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October 25 to November 24, 2002
The Kelowna
Art Gallery is pleased to present Magnetic North: Canadian Experimental Video,
a traveling exhibition which brings together 40 independent videos produced by a
wide range of nationally and internationally recognized Canadian artists. Curated by
Jenny Lion for the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and Video Pool Inc.,
Winnipeg, Magnetic North: Canadian Experimental Video premiered at the
Walker Art Centre in 2000 and has since traveled internationally to venues in
England, Holland, Scotland, Taiwan, the United States and Canada. The exhibition
is not intended to be a historical survey of Canadian video. Instead the curator
gathers together a diverse body of work and provides a unique opportunity to
view a “collision of genres, a range of eras and regions, a diversity of
languages, production contexts and artist’s intentions” and to, thereby,
encourage an awareness and appreciation for the richness and complexity of
Canadian video. Artists have
been using video since the early 1970s when the lowering cost of equipment and
the rise of multi-media artist-run centres across Canada made the technology
more accessible. For over 30 years, artists working with video have made
significant contributions to the development of contemporary art in Canada and
around the world. For many artists, video is a natural medium to use to respond
to our contemporary society, which is saturated with technology and the images
it produces in the form of television, movies, surveillance cameras, computer
and digital imagery. In addition, video as a medium was born at a time of
increasing societal complexity when national, cultural, individual and sexual
identity was, and continues to be, questioned and challenged. Several videos
included in this exhibition deal with such issues and some are difficult (but
still important) to watch for their honesty and candour. Magnetic
North includes
videos by artists such as Kate Craig, Lisa Steele, Paul Wong and Kenneth
Fletcher, who are considered pioneers in Canadian video art. Videos by
well-known Canadian artists who have established themselves in other media but
who have also embraced video – Donigan Cumming, Jana Sterback and Allan
Harding Mackay among others – are included as well as works by a generation of
artists who have established themselves in this media such as Dana Claxton, Stan
Douglas and Zacharias Kunuk. Magnetic
North is comprised of nearly nine hours of
videotape divided into six thematic programs of about 90 minutes each. The
thematic programs are entitled Seen on the Body; Performing a Self; In the
Flesh; Subject/Object; Making Strange, Making Familiar; and The Medium Is….
The videos range from two to forty minutes in length and include original
documentary film projects, works of conceptual art, experimental narrative and
performance-based art. There
are two monitors set up for viewing this exhibition. One monitor presents a 27
minute compilation video of all six programs. Watching this will give the viewer
a brief look at many of the videos included in the exhibition. On the second
monitor two thematic programs are featured each day. Magnetic
North is co-presented by the Walker Art Center,
Minneapolis, and Video Pool, Inc., Winnipeg, with assistance from Plug In,
Winnipeg. Generous support is
provided by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canadian Consulate General,
Minneapolis, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of
Canada, the Donner Canadian Foundation, and the Millenium Arts Fund of the
Canada Council for the Arts.
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