UNNATURAL SELECTION
at KMLA
featuring works by
John Dickson
Tom Pnini
Elaine Stocki
September 12 to October 24, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 12, 6 to 9 PM
KATHARINE MULHERIN CONTEMPORARY ART PROJECTS (KMLA)
LOS ANGELES, USA
Katharine Mulherin is pleased to present UNNATURAL SELECTION, a new exhibition of works by John Dickson, Elaine Stocki and Tom Pnini, at our Los Angeles satellite project, KMLA.
UNNATURAL SELECTION strives to expose current tendencies toward manufactured “natural” moments. Manifested in very different ways, each artist seems to be concentrating on the staging of events to create a “natural” illusion.
In Sunset Demo/Sonya, Tom Pnini has built a five-meter-diameter two-dimensional sun. The video follows the sun on its course from sunrise to sunset, as a group of people working behind the scenes, hold the sun up and put it in motion. The resulting movement is not smooth as it is man-held. In watching the video you might choose to sink into the illusion, however, you can constantly see the way the illusion is made.
Elaine Stocki takes photographs of people in Winnipeg and New Haven, sometimes meeting them through classified ads that she has placed online or in the newspaper. She particularly likes photographing groups of people. Her interests lie in the investigation of performance, spectacle and farce as tools for questioning and blurring the lines of gender, race and class. Stocki is seeking some sort of genuine expression of emotion in what is a contrived situation.
John Dickson’s sculptural “Redux” is a reworking, distillation and blending of Conrad’s short novel, The Heart of Darkness, and Coppola’s epic film, Apocalypse Now. Contained within a vitrine-like case, a miniature video camera tracks past a series of strategically placed, but modest objects, live-feeding to a television set a short distance away. The structure and essence of the original works have been retained, but their narratives have been condensed into a four and a half minute journey. Redux pays homage to these master works, and to the art of filmmaking, but does so in a playfully physical and irreverent manner.
John Dickson received his MFA from York University in 1986. Dickson’s growth as a multifaceted artist over the past two decades has gained him recognition across Canada and abroad. He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants through out Canada. John Dickson lives and works in Toronto.
Elaine Stocki (b.1979) was born and raised in Winnipeg Canada. She received her MFA in photography from Yale University in 2009. Recently Stocki’s photographs were included in Collier Schorr’s experimental exhibition Freeway Balconies at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. Elaine Stocki lives and works in New York City.
Tom Pnini (b.1981) was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. He is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture, performance and video. Currently Tom Pnini lives in New York City where he is getting his MFA at Parsons The School of Design.
Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects has hosted exhibitions in Toronto, Canada and abroad for over ten years. In the summer of 2009, the satellite project, KMLA was formed in Los Angeles’ Chinatown.
KATHARINE MULHERIN CONTEMPORARY ART PROJECTS
1082 Queen Street West, TORONTO
936 Chung King Road, Los Angeles
email: info@katharinemulherin.com
phone: 416.993.6510
web: http://www.katharinemulherin.com
image: Tom Pnini, “Sunset Demo/ Sonya”, video still, 2009UNNATURAL SELECTION strives to expose current tendencies toward manufactured “natural” moments. Manifested in very different ways, each artist seems to be concentrating on the staging of events to create a “natural” illusion.
In Sunset Demo/Sonya, Tom Pnini has built a five-meter-diameter two-dimensional sun. The video follows the sun on its course from sunrise to sunset, as a group of people working behind the scenes, hold the sun up and put it in motion. The resulting movement is not smooth as it is man-held. In watching the video you might choose to sink into the illusion, however, you can constantly see the way the illusion is made.
Elaine Stocki takes photographs of people in Winnipeg and New Haven, sometimes meeting them through classified ads that she has placed online or in the newspaper. She particularly likes photographing groups of people. Her interests lie in the investigation of performance, spectacle and farce as tools for questioning and blurring the lines of gender, race and class. Stocki is seeking some sort of genuine expression of emotion in what is a contrived situation.
John Dickson’s sculptural “Redux” is a reworking, distillation and blending of Conrad’s short novel, The Heart of Darkness, and Coppola’s epic film, Apocalypse Now. Contained within a vitrine-like case, a miniature video camera tracks past a series of strategically placed, but modest objects, live-feeding to a television set a short distance away. The structure and essence of the original works have been retained, but their narratives have been condensed into a four and a half minute journey. Redux pays homage to these master works, and to the art of filmmaking, but does so in a playfully physical and irreverent manner.
John Dickson received his MFA from York University in 1986. Dickson’s growth as a multifaceted artist over the past two decades has gained him recognition across Canada and abroad. He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants through out Canada. John Dickson lives and works in Toronto.
Elaine Stocki (b.1979) was born and raised in Winnipeg Canada. She received her MFA in photography from Yale University in 2009. Recently Stocki’s photographs were included in Collier Schorr’s experimental exhibition Freeway Balconies at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. Elaine Stocki lives and works in New York City.
Tom Pnini (b.1981) was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. He is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture, performance and video. Currently Tom Pnini lives in New York City where he is getting his MFA at Parsons The School of Design.
Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects has hosted exhibitions in Toronto, Canada and abroad for over ten years. In the summer of 2009, the satellite project, KMLA was formed in Los Angeles’ Chinatown.
KATHARINE MULHERIN CONTEMPORARY ART PROJECTS
1082 Queen Street West, TORONTO
936 Chung King Road, Los Angeles
email: info@katharinemulherin.com
phone: 416.993.6510
web: http://www.katharinemulherin.
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