Videos and more...Loukia Alavanou, JJ Kawano, Group Mel-Air
18 Oct - 11 Nov 2006
Videos and more...
Loukia Alavanou
JJ Kawano
Group Mel-Air
Opening Wednesday 18 October 2006 From 14.00 To 20.00
18 October - 11 November 2006
vamiali’s gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition titled "Videos and more..." with artists Loukia Alavanou (GR), JJ Kawano (USA) and Group Mel-Air (NZ, ET,CN)
Athenian-born, London-based Loukia Alavanou works with video to explore themes of the familiar, the uncanny and the personal using found material and footage from different sources, starting from Hollywood films, Disney cartoons to last century black and white photographs. In "Burial of a Priest in an Unknown Village" (2006) Alavanou uses a photograph from the 1920's portraying civilians from an unidentified village who are gathered for the funeral of a priest and posing behind his exposed corpse. Loukia Alavanou de- and recomposes the image: she cuts out religious icons, crosses and all kinds of ecclesiastic props, heads and body parts and merges them thus turning the still into an animation that resembles an uncanny moving organism: at first a Roman cross, it turns into a clock. The artist slowly removes layer after layer, emphasising the selected symbols and therefore reflecting the camera’s intrusion into this seemingly sacred moment. The gazes, the gestures, the props and the corpse, all seem to collude.
American Kawano's work illustrates esoteric situations with phrases, text and images where melancholy and nostalgia are mixed with sarcasm to create abstract environments where everything is possible and language is usually subjective. Kawano works as a professional filmmaker in the film industry. In his short videos he is using recognisable popular music to seduce the viewer in an elegy of drum-fire early modernism references. "My river" (2006), a single-channel projected video, features text along with the music part of the famous classic Moonriver creating unusual and unexpected associations.
Group Mel-Air, a collective of four artists that work in China will present a video within a sculpture or a as they prefer to name this work a projected sculpture. "Group Reflections" (2006) is a new large scale ambiguous mirror piece combined with a single and static projection. Their work celebrates the joy to work as a group but also is acting as a bridge to promote their individuality that is being revealed during a collaborative process.
For biographies of the artists please contact the gallery.
Loukia Alavanou
JJ Kawano
Group Mel-Air
Opening Wednesday 18 October 2006 From 14.00 To 20.00
18 October - 11 November 2006
vamiali’s gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition titled "Videos and more..." with artists Loukia Alavanou (GR), JJ Kawano (USA) and Group Mel-Air (NZ, ET,CN)
Athenian-born, London-based Loukia Alavanou works with video to explore themes of the familiar, the uncanny and the personal using found material and footage from different sources, starting from Hollywood films, Disney cartoons to last century black and white photographs. In "Burial of a Priest in an Unknown Village" (2006) Alavanou uses a photograph from the 1920's portraying civilians from an unidentified village who are gathered for the funeral of a priest and posing behind his exposed corpse. Loukia Alavanou de- and recomposes the image: she cuts out religious icons, crosses and all kinds of ecclesiastic props, heads and body parts and merges them thus turning the still into an animation that resembles an uncanny moving organism: at first a Roman cross, it turns into a clock. The artist slowly removes layer after layer, emphasising the selected symbols and therefore reflecting the camera’s intrusion into this seemingly sacred moment. The gazes, the gestures, the props and the corpse, all seem to collude.
American Kawano's work illustrates esoteric situations with phrases, text and images where melancholy and nostalgia are mixed with sarcasm to create abstract environments where everything is possible and language is usually subjective. Kawano works as a professional filmmaker in the film industry. In his short videos he is using recognisable popular music to seduce the viewer in an elegy of drum-fire early modernism references. "My river" (2006), a single-channel projected video, features text along with the music part of the famous classic Moonriver creating unusual and unexpected associations.
Group Mel-Air, a collective of four artists that work in China will present a video within a sculpture or a as they prefer to name this work a projected sculpture. "Group Reflections" (2006) is a new large scale ambiguous mirror piece combined with a single and static projection. Their work celebrates the joy to work as a group but also is acting as a bridge to promote their individuality that is being revealed during a collaborative process.
For biographies of the artists please contact the gallery.