize my feelings of anxiety, fear, stress, depression, freedom, and femininity through making these obsessively detailed and emotional drawings. I am fascinated by surreal/vaguely feminine portraits, and recognize that they are inadvertently a reflection of my inner self. I have always drawn andro-feminine figures and faces that I believe are subconsciously what I wish I could personally project.
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