Still from P2, video installation, Jennifer Chin
FLOW
Jennifer Chin, Jason de Haan, Paul Freeman, Tyler Hodgins
June 2 - July 1, 2006 Exhibition Reception: Friday, June 2, 2006 @ 8pm Film Screenings @ CSIF: June 8,9 & 10 @ 7pm
All are welcome. Admission is FREE.
FLOW
Imagine. You find yourself awake in the middle of the night in an uncomfortable sweat. You get up to go to the bathroom and flick on the light. To your surprise, your nose is bleeding (not entirely uncommon for the dry prairie air at this altitude) but there’s something odd. You rub your eyes (when you should really be reaching for a tissue to catch the liquid now dripping onto your pajamas) and stare in disbelief. The blood that flows from your nose is thick. Slow. Black… Your senses are suddenly overwhelmed by the unmistakable pungent taste of crude oil.
In terms of psychology, “flow” is defined by Wikipediaas, “a mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.” Proposed by Hungarian-born psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow may be the state of mind of an artist absorbed in the creative process and, ironically, the answer to the pursuit of happiness.
FLOW is a collaboration between two artist-run centres, TRUCK and the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers (CSIF), presenting 4 visual artists and 15 media artists from around the world. The work represents a diverse interpretation of the theme; touching on political systems, paths, science, nature, the body, time, history and a little bit of humor. Each piece either enhances a notion of flow or rejects it outright, blocking to some extent, our understanding of life, as we know it, day in and day out.
Similar to Csikszentmihalyi’s theories about flow, a number of the works in the show have a stream of consciousness approach. As part of the CSIF’s film program, local artist Richard Reeves’ Element of Light follows nature through light and sound while Don Best’s Flow flashes familiar and foreign images at the viewer at a rapid pace, both works have a mesmerizing effect. Muée - Part 1 (Myriam Bessette and Robin Dupuis) and Magie Blanche (Claudie Levesque) follow in this vein as well. The latter is a soothing film presented entirely in reverse.
The stream of consciousness approach in these films also adopt the “circuitry” present in most of the works in the Truck exhibition. Each of the visual art is some kind of never-ending, looping circuit. There is a blunt tension in Jennifer Chin’s P2, referring to the Christian Passional which, according to Chin, “describes the passions of or accounts of the sufferings and resulting exaltations of medieval saints and martyrs”. In two adjacent looping videos, a stream of sticky molasses passes from one mouth to another, often overflowing, provoking a sense of suffocating. Chin describes the “human nature of desire, consumption and obsession.” Radiator (Tyler Hodgins) is a circuit in itself. A chromed cast iron radiator connected at both ends by one pipe circulates water continuously, although apparently disconnected to any real utility source. Hodgins comments on the circulatory system compared to the continuous flow of heating and cooling air. The mundane repetitive cycling and re-cycling is evident in dead end job (Ryan Stec) using a surveillance camera and a digital video mixer to abstract the blurry shapes of the daily grind. The film was shot during Stec’s work hours at a reception job.
Other prevalent themes of history, culture and politics are shared between the works at TRUCK and film screenings at CSIF. Here’s where the artists criticize deeply rooted systems. Tom Andriuk’s War Everyday is a fascinating film presenting images of war as they relate to the oil industry and the recent global obsession with terrorism. Using carefully crafted models and digital effects, Andriuk’s film is a complete farce yet reflects a story we’re all familiar with. The Story of a Flag by Amir Kiani, is a metaphor for the turmoil of wars through a simple animating of one flag into another. Having exhibited at TRUCK five years earlier, David Poolman returns with the film, 13 Instances; a clever comment on teenage rebellion and isolation through the voyeur of online diaries by Death Metal enthusiasts. Challenging our local culture in particular, is de Haan’s sculpture; I know all the songs that the cowboys know because I heard them on the radio. de Haan’s piece (a pair of cowboy boots attached to a 100 ft continuous tube of stuffed “leg-like” denim in a tangled pile) references the incompetent, clumsy cowboy and challenges the commoditization and authenticity of contemporary western culture.
The latter by de Haan connotes a sense of entrapment in an absurd situation with an obvious sense of humor about it. A twisted humor breaks up the heaviness of many of the works in the show. Wrik Mead’s filth is a bizarre portrayal of a simple cleaning job turned very wrong, ending in a filthy nightmare. Barb Mair’s That’s Life portrays 1.5 minutes of people in rabbit suits fornicating all over the public realm in downtown Calgary. (Csikszentmihalyi’s pursuit of happiness?)
Along the lines of twisted humor, is Paul Freeman’s disturbing sculpture of mutated kitsch objects. This hurts me more than it hurts you uses objects like garden gnomes and playful dolphins with their heads morphed and stretched into a long tube connecting back into themselves. Freeman comments on “the disruption of our sense of self” and presents a metaphor for self-inflicted trauma. His work also references the disturbing trends in science of genetic modification and the negative “offspring,” if you will, of some bio-chemical development.
Another theme explored in the works is the subtle flow of simple actions and natural systems we often take for granted. Simple and poignant, Virage (Farzin Farzaneh), focuses on the act of turning, and highlights the idea that any turn could be a “turning point.” Similarly, Hydr(0) (Jason Arsenault) presents a young woman who submerses her head under water stimulating our fascination with water, death and drowning. The film evokes an uncomfortable curiosity that is only satisfied by her eventual resurfacing. Using dance, Cea (Andrea Pass, Dominique Keller) exhibits striking beauty in the form of bodies moving in a field of wheat, swaying gently in the wind; a pause in the generational cycle of the harvest. And once again, the film, Paths (Marika Orenius), presents a split screen of images of constant movement, destinations and the flow of the paths we choose in life.
All of the work in the exhibition and film program of FLOW, are metaphors for undeniable natural and unnatural cycles and systems. They imply constant change and continuous movement; water, time, people, money, politics, birth, death, creative thought, and our very own blood pulsing through our veins. The show broadly exploits simple visual metaphors for flow while resonating deeper with the flow of life in its most complex forms.
“We cannot deny the facts of nature, but we should certainly try to improve on them.”
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990
- Holly Simon lives and works in Calgary, Alberta
Visit the CALGARY SOCIETY OF INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS for information on the upcoming film screenings.
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In Which the Honourable Company Explores its Territories - Dave & Jenn
