“YOU ARE INVITED”
A retrospective exhibition of selected works by Dinka Pignon, produced at VIVO over the last decade, and her good-bye dinner party. You are invited!
Curated by Sebnem Ozpeta
Dinka Pignon is an interdisciplinary media artist working in video installation and performance art. Her approach is experimental, characterized by a strong affinity for the phenomenal, liminal, conceptual and minimal. The work is situated in the area of 'mixed reality', operating on the borderline between the real and the virtual. In her installations, large-scale video projections are used to reshape the architecture of the space and merged with real objects for illusionary effects. Built in that manner, the installations become virtual environments for performance to take place, often involving participation of the audience.
Over the last 30 years, Dinka has produced a large body of work and has shown it worldwide. Parallel to her own artistic practice, she has also coordinated and curated a number of interdisciplinary art events, festivals, experimental workshops and international art exchange programs. Devoted to artist-run culture, she has spent most of her working life in artist-run centers: 15 years at the Fylkingen for New Music & Intermedia Art in Stockholm and 10 at VIVO Media Arts Center in Vancouver.
Dinner for Corporeal & Radiant Beings (2003)
Dinner is a participatory video installation designed to engage the audience in a surreal experience. A video projection of 10 people dining is extended and mirrored in the real space to create a unique social environment. Audience members are invited to join the dinner and involve with the virtual guests, while reflecting upon our ever increasingly virtual interactions in contemporary urban society.
Not Sure (2010)
The human mind doesn't rest easy with ambiguity. It wants certainty at all times, no matter what. This decisiveness however comes at a cost. Much gets lost by forcing experience to fit the size of concepts. Not Sure invites staying with the inherent ambiguity of things. There will be a video projection, and maybe a person, and at any moment it will not be entirely clear which is which. This continual falling into the space beyond and between distinctions is meant to leave awareness poised in an ataraxic suspension above its eternal ground, the gestalt "whole greater than the sum of its parts". [Sound: Emma Hendrix]
Stones & Pool (2003)
An image of sleeping faces is projected onto a pile of stones, each face occupying one stone. A video of people diving underwater is projected onto and through the water in a pool. That’s it. The impression is compelling, even though it is readily apparent how the illusion has been created.
Elementals (2008)
Elementals is a video sculpture -- a piece of physical place inhabited by spirits of the imagery projected on it, imprinting it, appearing to be both within and emerging from the substance arresting it. William Blake said: Everything we see, is Vision. Elementals would then be, ‘vision imposed’. It is a metaphor for what we can't help but do -- project our vision onto everything we see. The language and meaning then follow the suite and shape our understanding of the world.
In the installation, a rain of alphabet is sinking into the sand, to reappear on the surface and dissolve, to become ancient symbols and then fall again – as if looking for the figurative origins of words, the long forgotten connection between letter and form.
Other work – documentation (1992 – 2004)
Staircase Encounter (2004), Jitter Bugs (2004), New Barbarians (2004), Pre-ception (2003), Video Beds (2003), A Door Like a Jar Like a Moon (2000), Inside Round (1995), Nach Leif (1994), The House (1992), Out of Stretch (1992)
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A retrospective exhibition and farewell dinner party for Dinka Pignon.
Curated by Sebnem Ozpeta
Dinka Pignon is an interdisciplinary media artist working in video installation and performance art. Her experimental practice is characterized by a strong affinity for the phenomenal, liminal, conceptual and minimal. Her work is situated in the field of 'mixed reality', operating on the borderline between the real and the virtual. In her installations, large-scale video projections reshape the architecture of the space and create illusionary effects over objects. The installations become virtual environments for performance, often inviting audience participation. Over the last 30 years, Dinka has produced a large body of work that has exhibited world wide. Parallel to her own practice, she has coordinated and curated interdisciplinary art events, festivals, experimental workshops and international art exchange programs. Devoted to artist-run culture, she has spent most of her working life in artist-run centers: 15 years at the Fylkingen for New Music & Intermedia Art in Stockholm and 10 years at VIVO Media Arts Center in Vancouver.
You Are Invited will exhibit the following works produced at VIVO over the last decade:
Dinner for Corporeal & Radiant Beings (2003)
Dinner is a participatory video installation designed to engage the audience in a surreal experience. A video projection of 10 people dining is extended and mirrored in the gallery to create a unique social environment. Audience members are invited to join the dinner and engage with the virtual guests: Sharon Bradley, John Brennan, Laura Lee Coles, Margaret Dragu, Julie Gendron, Mario Glavacic, Brian Gotro, Ari Hendrix, Emma Hendrix, Lois Klasen, Bobbi Kozinuk, Laura Lee Coles, Brady Marks, Natasha McHardy, Cindy Mochizuki, Milena Salazar, Sarah Shamash, Pierre-Andre Sonolet, Marie-Hélène Tessier, Jeremy Todd, Paul Wong.
Not Sure (2010)
The human mind doesn't rest easy with ambiguity. It wants certainty at all times, no matter what. However, this decisiveness comes at a cost. Much gets lost by forcing experience to the frame of concepts. Not Sure invites staying with the inherent ambiguity of things. The continual falling into the space beyond and between distinctions is meant to leave awareness poised in an ataraxic suspension above its eternal ground, the gestalt "whole greater than the sum of its parts". [Sound: Emma Hendrix]
Pool (2003)
A video of people diving underwater is projected onto and through the water in a pool.
Elementals (2008)
Elementals is a video sculpture–a piece of physical place inhabited by spirits of the imagery imprinting it. The apparitions appear to be both within and emerging from the substance–arresting it. William Blake said, "Everything we see, is Vision". Elementals would then be vision imposed. It is a metaphor for what we can't help but do–project our vision onto everything we see. Language and meaning follow to shape our understanding of the world. In the installation, a rain of alphabet sinks into the sand, resurfaces and dissolves, then falls again. The loop emulates a search for the figurative origins of words and the long forgotten connection between letter and form. [Creative coder: Jesse Scott, Sound: David Leith + Paul Lansky's Idle Chatter]
Other work 1989 – 2005 (Documentation)
One River - running (2005), Staircase Encounter (2004), Jitter Bugs (2004), New Barbarians (2004), Pre-ception (2003), Video Beds (2003), A Door Like a Jar Like a Moon (2000), Inside Round (1995), The House (1992), Out of Stretch (1992), DooR 2 DooR (1990), Nach Leif (1989), Ekeleketeketizismus (1989)
All Events + Exhibitions are free. Public funding and membership fees subsidize our programming. Please become a Supporting Member for $15 at the next event and keep VIVO accessible.
