Sabrina Raaf FLOAT: A Series of Electronic, Kinetic and Photographic Works
© Raaf
Opening on November 5, 2005 at 5 pm
Artist's Conference (in English) on Wednesday, November 2nd at 6:30 p.m. at Concordia University, 1395 Blvd René-Lévesque Ouest, local VA 210
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.
© Raaf
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).
Valérie Lamontagne is a Montréal-based performance/digital media artist, freelance art critic and independent curator. Her media-based artwork/performances (Advice Bunny, Snowflake Queen, Sense Nurse, Mermaid of the Future, Sister Valerie of the Internet and 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 Design and Computation Arts program and she is a co-founder, with Brad Todd, of the media arts collective MobileGaze. She is presently a Ph.D.
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© OBORO
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© OBORO