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Video projection by Barry Anderson
Light Work and Urban Video Project (UVP) launch new series of public art projections along Connective Corridor
The Connective Corridor, in collaboration with Light Work, is pleased to announce a new series of public art projections for the Urban Video Project (UVP). This re-launch of UVP's programming will establish it as an important international venue for the public presentation of video and electronic arts.
In order to accomplish this goal, Light Work has put a curatorial process in place for UVP that will bring curators from Syracuse and around the world to curate exhibitions and installations. Each chosen curator or curatorial team will select the programming to be projected at all three UVP sites for approximately a three-month timeframe.
UVP is one of the few projects in the United States dedicated to continuous and ongoing video art projections—while some other venues project work sporadically, all three UVP sites run, commercial free, from dusk to 11p.m., Thursday- Sunday, year-round. UVP is part of the Connective Corridor, which is emerging as a significant strip of cutting-edge cultural development connecting Syracuse University with downtown Syracuse. It is home to three major universities and more than 25 arts and cultural venues. In the coming months and years these venues will be stitched together and showcased with new urban landscapes, bike paths, imaginative lighting, public and interactive art, signage and way-finding systems.
UVP uses the latest in digital projection technology to project high-definition video or digital images on the side of two buildings in downtown Syracuse. One projector is located atop a building and projects onto the side of the Onondaga Historical Association building at 321 Montgomery St. This site can project images up to 576 square feet and also features a unique directional sound system that can project sound to passersby on the sidewalk below without disturbing the occupants of adjacent buildings. The second high-definition projection site is located around the corner on the side of the Monroe Building at 333 East Onondaga St. This is the largest UVP site and can project an image as large as 80 x 45 feet, just shy of the size of an average IMAX screen. The third UVP site, located at Syracuse Stage, is a 300-square-foot LED curtain that uses 16,000 individual bulbs for more graphically oriented presentations.
UVP was first started in 2007 by the student artist team Avalanche Collective in the College of Visual and Performing arts at Syracuse University. In 2009, UVP became a public art initiative of Syracuse University when the Connective Corridor, with technology provided by Time Warner, expanded on the work of the Avalanche Collective to transform UVP into one of the first permanent public video art exhibition venues in the country.
First UVP Curatorial Team: Emily Duke and Cooper Battersby
Emily Duke and Cooper Battersby were selected as the first team to curate a series of projections for all three UVP sites that will take place from Feb. 1-March 31.
Battersby and Duke have been working collaboratively since 1994. They work in printed matter, installation, curation and sound, but their primary focus is in sculptural video installation. Their work has been exhibited in galleries and at festivals in North and South America and throughout Europe. Duke received her B.F.A. from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and completed her M.F.A. at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Battersby received his diploma in computer programming at Okanagan College, and completed his M.F.A. at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Their work has won prizes nationally and internationally, and has been broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Bravo. Both Battersby and Duke currently teach in the Transmedia Department in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University.
Their selections for UVP include:
ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION SITE (Feb. 1–28)
Althea Thauberger, not afraid to die, 2008, 16 mm film transferred to HD video, 15 min
Shot on location in the Northwest Rainforest Diorama of the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria (a reconstruction of the kind of forest which surrounds the city of Victoria), not afraid to die depicts a Gore-Tex clad girl alternatively waiting and snacking. Birds, passing airplanes, and a 'voice of God' a cappella song (sung by the artist) are occasionally heard.
Thauberger is a Vancouver-based artist who works in photography, film, video and performance. She completed a B.F.A. in photography at Concordia University in 2000 and an M.F.A. in studio
art at University of Victoria in 2002. Her work considers issues of self-definition, alienation, community and coercion within "natural" worlds, and social/political structures. Works often
involve short- and long-term collaboration and sometimes exist in the public domain. Her work
has been exhibited internationally, including at John Connelly Presents in New York; Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin; Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver; and Artspeak, Vancouver; among others.
At right: Althea Thauberger—not afraid to die video still
SYRACUSE STAGE SITE (Feb. 1–March 31)
805 E. Genesee St.
Nathaniel Sullivan, On the Way to the theatre we Egged a Trans-Am, 2009, 1.5 min
In this video, Sullivan depicts the pressures brought to bear in teenage boys—most of which are pressures to be pleased, injunctions to enjoy. While at first glance this looks like an easy row to hoe, the work makes it clear that in fact there are consequences to taking one's pleasures liberally, without reserve. As Plato said, pleasure deranges as efficiently as pain.
Nathaniel Sullivan is an artist and writer currently working towards an MFA degree in the Transmedia Department at Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY. His practice is a balance of artwork, critical writing, and curating. His work has been shown in exhibitions and screenings in Syracuse, New York City, and widely across Canada. In 2006, he was awarded a Special Mention from the prestigious Montreal Film Festival.
MONROE SITE (Feb. 1-28)
333 E. Onondaga St.
Althea Thauberger, The Bear, 2007. HD video projection, 7 min
Set in Thauberger's native British Columbia, The Bear is an illustration of the way banality intrudes into
our fantasies about nature. We see the knotted roots of a tree in the Canadian Rainforest, and a black
bear wandering in and out of the scene. An alert viewer will begin to suspect that something is amiss:
the bear is not a bear at all, but rather a person pretending to be a bear. The Bear calls into question our relationship to nature and its inherent pleasures and dangers. For biographical information about Thauberger, see above.
At right: Althea Thauberger—The Bear video still
Light Work is a nonprofit, artist-run organization dedicated to the support of artists working in photography and electronic media. Light Work is a member of CMAC, the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers at Syracuse University.
For more information about any of these exhibitions, please contact Jessica Heckman at Light Work, 315-443-1300 or jhheckma@syr.edu.
**Digital press images and image information for all videos are available upon request.