Came across Leo Villareal’s work at the 2010 01SJ Biennial and thought you should also check out his work. He an artist who creates light sculptures with LEDs and code. He is currently showing at the San Jose Museum of Art.
Images from San Jose Museum of Art.
still smiling (final) from Alison Ho on Vimeo.
still smiling
Digital video
Height 5′ 3″
Still smiling is a video installation that captures a common phenomenon of social awkwardness – the polite smile – and focuses in on it, without extraneous factors.
Influenced by being in-between cultures, I often find myself in situations that I do not completely understand, but yet still must keep up appearances. Over the years, I have mastered this smile, and have successfully feigned full understanding to family members and other viewers alike. Although well-intentioned at first, Still Smiling exhibits the tension that inevitably appears as the muscle strain seeps through my face, and body language dissolves politeness into honesty.
DISPLACE
Sand paper, vinyl stencil
Variable
Displace is a text piece that visualizes my interior reaction to a moment or a situation of social awkwardness. Displace arises from the words, “space” and “place” and plays upon how language occupies both.
The most poignant example in my life is a family dinner. All at once, family members will talk to each other in Taiwanese, address the waiters in Cantonese, discuss money (and other private affairs) in Thai, and then attempt to include the kids in English, as a good-natured gesture. Despite the intentions, I often feel confused, awkward, and overwhelmed by the multitude of inaccessible conversation swirling around me.
I feel displaced a level below my family, unable to understand all the nuances because my Mandarin skills are not on par with the rest of my family.
‘Displace’ is the visual representative of those feelings – the word ‘Displace’ has been sanded into the wall – it does not appear on the same surface level as other pieces in the gallery, but must fend for itself, sanded into the wall.
If you haven’t already, our BFA show will be up today and tomorrow at the White Box. The show ends on June 25th and 6 PM.
luminous deer
University of Oregon
Department of Art, Digital Arts
Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition
First Thursday Opening
June 3, 6-9 p.m.
White Box, 24 NW First Avenue, Portland, OR
June 4-25, Tuesday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m.
About Luminous deer:
Download press statement here.
http://luminousdeer.com/
For more info:
whitebox@uoregon.edu
503-412-3689
I hope you can come and see our final BFA show. It will be awesome.
You might even get a smile sticker.
meow meow presents copy cat
Artist statement
Liz Bayan & Alison Ho
With the insemination of computers and the internet into our daily lives, the way we view ownership has been slowly changing. When the printing press was introduced and information was available, for the first time, people were no longer dependent on authority to educate themselves. As such, not only was the common person now literate, people began writing and taking credit for their creative endeavors.
Now we see something very much similar happening. The digital age has created a new sense of ownership. With the availability of handheld cameras, web cams and cell phones with cameras, the common person, has the means of creating. Video work is not longer solely in the hands of a select few. Anybody, anywhere can pick up a camera and film something. We are seeing a familiar trend in information insemination. And in fact, in information multiplicity.
Special thanks to Andrew Parnell for lending us his grandma chairs and help with producing the boxes and signs. The boxes turned out awesome!!!!
Meow Meow (Liz Bayan + Alison Ho) presents
COPY CAT
March 4, 2010 from 6-9 pm at the John Ross gallery
3623 SW River Parkway
Portland, OR 97239