Special projects

JOHN BOYLE-SINGFIELD

John Boyle-Singfield makes use of a large variety of mediums including video, painting and sculpture. His work questions the place these mediums occupy in a digital world where the Internet is the most predominant of mediums. The artist engages in a dialogue of appropriation and non-authorship throughout his artistic practice.

The work "Playtime in no Particular Order" is a compilation of excerpts from the film Playtime by Jacques Tati. The artist enacts a simple game of editing on the original film so that several of the film’s key scenes are played in no particular order. This artistic exercise, subsequently posted online, involves the spectator in a subconscious manipulation of images. Will they understand that these images have been altered?

Boyle-Singfield will also present other recent works, notably two series of paintings inspired by Internet codification: Dialogues deserts, which represents in painted form the phrase “Comments are disabled on this painting,” and 000000 & 00245ff, which represent the html codes for the colours black and navy blue. These works explore art production and dissemination in a world saturated with new technology.

www.johnboylesingfield.com

TATIANA KOROLEVA / RALITSA DONCHEVA / JANICK BURN / STEPHANIE CREAGHAN

Blind Date by Tatiana Koroleva interprets dating websites as a new age dream world that embodies the most intimate desires of users for ideal relationships. Populated with perfected images of potential lovers, dating networks serve as a modern space for emotional openness, intimacy and romantic exchange that quite often supplements real life relationships. The consumerist context of dating networks encourages polyandrous relationships and provides the possibility of temporary emotional bond between multiple users. The context of the first date serves as a perfect example of the utopianism of contemporary dating culture and unveils the hidden tension programmed in dating networks. What happens when the idealistic world of mediated experiences and real life collide?

Eastern Bloc is equally happy to present the work of three artists having exhibited in the context of Art Matters, a student run art festival based out of Concordia University. Stéphanie Creaghan and Ralista Doncheva will present their respective video works Mote and Still Moving, whereas JAnick Burn will present video documentation of her performance Le Relais with Alexandre Hurtubise. Mote, by Creaghan, explores the artist’s relationship to semantic construction through language and her body. Still Moving, by Doncheva, is composed of found footage of daily activities, putting them into conversation with each other on a dual screen projection. Finally, Le Relais, by Burn, is a video extract of a more than two hour endurance performance between a man and a woman, transferring a cube of ice between them until it melts, while standing on a platform of wine glasses.

CYNTHIA NAGGAR / EDWIN JANZEN

With her work "Mille mots valent une image," Cynthia Naggar establishes a correspondence between an out-dated typewriter and a video stream, creating a strong tie between written and visual signs. The spectator/participant is invited to type into the machine so that their own image is recorded and simultaneously projected onto the screen in front of them. Contingent upon the rhythm and the characters in the writing, the image of spectator can be fragmented to the point of disappearance or create an unstable blend with earlier video recordings. A word can act as a vehicle for the imagination or conversely as a means to control reality.

In “Projects: Lost Islands” by Edwin Janzen the pubic finds themselves surrounded by four projection screens. The images are fragments of fantasy films which operate upon the fear of the unknown and the other. These images, isolated from the narratives of classic cinema, take on a new significance as they are placed in relation to each other. Together, these fragments powerfully address the imagination of the spectator, who can attempt to create their own narrative or remain fascinated by their intrinsic poetry. Janzen presents us with a captivating journey on a mysterious island where the inability to see is the key to the imagination.

ZOHAR KFIR / KANDIS FRIESEN

In “PARA site” Kfir asks viewers to consider how storytelling can take place phenomenologically, in the absence of cinematic narrative. Entering the installation, the viewer is confronted with a series of fragmentary cinematic loops, which individually evoke displacement, loss, and longing. Collectively, these fragments hint at an unrealized tale that exists in the interstices between one loop and the next. As the viewer moves through the installation, the temporal separation between these cinematic moments gradually emerges as positive space in its own right, becoming the site in which the viewer’s own imagination transforms the fragments into a highly personalized record.

www.zzee.net

Friesen’s latest project “Etj Kjenn Nijch Plaut'dietsch” (I Do Not Know Mennonite Low German) is a sound-based installation, in dialogue with the work of Herman Rempel, author of the first Mennonite Plaut’dietsch dictionary. The focus of the installation is a looped endurance-based audio work in which Rempel's voice is heard saying each word in the dictionary out loud, which is then repeated by the artist. In addition to the sound piece occupying the space, silent video documentation of Friesen recording the audio file will play on loop. As well, a large-scale digital black and white paper print of two scanned pages from Rempel’s dictionary hangs on an opposite wall.

www.vimeo.com/kandis

VINCENT CHARLEBOIS

Charlebois occupies social networking sites in a similar manner that a graffiti artist intervenes in the public space. Through several blogs, he shares his interests and discoveries in the form of a list of links on his encyclopedic site DAILY WIKI. He also explores concrete poetry across an assemblage of graphic characters on TERNET. On Twitter, he limits himself to combinations of two words, choosing poetic expression within a form of communication limited to 144 characters. And in TRIPLE DOUBLE V, the artist’s metawebsite, tattoo art and performance come together in an all-encompassing perspective that further mystifies the man – machine binary. And in (gestionnaire de fenêtres) DANCING WINDOWS, Charlebois adopts a humorous approach in order to question the ways in which we use digital tools.

www.vincentcharlebois.com

JASON ROUSSEL / SÉBASTIEN EPSOT

"chalkBot" by Jason Roussel generates chalk drawings based on arbitraty, semi-random values. A tension, between the childish reference of the chalk and the strong geometrical, un-human composition, is left behind. "chalkBot" is a custom built vehicle using two servo motors and an Arduino. As the mathematical values change, the vehicle moves around the space, leaving behind a unique composition.

www.jasonroussel.info

In "A Cappella," Sébastien Pesot questions the inherent difference between sounds which are integral to a language and those which reveal a certain musicality in the human voice. The video installation is composed of three television screens, each repeating a synchronized loop: the artist faces himself on opposing screens as he seems to entertain a cacophonic conversation with himself, bordering on song and whisper.

www.sebastienpesot.com

Kelly Andres, Mathieu Ball, Manuel Chantre, Vincent Chevalier, Kandis Friesen, BLAKE HARGREAVES, Jonathan Lemieux, thomas ouellet fredericks, Nick Rudzicz, ALEXANDER WESTCOTT, with Amber Berson, Eliane Ellbogen, Emma Geldart and Danny Perreault

Eastern Bloc is celebrating its four-year anniversary by moving in. HOUSEWARMING PARTY is a one week site-specific installation in which Eastern Bloc staff, volunteers, members and past collaborators are invited to exhibit works around the theme of domesticity. The artwork, ideas and furniture of Eliane Elbogen, Amber Berson, Emma Geldart, Kelly Andres Jonathan Lemieux, Vincent Chevalier, Kandis Friesen, Mathieu Ball, Nick Rudzicz and Danny Perreault will take up residence at Eastern Bloc for one week. On Sunday, September 11th, Eastern Bloc will host a series of intimate concerts in its ersatz domestic space by fellow collaborators Blake Hargreaves, Thomas Ouellet Fredericks, Alexander Westcott and more.

Data : Salon begins its second year. From September 2011 until June 2012, a monthly event, informal in nature, will showcase the works in progress of Eastern Bloc’s current and potential members. Participating artists receive immediate feedback from the public, are given access to the centre’s exhibition spaces, our technical resources, the team’s expertise and a wide range of documentations services and marketing tools.

Each Data : Salon takes place on (or near) the last Wednesday of each month:

• 21 September 2011
• 26 October 2011
• 30 November 2011
• 11 January 2012
• 22 February 2012
• 21 March 2012
• 25 April 2012
• 23 May 2012
• 27 June 2012