Friday, March 23rd, 7pm
Isolated Landscapes Screening
Event Space, upstairs at PAVED Arts/AKA Artist-Run Centre
Admission: Free
Presented by Video Pool Media Arts Centre and curated by Kathy Rae Huffman, Isolated Landscapes is a major exhibition of the history of video art by women who live and work in the central Canadian region or who were informed by years of residing in (or growing up in) the region. The nineteen works in the exhibition (by twenty-one artists) were produced between 1984 – 2009 and play a prominent role in the history of Winnipeg’s legendary Video Pool Media Arts Centre. The project represents pioneering, early video art production by women artists working in various genres and reveals their ability to utilize the available technology of the time in response to the region’s perceived isolation and starkness, reflected in geographical, cultural and personal landscapes.
The short list of videos based on Kathy Rae Huffman’s curated program was prepared for PAVED Arts by Lenore Maier, with videos by Thirza Cuthand, Shawna Dempsey & Lorri Millan, Heidi Phillips, Dominique Rey, Colleen Simard, and Leslie Supnet.
Saskatoon Program:
Isolating Landscapes – Heidi Phillips
Home – Colleen Simmard
Selling Venus – Dominique Ray
Calamity – Shawna Dempsey & Lori Millan
Through the Looking Glass – Thirza Cuthand
Fair Trade – Leslie Supnet
All the works are held in the archives of Video Pool Media Arts Centre. Many of the artists had early support from Video Pool, thereby demonstrating the many regional partnerships and mutual support networks of artists and agencies in the region.
The project has four stages, an exhibition and series of performances, a public gathering to discussion of the history and future of women working in Media Arts, a free online screening on VUCAVU.com; all in November 2017. Now in its fourth stage screenings touring Canada, to Regina, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Halifax and Montreal.
A screening of selected Videos will be shown at PAVED Arts March 23rd at 7pm. With videos by Thirza Cuthand, Shawna Dempsey & Lorri Millan, Heidi Phillips, Dominique Rey, Colleen Simard, and Leslie Supnet.
About Kathy Rae Huffman
Kathy Rae Huffman has held significant curatorial posts at the Long Beach Museum of Art, the ICA Boston and the former Cornerhouse, Manchester (UK). She was Professor of Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY (1998-2000). She has consulted, presented special programs, curated, juried, administered and coordinated events for numerous international media art festivals and arts organizations. Her research topics have focused on feminist strategies in online environments, artists’ television and video art. In 1997, Huffman co-founded FACES: Gender/Technology/Art, an online community for women (www.faces-l.net). In 2017, she co-curated the Faces 20th anniversary exhibition at Schaumbad Freies Atelierhaus, Graz (Austria). Huffman was awarded an MFA (summa cum laude) in Exhibition Design from the School of Fine Arts, California State University (Long Beach), where she also completed post-graduate studies in Museum Studies. From 1990 –2013, Huffman lived “abroad” and worked in Linz & Vienna (Austria), Hull & Manchester (UK) and in Berlin (Germany). She traveled extensively in Central and Eastern Europe between 1984 and 2014. She currently resides in Southern California, where she continues her work as a freelance curator, networker, writer and media art collector.
