Mycolinguistics – Ash Coates (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)
The languages and symbiotic relationships of plants, fungi and bacteria cultures, give rise to transformations of microorganisms, energy fluctuations, transmigration of cells and the distribution of nutrients within the environment and our bodies. It is these processes that influence and form the shapes, composition and psychedelic tones within my work. The paintings are a process of ritual and meditation on things both massive and microscopic, magic and scientific, internal and external.
Within my animations, the digital and handmade worlds of image making meet in a collision of pixels, molecules and cosmic energy to create a dialog regarding identity, our place within our environment and the impact of a technologically developing world on the way we interact and communicate within the environment. You stand as a voyeur overseeing the processes of the life and death of cells and the language of plants taking on visual forms. The unseen becomes visible and it allows time for contemplation on what it means to be a part of this complex and symbiotic network of cells and microorganisms.
http://ashcoates.blogspot.com.au
Ready, Set – Michael Lasater (Indiana, USA)
Ready, Set started with a snapshot, taken by my mother sometime in the 60s, of my uncle and father standing in a parking lot at the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, Kansas. Their poses—my uncle stiff-armed, my father a bit more relaxed, hand in pocket—called to mind David Hockney’s subjects in American Collectors, and for that reason I remembered it and eventually took it up as a motif for composition. The piece is entirely self-referential and somewhat formalistic, a time-object referencing cubism and counterpoint, in the direction of Keith Haring.
http://michaellasater.net
Walking Cycle – Wenhua Shi (Massachusetts, USA)
Walking Cycle is an abstract audiovisual piece that celebrates the line, its quality, and its movements. This piece is a tribute to early abstract animation masters Len Lye and Hans Richter.
Wenhua Shi is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at UMass Boston. Originally trained as a doctor in China, Wenhua departed from the medical field and began working in radio and TV in his hometown of Wuhan. In 2009 he graduated with an MFA from Art Practice at the University of California at Berkeley. Wenhua Shi pursues a poetic approach to moving image making, and investigates conceptual depth in film, video, interactive installations and sound sculptures. http://shiwenhua.net
