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Sabrina
Raaf’s exhibition Float playfully queries the
relationship between humans and imaginative technological
systems. Ingeniously dissecting organic/scientific
advancements and their impact on the modes and environments
we inhabit, the works in Float suggest a coactive
relationship between machines and their users; subjects
and their environments; systems and architecture;
perception and space.
Float features a panoply of “creative machines” from
Lost—a stranded meta-Lander submerged in a
miniaturized and kinetic crater space; and Searchstoretrash—a
labyrinthine sculpture parodying the “information
superhighway”; to Grower—the “rover” that
charts ambient CO2 levels to create a “meadow” in
green indelible ink. Icelandic Rift, premiering at
OBORO, explores notions of scale, geography, location
and organic architecture while the photographic series
of digital prints Test People presents domestic situations
turned askew with unexpected occurrences of antigravity,
invasions, war scenarios or passive subservience.
These works—interplaying between art and information—propose
and question extended/enhanced somatic presence,
agency and affect in the technological realm. Float
quixotically leaves the viewer to imagine, wish for
and soon marvel at future hybridized natural/technological
forms of living.
A text by Valérie Lamontagne accompanies the
exhibition.
Cette commande d’œuvre
a été réalisée en collaboration
avec Avatar et grâce à la contribution financière
du Cirque du Soleil et du Programme de commandes d’œuvres
d’arts médiatiques du Conseil des Arts du
Canada.
Sabrina Raaf is
a Chicago-based artist working in experimental sculptural
media and photography. Her work has been presented
in solo and group exhibitions at Espace Landowski (Paris),
Ars Electronica (Linz), Opel Villas Foundation Art Center
(Rüsselsheim), Artbots 2005 (Dublin), Stefan Stux
Gallery (NYC), San Jose Museum of Art, Museum Tinguely
(Basel), Kunsthaus Graz, ISEA (Helsinki), Klein Art Works
(Chicago), Wynick/Tuck Gallery (Toronto) and Painted Bride
Center (Philadelphia). She is the recipient of a Creative
Capital Grant in Emerging Fields (2002) and an Illinois
Arts Council Fellowship (2005 & 2001). Reviews of
her work have appeared in Art in America, Contemporary,
Chicago
Tribune Sunday Magazine, Leonardo, www.lab71.org, The
Washington Post, and New Art Examiner. She received an
MFA in Art
and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago and is currently Assistant Professor in the School
of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Valérie Lamontagne is a Montréal-based performance/digital
media artist, freelance art critic and independent curator.
She regularly writes about new media and performance art
in print and online publications (CV Photo, Parachute,
BlackFlash, HorizonZero, Rhizome). Curatorial projects
have been presented at the New Museum of Contemporary Art
(NYC), Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
(Quebec City), Oboro Gallery (Montréal), Images
Festival (Toronto) and CYNETart (Dresden). Her media-based
artwork/performances (Advice Bunny, Snowflake Queen, Sense
Nurse, Mermaid of the Future and Sister Valerie of the
Internet, Becoming Balthus) have been showcased across
Canada, the United States and Europe. She received an MFA
from Concordia University (Montréal) where she
presently teaches in the Computational Arts program and
she is a
co-founder, with Brad Todd, of the media arts collective
MobileGaze. |
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