Laiwan (Vancouver)
Machinate, 1999
bio
Laiwan was born in Harare, Zimbabwe, of Chinese origin. She emigrated
to Canada in 1977 to leave the war in Rhodesia. She is an interdisciplinary
artist and writer based in Vancouver, BC. A graduate of Emily Carr College
of Art and Design, Laiwan started the OR Gallery in 1983. She has since
initiated various curatorial projects, participated in a variety of
group and solo exhibitions in Canada, the US and Europe, and has been
involved in community-based volunteer activism. Her writing can be found
in numerous arts and community publications and her book "distance
of distinct vision" was published by the Western Front in 1992.
Articule Gallery in Montreal released a publication examining her book
work and collages in 1998. From 1994 to 1997, Laiwan was co-editor of
Front Magazine published by the Western Front. She received her degree
of Master of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University. Her multi-media
installation titled "Machinate: a projection in two movements"
was exhibited at the Video In Studios, Vancouver and Gallery 101, Ottawa.
It will travel to the Dalhousie Art Gallery / Khyber Centre for the
Arts, Halifax in March 2000. This installation uses 16mm film, video,
audio, sculptural assemblage and the internet to explore issues of technologised
consciousness, the body and machine. Her 1998 videowork "Remotely
in Touch" is distributed by V-Tape, Toronto and Video Out, Vancouver.
Her next projects in Vancouver include a collaboration with emerging
artist Sam Shem at Artspeak Gallery (Dec. 1999) and a multi-media/ interdisciplinary
collaboration with musician/composer Lori Freedman to be installed at
the Belkin Gallery (Jun. 2000) which will include CD-Rom and web components.
Machinate
"www.machinate...." is a virtual companion to the multi-media
gallery installation titled "MACHINATE: a projection in two movements".
The two movements refer to analogue and digital media, and the project
uses 16mm film, video, audio, sculptural assemblage and the Internet.
"MACHINATE" the installation includes "Kiss" a 16mm
film loop for two projectors, "body: in the eye of the beholder"
a video loop for two monitors, and "Ventriloquy" an audio assemblage.
These works explore our consciousness of body in relation to analogue
and digital mechanisms while subtly and poetically revealing phenomena
manifested by these media. "www.machinate..." the website investigates
and reconstructs these three works in virtual form. it comments structurally
and phenomenologically on how virtuality changes and re-interprets the
physical. "MACHINATE: a projection in two movements" is Laiwan's
first installed collection of work focusing on technologized consciousness,
phenomena and presumptions.
presentation
From analog to digital : translating gallery installations into virtual
forms
Thursday, February 3, 7:30pm, Salle Fernand-Séguin, Cinémathèque
québécoise
In English.
Laiwan will present her website "MACHINATE" in relation to its
complementary gallery installation exhibited at Video In, Vancouver, Gallery
101, Ottawa, and in March at the Khyber Centre for the Arts and Dalhousie
Art Gallery in Halifax. She will attempt to address questions such as:
how can we translate art onto the internet so that it is not "information"?
what is the difference between how we experience art and how we experience
"information"? can art be successfully translated onto the internet
without becoming "documentation" or a "representation"
of the work? more questions may appear in the course of discussion. She
will also introduce a new installation work (ready in June 2000), titled
"QUARTET FOR THE YEAR 4697 or 5760: improvisation for 4 projectors"
which uses music improvisation and film projectors with a CD rom and internet
version.
Laiwan
