24 June 2011

I Know how you feel: the video work of Aleesa Cohene
  • Wednesday 29 June 2011, 8PM at MAWA [611 Main St]
  • The Sobey-nominated artist will be in attendance!
  • Curated by Clint Enns
  • Presented in conjunction with Haven't We Been Here Before?
Aleesa Cohene is a Toronto based video artist who uses found-footage as material and editing as a tool. Through this technique, Cohene provides us with a lens under which the viewer can see and examine many of the stereotypes present in traditional narrative cinema. In essence, she is revealing the mirror in which the media uses to reflect our “beliefs” back to us.

Currently, Cohene is protected under Fair Dealings in Canada. However, given recent attempts to reform Canada’s copyright laws, Cohene could be recast as a digital outlaw. Artistically and ethically speaking, Cohene does not see these images as private property, but as “basic materials through which we have an obligation to express ourselves and define our individuality.”

Aleesa Cohene has been producing videos since 2001. Her work has shown in festivals and galleries across Canada as well as in Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Scandinavia, Thailand, Turkey and the United States, and she has won prizes at Utrecht’s Impakt Festival and Toronto’s Images Festival. She has participated in artist residencies in Canada, the Netherlands and Denmark. She recently completed a fellowship at the Kunsthochschule für Medien (KHM) in Cologne, Germany.

Screening Includes:

  • Abscess (2001, 10 minutes)
  • Absolutely (2001, 10 minutes)
  • All Right (2003, 7 minutes)
  • Ready to Cope (2006, 7 minutes)
  • Suppose To (2006, 7 minutes)
  • The Same Problem (2008, 4 minutes)
  • Something Better (2008, 8 minutes)

22 June 2011

Studio Visit with Steven Leyden Cochrane

  • Thursday 23 June 2011, 7PM (Meet at PLATFORM at 6:45PM)
  • Unfortunately, Steven's studio is not wheelchair accessible - it is a several story walk up.
PLATFORM members are welcome to attend our next studio visit. We are very happy to present visual artist Steven Leyden Cochrane in our continued studio visit series in conjunction with Haven't We been Here Before. He will open up his studio and provide an informal artist talk. In House Salons/Studio Visits are offered to PLATFORM members exclusively, free of charge. Space is limited; please contact the Centre directly to register. Curtain to reproduce a quality of interior light characteristic of central Florida at sunset after a thunderstorm in summer (2011) Steven Leyden Cochrane is a multidisciplinary visual artist from Tampa, Florida. Working in a broad range of media and exhibition strategies, he seeks to problematize received understandings of art objects as repositories of meaning and vehicles for personal expression. His research interests include Conceptual Art practice, constructions of artistic identity, theory of mind, problems of narrativity, vernacular design, fan art, home décor, pre-modern painting technique, stained glass, Minimal sculpture, and Mariah Carey. He earned a BFA in painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2006 and in 2009 completed his MFA in studio arts at the University of Windsor. He is currently based in Winnipeg.

21 June 2011

LANGUAGE FORMED IN LIGHT > experimental screening series from May - August 2011 <
Continues Tuesday 21 June 7PM @ The Black Lodge [ARTSPACE]
PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts is excited to announce a new screening series to be presented over the next four months. Language Formed in Light is comprised of four different film screening nights featuring experimental films and video art by recognized artists from Canada and the United States. The works in this series were selected due to their innovative use of cinematic language. Some of the titles create an entirely new filmic language, while others focus on expanding the established cinematic vocabulary. This screening series will be the part of a serial presentation guest-curated by Clint Enns for PLATFORM and recognizes the work in film and video by note-worthy contributors to the medium.

The second screening in this series consists of the animated photography of Ben Russell. Several of the films to be shown are from Russell's Trypps series such as Black and White Trypps Number Three, which won Best Experimental Film at the 2007 Chicago Underground Film Festival and Trypps #6 (Malobi), which received an Honorable Mention at the 2009 Media City Film/Video Festival; however, a few of the films would be non-Trypps such as Workers Leaving The Factory (Dubai), Daume and Terra Incognita. Ben Russell's work explicitly expands the established filmic vocabulary since many of his works are re-makes and/or re-contextualizes of historical avant-garde films. For instance, Black and White Trypps Number Three can be seen as a re-contextualization of Standish Lawder's Necrology and Workers Leaving the Factory (Dubai) can be seen as a re-contextualization of the 1895 Lumière film Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory in Lyon. Please join us TUESDAY 21 June @ 7PM in The Black Lodge / ARTSPACE for the second screening of Language Formed in Light, guest-curated by Clint Enns. All screenings are Free and open to the public. Doors at 7:00 / Screening at 7:30
Program:
  • Black and White Trypps #1 (2005, 7 minutes)
  • Black and White Trypps #2 (2006, 6 minutes)
  • Black and White Trypps #3 (2007, 12 minutes)
  • Black and White Trypps #4 (2008, 11 minutes)
  • Trypps #5 (Dubai) (2008, 3 minutes)
  • Trypps #6 (2009, 12 minutes)
  • Daume (2000, 6 minutes)
  • Terra Incognita (2002, 10 minutes)
  • Workers Leaving the Factory (Dubai) (2008, 8 minutes)
All of the works in the program will be shown on 16mm.
Ben Russell is an itinerant media artist and curator whose films and performances have been presented in spaces ranging from 14th Century Belgian monasteries to 17th Century East India Trading Co. buildings, police station basements to outdoor punk squats, Japanese cinematheques to Parisian storefronts, as well as solo screenings at the Rotterdam Film Festival and the Museum of Modern Art. A 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship and 2010 FIPRESCI award recipient, Ben began the Magic Lantern screening series in Providence, Rhode Island, is co-director of the artist-run space BEN RUSSELL in Chicago, and he currently teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Clint Enns is a video artist/filmmaker and curator from Winnipeg, Manitoba, whose work primarily deals with moving images created with broken and/or outdated technologies. His work has shown both nationally and internationally in installations, festival screenings, alternative spaces, and mircocinemas. He has recently completed a master's degree in mathematics at the University of Manitoba, and his interests include model theory of rings and modules, structuralist film, destructuralist video, and mathematics in art. Enn's past curatorial projects in experimental film and video have been presented at Video Pool Media Arts Centre (Winnipeg), and DIM Cinema / Pacific Cinematheque (Vancouver).
PLATFORM wishes to acknowledge the support of its membership, board of directors, volunteers, and staff. Language Formed in Light is made possible with funding received from Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council, and Canada Council for the Arts.

02 June 2011

HAVEN'T WE BEEN HERE BEFORE? PLATFORM THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITIONS!
  • Exhibitions 09 June - 23 July 2011
  • Opening Reception Thursday 09 June, 7PM
  • Studio Visit with Steven Leydon Cochrane Thursday 23 June, 7PM
OFF-SITE SCREENING @ MAWA [611 Main Street] curated by Clint Enns I know how you feel: the video work of Aleesa Cohene Wednesday 29 June, 8PM
In celebration of PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts' Thirtieth Anniversary, The Centre will be presenting two exhibitions simultaneously: So Many Letdowns Before We Get Up... featuring work in sculpture, drawings, installation and video by: Jo-Anne Balcaen, Steven Leyden Cochrane, Maura Doyle, Glen Fogel, Alex Kisilevich, Kelly Mark, Ashley Neese, Ryan Peter, and Jim Verburg, with J.J. Kegan McFadden as curator; and Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Aleesa Cohene, Alex Da Corte, Jon Pylypchuk, and Markus Vater with Kim Nguyen as curator.
As an anniversary project, we have opted to invite a roster of emerging and mid-career artists who have not yet exhibited with PLATFORM. Together, these exhibits offer insights and ruminations on failed love and thwarted dreams, as well as an overall malaise and melancholy stemming from our current climate steeped in popular culture. Stay tuned for the forthcoming publication featuring artist pages from all involved, as well as curatorial texts and essays by invited contributors.
Please join us Thursday 09 June for the opening reception, beginning at 7PM.
PLATFORM acknowledges the support of its membership, Board of Directors, staff, and partners in presentation. Operating and project assistance for PLATFORM programming is provided by: Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, The Winnipeg Foundation, and The W.H. & S.E. Loewen Foundation. Seemed Like a Good Idea the Time was originally curated by Kim Nguyen for Or Gallery (Vancouver) in September 2010; we extend our gratitude to Or and their staff for their assistance in re-presenting this exhibit. Special thanks to the artists and their representatives, including: Paul Petro Contemporary Art (Toronto), Fleisher/Ollman Gallery (Philadelphia), China Art Objects (Los Angeles), Friedrich Petzel Gallery (New York City). For more information about this exhibition or other PLATFORM programming, please contact the Centre directly: PLATFORM | 121-100 Arthur Street [Artspace Building] | Winnipeg, Manitoba | R3B 1H3 | 204.942.8183 | www.platformgallery.org