Institute of Contemporary Art Newtown (I.C.A.N), Sydney
August 12 – 28, 2011
Opening reception: August 12, 2011, 6 to 8 PM
Portal is extremely excited to announce the forthcoming exhibition of new video and drawing from six New York-based artists at Institute of Contemporary Art Newtown (I.C.A.N) in Camperdown, Sydney.
Process of Performance takes on the documentation of artistic performances in video and drawing, and interprets them as metaphor for the process of being an artist, which can be much like a public performance. Ranging from the most seemingly banal experience, to time-based action, to performance, digital tools have become central to their works’ development and ultimate presentation.
Process of Performance will present five works by six artists: a VHS tape recording Colby Bird’s formal experimentation’s in sculpture in his studio, edited on the same TV-VCR on which it is presented; Jon Meyer’s performative drawing Eight hours drawing at one inch per hour with left and right hand, 2011, a drawing which was created with assistance from a unique software program the artist developed; Kevin Regan’s home-made video, widely available and presented in the gallery on YouTube, The Conversion of St. Paul, 2007, shows the artist passing out and waking up three minutes later after taking Salvia Divinorum, while his wife supervises and cleans the kitchen in the background; an illustration of a cloud, hand-painted on the wall, will rain Twitter feeds in Jason Varone’s microprojection Inclement Weather, 2010; Jody Wood and Mikel Bisbee-Durlam present a two-screen video documenting their performance of dragging one another through the streets of Bushwick, and within the controlled environment of a studio, while covered in concrete.
Representing both a unique cross-section of the wide variety of artists’ practices in Brooklyn today – with a strong focus on the artist-rich neighborhood of Bushwick – and providing an intimate view into their quotidian lives, Process of Performance serves as a snapshot into the incredible creative energy present in Brooklyn now, and reveals how even the most traditional artist is exposed to the world via the digital space. Each work is strongly connected to digital technology, and how that technology has been employed by these artists to address’s the archetype of the artist, and how the artist engages in performance in every aspect of their practice. – ST
COLBY BIRD
JON MEYER
KEVIN REGAN
JASON VARONE
JODY WOOD
MIKEL BISBEE-DURLAM
Curated by Stephen Truax,
organized by Janis Ferberg.
