Diane Kidd Gallery to Present 'Art:Film/Film:Art'

TIFFIN UNIVERSITY, TIFFIN, OH— An innovative new exhibition at The Diane Kidd Gallery showcases the influence of film and television – the moving image – on the visual arts.

“Art:Film/Film:Art” will feature the work of nearly two dozen artists.  A special opening reception will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 24, 2011 at the gallery, located inside the Hayes Center for the Arts on the TU campus.  The reception is free and the public is invited to attend.

In addition to the opening reception, another special event will include a film screening and the presentation of selected works from the exhibition.  The program will be held from 1 to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6, at the gallery.  This event is also free and open to the public.

Regular Diane Kidd Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, or through appointment by contacting Celinda Scherger at Tiffin University at 419.448-3313.  Group tours are available.

• David H. Angell (North Kingstown, RI)
• Matt Barker (Toledo, OH)
• L. Ashwyn Collins (Champaign, IL)
• Robert Ladislas Derr (Columbus, OH)
• Jenn Figg and Matthew McCormack (Mount Vernon, OH)
• Dominic Guarnaschelli (Louisville, KY)
• Holly Hey (Perrysburg, OH)
• Jonathan Johnson (Westerville, OH)
• Kelly Joseph (Paekakariki, New Zealand)
• Eric Krompak (Maumee, OH)
• Cyriaco Lopes (New York, NY)
• Maria Lupo (Roseland, NJ)
• Emily Moorhead (Loveland, OH)
• Michael Murnau (London, United Kingdom)
• Joe Nanashe (Brooklyn, NY)
• Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi (Atlanta, GA)
• Brian O’Malley (Granville, RI)
• Jeremy Pellington (Toledo, OH)
• Maria Raponi (Toronto, Ontario)
• Cigdem Slankard (Rocky River, OH)
• Pierre St-Jacques (Brooklyn, NY)
• Nicole Tschampel (Sunnyside, NY)

“When film was first invented in the late 19^th century, it immediately captured public interest. Whether it was Edison’s actuality films of simple, single and continuous shots of daily interactions and events, or the 1896 screening of the Lumiere Brothers’ ‘Arrival on the Train’ that so amazed the Parisian crowd with its veracity and movement that there was panic in the seats, we have gone to the movies to be drawn into another world, a world filled with the sights and sounds of the moving image,” remarks “Art:Film/Film:Art” curator, TU Professor Lee Fearnside.  “This exhibition displays the work of visual artists who are influenced by films and television, offering their interpretation of the moving image on our world and suggesting new ways to experience the moving image.”

As one example, artist Jonathan Johnson creates photographs by attaching a flatbed scanner to a television and recording scenes in real time as an intervention in and commentary on the overwhelming flow of images. Another of the exhibiting artists, David H. Angell, also makes photographs from television, but creates blurs, superimpositions and color casts of celebrities and actors.

Other examples of art influenced by the moving image include Emily Moorhead’s installation, which utilizes institutional display techniques to re-interpret popular culture – in this case the popular Twilight series of books and movies. Maria Raponi’s delicate sculptural reconstructions of film sets suggest the magic of cinema and the character of environment. Robert Ladislas Derr’s Chance brings together video and photography to document a performance in which his specific movements around a city are determined by rolls of the dice. Maria Lupos’ Shark Baby is inspired by the science fiction films and pulp of the 1950s. Dominic Guarnaschelli’s photograph combines family photographs with images from “The Matrix,” exploring fascination with masculinity.

The exhibition will feature three screening areas for video work, each organized around a theme – the experience of storytelling, experimental and avant-garde film, and pop culture and the mainstream media. 

“Narratives are typically an ordered series of events, with logical cause and effect, strung together to make sense over time. The videos in this group tell stories, but challenge that conventional narrative structure,” Fearnside says.

Pierre St-Jacques’s Project for a Grey Dress in New York features two characters who can never quite connect in time or space. Michael Murnau creates a lyrical love story between two plastic bags in All is Full of Love. The Days is Brian O’Malley’s meditation on what makes up our daily experiences. Jeremy Pellington’s Now Bird is Voice of Grandma is an exploration on death and relationship through the process of painting. Kelly Joseph explores the intersections of time-travel, memory and fable. Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi’s Dopplegänger tells the story of the internal conflict between identity and assimilation in this self-portrait, as the African artist struggles to adapt to an American university.

According to the curator, this group of video works draws on the traditions of experimental and avant-garde film, and uses abstraction and structure to ask the viewer to interpret sights and sounds. “These films and videos utilize color, light, sound, movement and the tempo of editing to create a rhythmic visual and often emotional experience,” Fearnside explains.

Matt Barker paints directly on clear film leader in his An Experimental Film to create a film experience that suggests not only the patterns of the brush but biology and plant life. Erik Krompak’s Color Escapes presents confrontations between color and geometry. Images from an ordinary winter day are edited in a structural fashion using jump cuts, shot repetition, freeze-frames, and fades to black to bring the viewer's attention to time past, time forgotten, and time gone in Holly Hey’s Here Myrtle. Jenn Figg and Matthew McCormack’s Kinetic Light Drums is a documentation of a performance in which drums activate lights to create visual music.

The third group of videos focuses on films from mass media and pop culture as inspiration. “These artists borrow images from Hollywood films to reinterpret, parody and reinvent. By drawing on existing footage, these artists compel us to reconsider what we see, and examine the underlying systems that inform mainstream media,” Fearnside says.

Cigdem Slankard’s Bad News/Good News investigates notions of gender, stardom and melodrama by collaging scenes of a woman in terror or anguish, all featuring Turkish star Soray. L. Ashwyn Collins’s Remake juxtaposes fragments of remakes of the famous shower scene from “Psycho,” making the terror both mundane and satirical. Nicole Tschampel uses a sign labeled “Alert” from “The Russians are Coming,” removing every extraneous detail, to make visible the universal nature of sensationalism. Cyriaco Lopes’s Roleplaying parodies romantic comedies, as he uses the dialogue of the leading men from the American Film Institute’s top five romantic movies to create a fragmented conversation between two men in a gallery. Joe Nanashe’s Oh Joe series creates a satirical tribute to himself by collaging movies that use a character named Joe.

More information about “Art:Film/Film:Art” and The Diane Kidd Gallery can be obtained by contacting Marsha Pippenger, Gallery Director, at marsha.pippenger@gmail.com.