Rosalind Nashashibi: Bachelor Machines June 24, 2008

Thursday, July 10, 7 pm: Curator's tour with Charles Reeve
Closing reception and artists' talk: TBA

Two films by internationally renowned artist Rosalind Nashashibi, Bachelor Machines Parts I and II, anchor the summer program of the OCAD Professional Gallery at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD). The show runs June 25 to September 7, 2008.

"We expect movies to tell stories — these groundbreaking works both confirm and disrupt that expectation," said curator Charles Reeve, who organized the exhibit. "And the fact that they're on celluloid emphasizes the differences between digital and conventional technologies. Film, video and DVD are complements, not competitors."

Never before seen in Canada, Bachelor Machines Part I (2007) premiered at the Scottish pavilion in last year's Venice Biennale. The 16mm work was filmed on an Italian freighter sailing from Italy to the Baltic Sea. "Bachelor Machines I portrays the single-sex society of men aboard a cargo ship, and describes the machine that they serve as much as the men themselves," said Nashashibi, who calls the ship "a bachelor-maker, for the way of life it imposes."

Bachelor Machines Part II (2007), presented here for the first time outside Europe, comprises two simultaneously screened projections. On the left appears artist Thomas Bayrle and his wife Helke, while on the right are interwoven altered scenes from Nashashibi's earlier works. The soundtrack plays Bayrle's voice describing his apocalyptic vision of our machine-dominated world. Nashashibi describes the term 'Bachelor Machines' as encompassing something sexual — simultaneously masculine and emasculating.

Rosalind Nashashibi: Bachelor Machines is presented in conjunction with Skip, Divided: The Films of Rosalind Nashashibi, organized by Pleasure Dome to take place Saturday, August 16 at 8 pm at Cinecycle, 129 Spadina Ave., Toronto (for details please visit pdome.org).

Summer Gallery hours: Tues. to Fri., 1 to 7 pm.

OCAD gratefully acknowledges the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.

Official Website: http://www.ocad.ca