For the months of September and October, Light Work and the Urban Video Project are pleased to present two videos,Dying Oak/Elephant and Ballerina (Wild Raspberry Bush) (both 2009), by internationally recognized artist and designer, Pae White.

The artist will discuss her work in person during a talk at the Everson on September 20th at 7PM.

This event, co-sponsored by the Everson Museum of Art, the Syracuse University Sculpture Program, and the Department of Art Visiting Artist Lecture Series, is free and open to the public. For more information contact Pam McLaughlin, Everson Curator of Education and Public Programs, (315) 474 6064 x 308.

About the Work

Dying Oak/Elephant, 2009  | 3min loop

Ballerina (Wild Raspberry Bush), 2009  | 1min loop

Of her process in creating Dying Oak/Elephant, the artist says:
“I came upon 3D scanning technology in 2009 while exploring options for creating a death mask for an enormous California Oak tree in the Sierra foothills. The fragile nature of this 800 year-old tree and its surrounding soil made any direct contact with it out of the question.

I was interested in the scanning process as a way to have intimate contact with this tree but without physical interaction. Information for every surface and every pore was gathered and reconstructed as a point-cloud which mapped the entire surface of the tree. Having this raw data gave me many options for output.
Working with an expert in motion programming from Dreamworks animation, I had the data converted into an animation where the point-of-view mimicked a dying elephant, in other words, looming, slow and erratic.”

These two video pieces both employ high tech 3D scanning and motion animation techniques and apply them to objects from the natural world, playfully interrogating the integrity of the human/nature divide. The result is a mesmerizing exploration of natural form in which perspective and scale are in constant flux, the data points coalescing for a moment to create an image that is almost hyper-real in its detail, and in the next dispersing into glowing abstractions that might be galaxies or cities at night.

About the Artist

A California native, Pae White is a multimedia artist known for reinterpreting familiar encounters and ordinary items—like animals, books, advertisements, shopping bags, and plants—and revealing what she calls the “artfulness” of the natural and the everyday. She employs ornate craftsmanship along with inventive materials to create objects and installations that transcend traditional boundaries between art and design.
Her work was featured in the 2009 Venice Biennale, as well as the 2010 Whitney Biennial. She has had recent solo shows at Kaufmann Repetto, Milan, Italy (2011); Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Belgium (2009); and at Neugerriemschneider, Berlin, Germany (2008), among others. Articles on her work have appeared in Frieze, Tema Celeste, Contemporary, Art Monthly, and Artforum, among others. In addition she has designed publications and advertisements for a number of museums, galleries, and magazines.