BEAPworks 2005 |
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10 February - 12 June 2005
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| John Curtin Gallery
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The John Curtin Gallery will become an experimental research laboratory for six local new media artists when they present the outcomes of their BEAPworks research and development grant. The artists Mark Cypher, Cat Hope, Jo Law with Hilary Bunt and Raoul Marks, Cameron Merton & Yvette Merton, Nina Sellars with Iain Sweetman & Gareth Lockett, and Cynthia Verspaget, will encourage viewers to interact with their new work and explore the way the world is shaped by emergent technologies.
The local artists featured in BEAPworks investigate the nexus between art, science and technology through their interactive multimedia installations. Their works will provide an avenue for understanding how scientific developments affect our perception of daily life. Their innovative projects will include Mark Cypher’s poetic and performative examination of every living things’ need to connect with others – even a different life-form; Cat Hope’s ‘framed artwork’ will confront us with our lack of awareness of environmental sounds around us; while Jo Law’s large-scale projection with 3d compositions by Hilary Bunt and Raoul Marks will deal with memory and consciousness; Cameron Merton and Yvette Merton’s fictional world will reference largely invisible phenomena that co-habitates with us. While Nina Sellars, working with Iain Sweetman and Gareth Lockett, will reinterpret Michelangelo’s fresco The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel as a meditation on reimagining the natural body; Finally Cynthia Verspaget’s Terrasinda plays with ideas of self imposed surveillance and augmented space in a pseudo gaming environment.
Paul Thomas, director of BEAP and curator of the BEAPworks exhibition sees himself as a convenor, bringing together seemingly disparate concepts through curatorial dialogue. This approach by Thomas is creating an environment where artists can reflect on their research individually and collectively. This approach is being harnessed with the support of the John Curtin Gallery and its noted reputation for excellence in exhibition presentation, particularly in the field of new media artworks.
Paul Thomas hopes the BEAPworks exhibition will also engage the community, industry, scientists and engineers, by displaying the creative output of the BEAPworks artists and hence allude to possible future uses of their own research. Thomas sees BEAPworks as more than an exhibition but an event displaying Intellectual Property and creativity in electronic arts. Hopefully this will entice scientists and engineers to consider the inclusion of artists as part of their creative team on research projects.
BEAPworks was established as a joint initiative between the Biennale of Electronic Arts, Perth and ArtsWA from a desire to generate high-end research in the area of electronic arts. This aspiration was timely, as artwork such as this is can fall between traditional art funding categories. Funding of up to $10 000 were granted for projects that utilised emerging technologies such as digital, time-based, broadband, screen-based and biological art. It is hoped that the BEAPworks grant and exhibition will assist the development of a supportive electronic culture in Perth.
BEAP is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments and the Government of Western Australia through ArtsWA in association with Lotterywest.
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Artists:
Mark Cypher, Cat Hope, Jo Law, Hilary Bunt, Raoul Marks, Cameron Merton, Yvette Merton, Nina Sellars, Iain Sweetman, Gareth Lockett, Cynthia Verspaget
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