The ritual of walking in a circle
Published
You are walking in a circle, but the walking is a ritual. You are not just walking. Are we ever just walking? Is the body just aging? Is the volcano just being? A ritual is a manmade cultural expression, when repeated; a replica of natures own methodology. The repetition of what has been. In the repetition the after image of the concrete evolves; the thought. Or in walking; the reason to keep on.
Bergen center for electronic art presents the exhibition
The ritual of walking in a circle with Kjersti Sundland, Ellen Røed and Anne Marthe Dyvi.
Kjersti Sundland: Enduring Portrait
Produced: 2007
Length: variable
The videoinstallation Enduring Portrait shows a woman gradually becoming 40 years older. Depending on format and venue, the length of the eldering-cycle is set in a particular de-commissioning program played from a computer. The first showing of the work was in the group show Time Code, at The Museum of Modern At in Bologna, where the eldering process of approximately 40 years was set to the opening hours of the museum. For the exhibition ‘The ritual of walking in a circle’, it is set to three hours.
Kjersti Sundland explores phenomenlogical aspects and ideas attached to our experience of time, perception and memory. She works with installtion, drawing, video and sound. In many of Kjersti’s works she uses live video and audi processing where she with various forms of improvisation, repetition and image manipulation investigates how memories are stored, altered, and weaved into new narratives. In addition to working with her own art projetcs, Kjersti is member of Undersentralen, Sound of Mu and the newly started video group Doppler. I flere av Sundland’s arbeider tar hun i bruk live video og audio prosessering hvor hun med ulike former for improvisasjon, repetisjon og bildemanipulasjon undersøker hvordan minner lagres, forandres, og flettes inn i nye narrativer. I tillegg til å arbeide med egne kunstprosjekter er Sundland medlem av Undersentralen, Sound og Mu, Oslo, og den nystartede videogruppen Doppler i Bergen.
Kjersti Sundland (b. 1972) is employed as academic staff teaching in New Media at Bergen National Academy of the Arts, and has her education from Royal College of Art, London, and Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Kjersti’s work has been shown in places like Black Cube, Trøndelag senter for Samtidskunst, Galleri Brandstrup, Oslo, Artopia gallery, Milan, Museum of Modern Art, Bologna, Katrineholm Kunsthall, Netmage Festival for Live Media, Bologna.
More information about the artist:
www.kjerstisundland.com
www.imellomtiden.no/undersentralen/
www.doppler.im
Ellen Røed:
Elektra
Produced: 2006 – 2009
Length: 14:11
Elektra is a videoprojection, dedicated to the volcano Popocatepetl, based on the intyerplay between silence, dynamics and noise. In order to make it, Ellen Røed downloaded thousands of web camera images of the extremely active Popocatepetl, which were published on the internet by Centro Nacional de Prevención de Desastres i Mexico, where a number of scientists monitor the volcano.
After having sorted the images in a database systematised in relation to visual criteria, Ellen structured the images in cyclical patterns in new ways that create affective, accelerating structures. While the static mountain that takes up more than half inthe picture frame, is present in every image, everything else is in continuous movement. Through investigating ideas such as stillness and repetiotion, acceleration, information and noise, the volcano becomes an emotional `site´.
Elektra was originally made for the composistion Elektra by Knut Vaage, but has also been presented as an independent video work without the music. Later it has been redevelpoed several times and performed as a dialogue with Victoria Johnson who plays the composition on electric violin and computer.
Ellen Røed (b. 1970) is a visual artist and has for a long time worked with video, real–time video and electronic media. She works at Bergen National Academy of the Arts as a research fellow, with her project ‘Former for forandring’. In 2001 she ended her art education at the Art Academy in Trondheim. Ellen has exhibited nationally and internationally, and her work is (amongst other things) purchased by The Arts Council Norway. She has co-operated with the music– and theatrefield in many projects. Her background from these collaborations strengthens her work in a way that makes it possible for her to show complex installations in time and space. Ellen has for many years been closely associated with Bergen Center for Electronic Arts.
More information about the artist:
http://www.thankyou-verymuch.com/eng/ellenroed.html
Anne Marthe Dyvi:
I / Jeg
Produced: 2012
Length: 6:13
‘I am playing with a hypothesis; that there is no one–dimensional explanation for stuttering. The explaination seems to be a vague `collection of connections´. Mental, inherited, a trauma can trigger it. In my thoughts around this the human body and human soul– phenomenon, I think that all humans stutter. We do not reach each other, and those who stutter reveal this, rhythmically. That there is a connection between this and the cultivation of the human, that I am trained through the culture I live in to distance myself from the herd, and lose the feeling of belonging. That systems, institutions, rules and norms increase the stuttering. I train up my own children in the same system, and apply my stuttering on to them. A boy I once heard of, often wet his bed. He was told off for this by his father. The boy stopped wetting his bed, but instead started to stutter.’
Anne Marthe Dyvi (b. 1979) is an artist, educated at Bergen National Academy of the Arts, with MA in 2010. She works in different media, not staying true to any of them. Anne Marthe is part of the artist group Ytter, works at Bergen Center for Electronic Arts, and in the resource group for developing a national video archive.
More information about the artist:
https://annemarthe.wordpress.com
http://ytter.no/