COMMUNITY /// Exhibition + Workshop

Cut-Up

A collaboration between PLATFORM and Courtney R. Thompson
 
Exhibition: 17 April – 23 May 2015
Opening Reception: Friday 17 April, 8-11PM
Durational Performance by Ming Hon: Friday 17 April, 8-11PM
Found Image Workshop: Saturday 09 May, 10AM-5PM

  

In collaboration with Courtney R. Thompson, PLATFORM is pleased to present Cut-Up, a group exhibition that brings together work from various, somewhat incongruous art practices in order to consider the aesthetic strategies of early collage on contemporary art.  By considering each artist’s unique exploration of composition over space and time, Cut-Up marks a contemporary shift in our understanding of cohesion. 
 
In the essay which accompanies the exhibition, Thompson writes: “Cut-Up presents an opportunity to critically engage the relevance of collage and its permutations for contemporary artists that are indebted to but not immediately identified with its history. Art historical connections are recalled to illuminate diversions from the lineage of materiality and to reveal cohesion as an act amidst a chaotic influx of digital and analog realities with what is found, reconstituted, and re-presented. In examining the relationship between collage and lens-based images, the exhibition provokes discourse on the broader impact of technology on contemporary artistic practice.” 
 
Bringing together photography, video, performance, and installation, the exhibition features the work of: Kelsey Braun, Ming Hon, Kristan Horton, and Lisa Stinner-Kun. Please join us on Friday, 17 April for the opening reception. Hon will be presenting a new durational performance titled, Patricia: Qu’est-ce que c’est, “dégueulasse”? / What is a “scumbag”? This piece will be performed in the gallery one night only during the opening reception from 8-11PM. The event is free and all are welcome to attend. In conjunction with the exhibition, there will be a Found Image Workshop on Saturday, 09 May led by Lindsey Bond. Please contact the gallery for more information. 
 
BIOS
 
Kelsey Braun | Kelsey Braun explores a variety of landscapes using both contrasting and complimentary aural and visual elements to construct alternative realities from within which the viewer can either escape to, or reflect on our own from. These worlds are translated into sound performance and recording, single channel video, and installations using both. Braun holds a BFA from the University of Manitoba’s School of Art.
 
Ming Hon | is an independent dancer, choreographer, and performance artist based in Winnipeg. Her practice looks into themes of work, labour, capitalism, and the economy and politics of the female body.  Her most recent works of note include ‘Forever in Blue Jeans’ a comission from Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers/Prairie Dance Circuit, ‘The Exhibitionist’, and ‘Cleaver Piece’. Hon’s works have been performed and exhibited locally and internationally, including at The Taipei Artist’s Village in Taiwan, as part of the National Art Gallery’s Prairie Scene events in Ottawa, Surrey Art Gallery in B.C., Art Gallery of Mississauga,  and at Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art in Winnipeg and more. Her practice has developed to include installation work  in galleries and she regularly collaborates as a performer/collaborator on projects with visual artists such as Sarah Anne Johnson, Rebecca Belmore, and Noam Gonick. As a dancer she has studied with Tedd Robinson, Peter Boneham, Susie Burpee, and is a graduate of The School of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg. 
 
Kristan Horton | Kristan Horton studied fine art at the University of Guelph and the Ontario College of Art and Design. He currently resides in Toronto. Horton’s multi-disciplinary practice includes sculpture, drawing, photography and video. Using layered processes of construction, both material and virtual; he has produced several long-term projects linked conceptually by their serial and episodic structure. Horton researches and creates his subjects in an intensive studio practice, ultimately realizing his artworks through inventive and experimental uses of digital technology. Horton’s acclaimed Dr. Strangelove Dr. Strangelove project was seen in a series of over forty photographs exhibited at the Art Gallery of York University and accompanied by a publication illustrating all 200 diptychs (2007). Solo exhibitions include White Columns, New York, (2008) and the CAG, Vancouver (2007), among others. Horton’s work has been featured recently in the following group exhibitions: Beautiful Fictions, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2009-2010), My Evil Twin, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina (2009), Toy Void, Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich (2008), Stutter and Twitch, Beyond/In Western New York, The Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (2007) and We can Do This Now, The Power Plant, Toronto (2006-2007).
 
Lisa Stinner-Kun | Since graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a MFA in Photography, Lisa Stinner-Kun has shown her photographic work in exhibitions locally, nationally and internationally. She has received numerous grants and scholarships for her photographic work, and in 2013 was awarded a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. A recent exhibition (titled Second House First, a collaborative project with the AA School of Architecture in London), was shown at RAW Gallery in Winnipeg, and is now travelling to the AA in London. Stinner-Kun has taught at the University of Manitoba’s School of Art, where she received her BFA.
 
Courtney R. Thompson | is an independent arts professional living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has written for publications such as ArtSlant, Art in Print, and Border Crossings. She graduated with an MA in Art History, Theory & Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011.

Image. Haptic Sessions, 2010. Kristan Horton. Video still

Found Images Workshop
Saturday, 09 May 10AM-5PM
Cost: $70 (MEMBERS) OR $85 (NON MEMBERS)
Registration Deadline: Thursday, 07 May 2015 Materials provided.
Instructor: Lindsey Bond

Found Images Workshop invites artists of all experience levels to experiment with found imagery in  the black + white darkroom and digital workstation. Participants will discuss and explore traditional and current methods to modify and manipulate imagery including:  solarization, collage, sandwiching negatives, scanograms, paper negatives and more….  Concepts that will be explored include: copyright, power of the owner/viewer, identity, place and slight of hand.

The workshop will begin by discussing found imagery brought in by participants and continue on to examine contemporary artists working with the found image including: Birthe Piontek, William Eakin, Joachim Schmid, Laura St. Pierre and more… The workshop will also take a tour through Cut-Up, a group exhibition with Lisa Stinner-Kun, Kristan Horton, Ming Hon + Kelsey Braun exploring the influence of collage on lens-based media, featuring video, performance, installation and photography.

Participants are encouraged to bring in found imagery/objects (analogue or digital). All other materials will be supplied.  Please bring a bag lunch.
Lindsey Bond is a lens-based artist born in Edmonton, currently based in Winnipeg, Bond received her BFA in Photography from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and studied Visual Communications at Edinburgh College of Art.  Lindsey creates collaborative photographic and video works that explore the starting points of culture and sidelines of community. She works with a documentary ethic that speaks to an intentional combination of research, analogue processes and intuition.  Subjects that focus her practice include: contemporary Canadian railway culture, chalk messages in urban space and the bridge as gateway and barrier.  Bond’s work has been exhibited across Canada.

To Register:
Call PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts and drop off payment (cash or cheque) during gallery hours, Tues-Sat, 12 – 5 pm.  Registration is on a first come, first serve basis. Participants must register by Thursday, 07 May at 4:00pm.  Registration is confirmed upon payment in full; fees include the cost of all or most materials.

Cancellation Policy:
Participants who cancel up to 2 business days prior to workshop will receive a refund minus a $25 administrative fee.  PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts reserves the right to cancel or reschedule workshops with a full refund.