Absolutely Free


Scotiabank Nuit Blanche at OCAD University includes works from six international contemporary artists using immersive light, sound, film, video, .gif and sculptural installations.

 
DateSaturday, October 4, 2014 - 11:00pm to Sunday, October 5, 2014 - 11:00am

Cost

Free

Location

Enter Through Butterfield Park 100 McCaul St. Toronto, Ontario

Scotiabank Nuit Blanche at OCAD University includes works from six international contemporary artists using immersive light, sound, film, video, .gif and sculptural installations. The works are linked through the use of light and moving image, developing unique and interactive environments that will accumulate matter or deteriorate over the duration of the night.

ARTISTS
Grégoire Blunt & Emmy Skensved
Aryen Hoekstra
Lili Huston-Heterich
Lorna Mills
Matthew Williamson
Curated by Stefan Hancherow

"Discorporate" means to leave your body. The term was coined by Frank Zappa in 1968 in the song “Absolutely Free” and is the basis for OCAD University’s 2014 Scotiabank Nuit Blanche exhibition. Currently there exists an epoch where one can discorporate via digital bodies. This phenomenon is apparent when Googling oneself, sharing A Look Back movie on Facebook, or posting a selfie. Viewers are invited to unbind their minds and contemplate the present, where reflections no longer exist in a mirror, but in the glow from technological devices.


Scotiabank Nuit Blanche at OCAD University includes works from six international contemporary artists using immersive light, sound, film, video, .gif and sculptural installations. The works are linked through the use of light and moving image, developing unique and interactive environments that will accumulate matter or deteriorate over the duration of the night.

BIOGRAPHIES
Emmy Skensved and Grégoire Blunt strive to shape the future to look more like DS9. They produce animated CGI, synthesized sounds, meditation fountains, black-lit psychedelia and 3D poetry. They are networked, operating as a post-gender collective in order to enhance performance. S/he absorbs new members, and expands to fill available spaces. The world they document can be understood as one mediated by a synthesis of biological and technological entities; nature amplified. They inhabit a sphere that extends outwards from Berlin toward distant URLs. He favours nudity and high-tempo Nightcore rhythms; she, sportswear and drama. Did I meet you last year at a party or something? Exhibitions in 2014 include: a pool of black milk at Ve.sch (Vienna); a blue piña colada fountain at Altes Finanzamt (Berlin); a frozen tonic-water bar performance at Other Projects (Berlin); a black-lit booze-luge exhibited at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin); a series of 2D psychedelic works at d3signbur3au (London), Duve (Berlin) and ESP (Toronto). Emmy is a graduate from OCAD University.



Aryen Hoekstra received his MFA from the University of Guelph and BFA from the University of Alberta. Recent and upcoming exhibition venues include, Mercer Union (Toronto); Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton); Forest City Gallery (London, ON); Modern Fuel (Kingston, ON); Blackwood Gallery (Mississauga); Xpace Cultural Centre (Toronto); Olga Korper Gallery (Toronto). His writing on contemporary art has appeared in C Magazine, Border Crossings and Towards Magazine. Since spring 2014, Hoekstra has served as the Director of G Gallery in Toronto.

Lili Huston-Herterich is an artist and curator living in Toronto. She established Butcher Gallery, an independent project space, in 2009 with Brad Tinmouth and the two continue to direct the space. Huston-Herterich held the position as co-director at O’Born Contemporary from 2010 to early 2013. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Mercer Union Centre for Contemporary Art, and was recently recognized on Blouin ArtInfo’s Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 for her independent success with Butcher Gallery. She has previously exhibited at Paul Petro Special Projects (Toronto), Cooper Cole (Toronto), XPACE (Toronto), and at the Sullivan Galleries of The Art Institute of Chicago.

Lorna Mills has actively exhibited her work in both solo and group exhibitions since the early 1990s, both in Canada and Internationally. Her practice has included obsessive Ilfochrome printing, obsessive painting, obsessive Super 8 film & video, and obsessive on-line animated GIFs incorporated into restrained off-line installation work. She has also co-curated monthly group animated GIF projections for the “Sheroes” performance series in Toronto, a group GIF projection event “When Analog Was Periodical” in Berlin co-curated with Anthony Antonellis, and a four-person GIF installation, “:::Zip The Bright:::” at Trinity Square Video in Toronto, with artists Sara Ludy, Nicolas Sassoon and Rick Silva. Mills's most recent project, “The Axis of Something” a solo installation of animated GIFs and large-scale digital prints, was exhibited at Transfer Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Loran has been a guest artist and speaker at OCAD University.



Matthew Williamson examines the cohesion between the Internet and so-called real life. While working in a broad range of formats from print to video, websites to electronics, his work is focused on the humourous relationships we forge with our machines. He is a graduate of OCAD University and received an MFA from Syracuse University. He has exhibited at Interaccess (Toronto), XPACE (Toronto), and has been featured on Rhizome.org




MATERIAL SPONSORS
Above Ground Art Supplies 
and Spoonflower



Absolutely Free is a Major Cultural and Educational Institution Independent Project funded by OCAD University. The complete program for the evening is available on the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche website.

Image Credit: Matthew Williamson

DateSaturday, October 4, 2014 - 11:00pm to Sunday, October 5, 2014 - 11:00am

Cost

Free

Website Location

Enter Through Butterfield Park 100 McCaul St. Toronto, Ontario

Matthew Williamson, 2014
Saturday, October 4, 2014 - 11:00pm to Sunday, October 5, 2014 - 11:00am

Scotiabank Nuit Blanche at OCAD University includes works from six international contemporary artists using immersive light, sound, film, video, .gif and sculptural installations. The works are linked through the use of light and moving image, developing unique and interactive environments that will accumulate matter or deteriorate over the duration of the night.

ARTISTS
Grégoire Blunt & Emmy Skensved
Aryen Hoekstra
Lili Huston-Heterich
Lorna Mills
Matthew Williamson
Curated by Stefan Hancherow

"Discorporate" means to leave your body. The term was coined by Frank Zappa in 1968 in the song “Absolutely Free” and is the basis for OCAD University’s 2014 Scotiabank Nuit Blanche exhibition. Currently there exists an epoch where one can discorporate via digital bodies. This phenomenon is apparent when Googling oneself, sharing A Look Back movie on Facebook, or posting a selfie. Viewers are invited to unbind their minds and contemplate the present, where reflections no longer exist in a mirror, but in the glow from technological devices.


Scotiabank Nuit Blanche at OCAD University includes works from six international contemporary artists using immersive light, sound, film, video, .gif and sculptural installations. The works are linked through the use of light and moving image, developing unique and interactive environments that will accumulate matter or deteriorate over the duration of the night.

BIOGRAPHIES
Emmy Skensved and Grégoire Blunt strive to shape the future to look more like DS9. They produce animated CGI, synthesized sounds, meditation fountains, black-lit psychedelia and 3D poetry. They are networked, operating as a post-gender collective in order to enhance performance. S/he absorbs new members, and expands to fill available spaces. The world they document can be understood as one mediated by a synthesis of biological and technological entities; nature amplified. They inhabit a sphere that extends outwards from Berlin toward distant URLs. He favours nudity and high-tempo Nightcore rhythms; she, sportswear and drama. Did I meet you last year at a party or something? Exhibitions in 2014 include: a pool of black milk at Ve.sch (Vienna); a blue piña colada fountain at Altes Finanzamt (Berlin); a frozen tonic-water bar performance at Other Projects (Berlin); a black-lit booze-luge exhibited at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin); a series of 2D psychedelic works at d3signbur3au (London), Duve (Berlin) and ESP (Toronto). Emmy is a graduate from OCAD University.



Aryen Hoekstra received his MFA from the University of Guelph and BFA from the University of Alberta. Recent and upcoming exhibition venues include, Mercer Union (Toronto); Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton); Forest City Gallery (London, ON); Modern Fuel (Kingston, ON); Blackwood Gallery (Mississauga); Xpace Cultural Centre (Toronto); Olga Korper Gallery (Toronto). His writing on contemporary art has appeared in C Magazine, Border Crossings and Towards Magazine. Since spring 2014, Hoekstra has served as the Director of G Gallery in Toronto.

Lili Huston-Herterich is an artist and curator living in Toronto. She established Butcher Gallery, an independent project space, in 2009 with Brad Tinmouth and the two continue to direct the space. Huston-Herterich held the position as co-director at O’Born Contemporary from 2010 to early 2013. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Mercer Union Centre for Contemporary Art, and was recently recognized on Blouin ArtInfo’s Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 for her independent success with Butcher Gallery. She has previously exhibited at Paul Petro Special Projects (Toronto), Cooper Cole (Toronto), XPACE (Toronto), and at the Sullivan Galleries of The Art Institute of Chicago.

Lorna Mills has actively exhibited her work in both solo and group exhibitions since the early 1990s, both in Canada and Internationally. Her practice has included obsessive Ilfochrome printing, obsessive painting, obsessive Super 8 film & video, and obsessive on-line animated GIFs incorporated into restrained off-line installation work. She has also co-curated monthly group animated GIF projections for the “Sheroes” performance series in Toronto, a group GIF projection event “When Analog Was Periodical” in Berlin co-curated with Anthony Antonellis, and a four-person GIF installation, “:::Zip The Bright:::” at Trinity Square Video in Toronto, with artists Sara Ludy, Nicolas Sassoon and Rick Silva. Mills's most recent project, “The Axis of Something” a solo installation of animated GIFs and large-scale digital prints, was exhibited at Transfer Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Loran has been a guest artist and speaker at OCAD University.



Matthew Williamson examines the cohesion between the Internet and so-called real life. While working in a broad range of formats from print to video, websites to electronics, his work is focused on the humourous relationships we forge with our machines. He is a graduate of OCAD University and received an MFA from Syracuse University. He has exhibited at Interaccess (Toronto), XPACE (Toronto), and has been featured on Rhizome.org




MATERIAL SPONSORS
Above Ground Art Supplies 
and Spoonflower



Absolutely Free is a Major Cultural and Educational Institution Independent Project funded by OCAD University. The complete program for the evening is available on the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche website.

Image Credit: Matthew Williamson

Venue & Address: 
Enter Through Butterfield Park 100 McCaul St. Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free
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