Mercury Retrograde: Animated Realities October 16, 2009

Mercury Retrograde: Animated Realities
Brian Alfred, Bouvy & Gillis, eteam, Cliff Evans, Kristian Kozul, Takashi Murakami

Exhibition Dates: October 16th – November 7th 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, October 16th, 8:00 – 11:00 pm

...Mercury Retrograde: Animated Realities reveals complex artificial worlds and underlines how our every day is seen through the lens of mass media. The exhibition features a selection of video animations by an international cast of artists, executed in a variety of techniques and aesthetic approaches. The musical scores, heavy with anxious energy, ask viewers to look beyond the horizon point that is no longer there. Combining kitsch iconography and clichéd imagery with international art history traditions and cultural, mythical and religious heritage, the artists reflect on beauty, identity, contemporary surroundings, the culture of spectacle, and power relations in our interconnected world. These artists appropriate images from a variety of reference points—Internet, television, newspapers, pop-culture and fashion—and cut to the core of our collective psyche. The materiality of animation allows for flattening, collaging, reduction and abstraction of found imagery; through these kinds of manipulation and blending of images, the artists create superbly loose narratives which merge social and cultural criticism and activism with the easy, breezy beauty of poetry and play. Although we might secretly smell magpie lust for opulence and luxury, the artists adamantly maintain positions that stand firmly between opposition and complicity. Mercury Retrograde: Animated Realities is an ongoing investigation into the curatorial practices of Zeljka Himbele-Kozul and William Heath.

For further inquiries, or to obtain press photos, please contact:
William Heath & Zeljka Himebele-Kozul
[email protected]

Gallery hours: Wednesdays 7:00 – 9:00 pm, Saturdays 12:00 – 5:00 pm and by appointment. Private tours are available with the curators by appointment.

Official Website: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=153783031438&ref=nf