Uncertain Spectator
November 18, 2010 - January 29, 2011
The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC)
http://empac.rpi.edu/events/2010/fall/uncertain/
Opening reception: Thursday, November 18, from 5:30 - 10 PM, with a curator’s tour at 5:30 PM, a performance by the Troy Chainsaw Ensemble, and a screening of Dancer in the Dark at 7 PM.
The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) is pleased to announce Uncertain Spectator, a group exhibition confronting anxiety in contemporary art. Uncertain Spectator asks individuals to cross a threshold — to place themselves in situations riddled with tension, to confront deeply charged emotional content, and to grapple with feelings of apprehension. The works presented deal with a general mood of uneasiness arising from recent political and economic events that frames a future rife with imminent threats. Uncertain Spectator not only responds to these unsettling situations, but also creates them by challenging individuals to step outside of a place of comfort both physically and emotionally.
The exhibition incorporates media works in the broader context of contemporary art landscape through the work of 10 artists spanning the genres of video, installation, sculpture, and interactive media. Occupying EMPAC’s lobby, Marie Sester’s commissioned installation Fear consists of a seating area with a table that pulses with a warm inviting light, until the viewer attempts to approach it. Anthony Discenza creates street signs that do not communicate a set of rules for public space, but instead convey doomsday predictions and poetic reflections on doubt. Jesper Just’s black and white film, A Vicious Undertow, presents an enigmatic and open-ended narrative, which never allows the viewer to achieve closure.
Curated by Emily Zimmerman, assistant curator, Uncertain Spectator is contextualized by an exhibition catalog that considers the role anxiety has played in philosophical discussions of existentialism, psychoanalysis, and ethics. There will also be a blog created for Uncertain Spectator with invited special weekly guest bloggers who will look at manifestations of anxiety in contemporary culture, including Marisa Olsen, Marina Zurkow, Claire Carlisle, Anthony Discenza, Jesper Just, Max Hernandez-Calvo, and others. The blog for Uncertain Spectator will launch the week of November 1st: http://uncertainspectators.tumblr.com/
Artists include: Graciela Carnevale, Anthony Discenza, Claire Fontaine, Kate Gilmore, Tue Greenfort, Susanna Hertrich, Jesper Just, Marie Sester, Superflex, and Jordan Wolfson.
This exhibition is free and open to the public Monday - Saturday from 12 PM - 6 PM. Parking for the opening is available in the Rensselaer parking lot on College Avenue. Parking for the exhibition will be available at paid metered parking spots on 8th Street.
Additional event information, special events, and schedules may be found on the EMPAC website, http://www.empac.rpi.edu.
About EMPAC
EMPAC is an international hub for art, performance, science, and technology, founded by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. EMPAC offers adventurous interdisciplinary public events, support for artists and scholars engaged in creative research, and the resources of a state-of-the art facility for digital media production, research, and performance situated on a college campus. EMPAC’s building is a showcase work of architecture that spans the physical and digital worlds. With a 1,200-seat concert hall, a 400-seat theater, two flexible black box studios, audio and video production rooms, and residency studios, EMPAC is a unique environment where digital technology and human experience can meet. EMPAC 2010-2011 presentations, residencies, and commissions are supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts (with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation, and the Boeing Company Charitable Trust), and the New York State Council for the Arts. Special thanks to the Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts for support of artist commissions.
About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is the nation’s oldest technological university. The school offers degrees in engineering, the sciences, information technology, architecture, management, and the social sciences and humanities. For over 30 years, the Institute has been a leader in interdisciplinary creative research, especially in the electronic arts. In addition to its MFA and PhD programs in electronic arts, Rensselaer offers bachelor degrees in electronic arts, and in electronic media, arts, and communication — one of the first undergraduate programs of its kind in the United States. The Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies and EMPAC are two major research platforms that Rensselaer established at the beginning of the 21st century.
EMPAC
Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
110 8th Street
Troy, NY 12180
http://www.empac.rpi.edu
Box Office: 518.276.3921
