News and Events
November 3rd, 2007
Wafaa Bilal presents
Aldar Al-Iraqi, The Iraqi House. The installation will investigate the impact of the destruction of private, domestic spaces in war. These intimate spaces are ripped open and become public through external violence. I want to re-domesticate them and to bring the viewer closer to them, thereby bringing them closer to the destroyed culture. Wafaa will turn the private into an installation for the public to see at Montalvo Arts Center. Through this installation I hope the reality of destruction will enter human consciousness and function as a reminder of the engine of oppression in human and cultural conflict.
Wafaa, with a diverse community of local volunteers, will construct the house using dirt and other available natural resources form Montalvo Arts Center.
Opening Reception and a talk: November 3rd 2007
Montalvo Arts Center
15400 Montalvo Rd.
Saratoga, CA 95070
408 777 2120
www.montalvoarts.org
For more information or to be part of this project please contact:
Rijin Sahakian
Programs Coordinator
Montalvo Arts Center
15400 Montalvo Rd.
Saratoga, CA 95070
408 777 2120
www.montalvoarts.org
Oct 8 - Nov 28, 2007
The University of the Arts Multimedia Department will be hosting
Algorist Musings: Selected Works by Shawn Lawson. Comprised of a collection of works spanning 2003 to present.
Algorist Musings incorporates real-time processing and examines the phenomena of observing, computing, and experiencing. “My artistic expressions evolve from a process of computing and searching to understand what I observe from natural phenomena and cultural movements,” explains Lawson. “Often, my artwork takes the form of touch or movement based interactivity. Dynamic encounters — generated from real-time animation and video compositing — are unique for each participant.”
details:
Multimedia Gallery
The University of the Arts
Terra Building 12th Floor
211 South Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Hours:
Monday – Friday 10am to 5pm
(closed November 22-25)
Discussion with the Artist:
Monday, October 8
4pm - Terra Building Rm. 1106
Opening Reception:
Monday, October 8
6pm – 8pm
Aug 15, 2007
Shawn Lawson screens
15 at
Tosca Short Film and Video Mini-Festival held at The Arts Center of the Capital Region.
details:
The Arts Center of the Capital Region
265 River ST
Troy, NY
518 273 0552
Aug 5 - Aug 9, 2007
Crudeoils exhibits
A Bar at the Folies Bergère and Shawn Lawson exhibits
Wu Wei within
Global Eyes at
Siggraph 2007
Location:
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, CA
July 30, 2007
Crudeoils holds a press conference at the Milwaukee Art Museum for the long term installation of
A Bar at the Folies Bergère
Details:
Milwaukee Art Museum
Impressionist Room
11:30a
May 4 - June 15, 2007
Please click to donate the Domestic Tension Project.
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photo by: C. TaylorIraqi born Wafaa Bilal has become known for provocative interactive video installations. Many of BilalÃs projects over the past few years have addressed the dichotomy of the virtual vs. the real. He attempts to keep in mind the relationship of the viewer to the artwork, with one of his main objectives transforming the normally passive experience of viewing art into an active participation. In
Domestic Tension, viewers can log onto the internet to contact, or shoot, Bilal with paintball guns. BilalÃs objective is to raise awareness of virtual war and privacy, or lack thereof, in the digital age. During the course of the exhibition, Bilal will confine himself to the gallery space. During the installation, people will have 24-hour virtual access to the space via the Internet. They will have the ability to watch Bilal and interact with him through a live web-cam and chat room. Should they choose to do so, viewers will also have the option to shoot Bilal with a paintball gun, transforming the virtual experience into a very physical one. BilalÃs self imposed confinement is designed to raise awareness about the life of the Iraqi people and the home confinement they face due to the both the violent and the virtual war they face on a daily basis. This sensational approach to the war is meant to engage people who may not be willing to engage in political dialogue through conventional means.
Domestic Tension will depict the suffering of war not through human displays of dramatic emotion, but through engaging people in the sort of playful interactive-video game with which they are familiar.
Development Team:
Ben Chang (Software)
Daniel Miller
Dimitris Michalaros (Hardware)
Jason Potkanski (SysAdmin)
Shawn Lawson
Opening:
May 4th, 5p-9p
FLATFILEgalleries
217 N Carpenter ST
Chicago, IL 606047
312 491 1190
May 25 - June 16, 2007
Crudeoils exhibits
One Chair within
To Fear or Not to Fear organized by
Links for International Promotion of the Arts - L.I.P.A and presented at The Art Center of Highland Park. Curated by Vesna Rebernak.
Location:
The Art Center of Highland Park
1957 Sheridan Road
Highland Park, IL
tel.: 847 432 1888
http://www.lipaart.org/
Opening:
Friday, May 25, 6:3p - 8:3p
April 28, 2007
Crudeoils presented "A Look at Crudeoils" in the "Towards a Culture of Collaboration" panel at
Media in Transition 5, Creativity, Ownership and Collaboration in the Digital Age conference at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Abstract
This paper will examine the collaborative group Crudeoils with respect to their creative and production process, purposeful reference and appropriation of historical masterpieces, and combination of art and technology in the current visual culture.
Crudeoils' work combines the familiar act of viewing with a language of interactivity. This fusion extends the meaning of original masterpieces by incorporating current day issues. This triggers a viewerÃs imagination and opens new interpretations. Time becomes compressed, as the viewer becomes part of a living historical artwork in present day.
Crudeoils is a five-year ongoing collaborative duo between an Iraqi videographer/ photographer and an American digital media programmer. Crudeoils' works to date are the Mona Lisa, A Bar at the Folies Bergère, and One Chair. A new work, The Death of Sardanapolis, is forthcoming.
Time and Place:
1:30p
Building 4
Room 257
April 27, 2007
Shawn Lawson gave an artist lecture "Raytracings of the In Between" at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Time and Place:
11a
Columbus Building
Room 232
April 26 - April 30, 2007
Crudeoils will exhibit
A Bar at the Folies Bergère and
Mona Lisa in
Art Chicago with the
Dean Jensen Gallery at the Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL.
Private Opening
April 26, 2007
8p-10p
Public Opening
April 27-30, 2007
April 21 - April 30, 2007
Shawn Lawson will exhibit
Surface Traversal in
Collision 11 at the Stata Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Opening
April 21, 2007
6p-9p
March 31, 2007
Wafaa Bilal spoke at the
Arab American Museum in Dearborn Michigan. He will be part of ìART IS NOT ALWAYS BEAUTIFULî panel. His talk entitle ìThe Human Condition in Political Art, Aesthetic Pleasure vs. Aesthetic Pain.î This event is part of Diwan Arts forum 2007.
When: March 31, 2007
Time: 1-3PM
Where: Arab American Museum
More info at: www.arabamericanmuseum.org
March 29 - April 6, 2007
Shawn Lawson will present
Wu Wei in the Re-Surface Technology Expanding the Horizon: a Reinterpretation & Investigation of the Landscape and exhibition at the Silver Image Gallery, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
Opening
March 29, 2007
6-9PM
February 2007 - December 2008
Shawn Lawson presents
Surface Traversal in the
Web Biennial 2007 at the
Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum, Istanbul, Turkey.
2006 - 2008
Wafaa Bilal presented The Human Condition series at museum of contemporary photography’s Midwest Photographers Project. The work will be at the museum for next two years.
Here is what Kendra Greene, Manager of Collections, has to say abut the work. “Wafaa Bilal’s unabashedly political art seeks to provoke. His images of suffering, repression, distortion, and excess draw on symbolism and surprise to make their point, but even as they press the allegorical towards the surreal, their intent to raise issues and spark dialogue remains consistently clear. The pictures range formally from the very painterly to the exactingly photographic and occasionally include the artist as subject.” For more info please visit the MoCP web site. http://mocp.org/collections/mpp/bilal_waafa.php
