Experimenta Utopia Now
Last week, Jess & I attended the opening of Experimenta Utopia Now – International Biennial of Media Art at the Arts Centre, Blackbox in Melbourne. This was no quiet affair. There was a huge white bubbly entrance with people milling all around, goody bags, wine glasses and thunderstorms made it a sweet treat for a Thursday afternoon.
With more than 35 works, I need to go back with my booklet in hand and pour over each piece with more time and more space. Personal treasures from the night are (drum roll):
You Were In My Dream
Isobel Knowles & Van Sowerwine
Peering through a magic box, your face is captured and becomes a part of a story. Here is Jess – smiling and waiting for rabbits to come out of the tree. I’m a vegetarian who is terrified of animals, so to be able to see myself smiling and holding rabbits was pretty super cool. Surreal actually.
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Life Writer
Laurent Mignonneau & Christa Sommerer
My image does this no justice at all. As you can see there is a man and a typewriter. BUT!! There are bug thingees too (artificial life forms to be precise). And as the man types, the forms move, die or are born. It really makes you double take; old typewriter, sheet of paper, man typing – much more to it.
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Xanadu
Kit Wise
I think this piece topped my charts for aesthetic appeal. It was serene, water falling, city lights, symmetry. It felt like Niagra Falls with the gushing water, Fiji with its super lush greens and Hong Kong with its sky high lights had all been seamlessly stitched together. You could just stand there and stare it, trying to find a fault in its perfection.
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And that was Experimenta Utopia Now. Hurry because it closes on the 14th of March.
I went to this exhibition today, it was fantastic. I really enjoyed “Savage Growth” by Bu Hua. I’m actually looking for a good quality version of this video online. I would love to make an animation like that one day.