Diametric

                                Melbourne VTC                Simone Paterson

              

 

 

 

Perspective Gallery Exhibit

March 19 - May 11

Reception Friday March 22 5 - 7 p.m.

 

SIMONE PATERSON

ARTIST STATEMENT

Visual art offers us the opportunity to reflect on the human condition and provides us with a way to transform our understanding. Making art and viewing art is a way of making sense of the world in which we live. As an immigrant living in a post 9/11 America I am concerned with the aesthetic possibilities of technology and also address the impact of technology on our lived experience. In a time of increasing reliance on technology it is the practice and study of new media itself, the aesthetic and philosophical concerns that can clarify our position within the world and reflect how humans have impacted the planet. The art that I produce employs a range of contrasting techniques including traditional craft, such as sewing and felt making, as well as computer technologies such as interactive software, digital video, visual effects and digital imaging. The combination of techniques is a deliberate strategy to blur the boundaries between art, craft and digital reproduction. This method of working could be classified as "post new media" i.e. a collision or coalescence between traditional and new media techniques.

"DIAMETRIC"

An exhibition by Simone Paterson at Perspective Gallery consists of digital images, fabric sculpture and interactive video. Paterson explores the landscape of Appalachia and Australia. She claims that the quality of light is dramatically different in the Appalachian Mountains than in the land of her birth. "In Australia the light is intense, sharp and at times blinding. The mountain light is filtered through a veil of moisture, a gentle caress of pastel hues as vistas open up before you on the trail." The land is represented via abstracted images that employ digital mirroring techniques highlighting the reflection of light on land and sea. Paterson repeats the landscape upon figurative fabric sculptures. Specifically the female figure becomes an iconic representation of land and sea. "Diametric" also consists of two interactive videos, one filmed in Australia, the other in Virginia. The interaction is controlled with the software, Isadora, using a webcam to capture the movement of the audience. Audience members are transformed into white light and their movement reveals a hidden text. The text is insistent that we are not diametrically opposed to the natural world and that "we are all netted together", Darwin’s most important principle. The exhibition "Diametric" prompts us to consider how the continual destruction of the natural world will hasten our demise. The Australian component has been completed and exhibited during a studio residency in Artspace Sydney and PODspace Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia 2012.

Link to video documentationhttps://vimeo.com/46689643

CONTACT

simpat@vt.edu