10 January 2013
International artists contemplate 'Estrangement' in new Cooper Gallery exhibition
Up-and-coming artists from four continents will feature in a new video exhibition that will open at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD) next week.
'Estrangement' takes the form of a large cinematic installation showcasing exciting works from Fatma Bucak, Larisa Daiga, Evariste Maïga and Samuel Williams - four artists whose work deals with images of escape and fundamental displacement from the world.
The exhibition opens at Cooper Gallery with a Preview Evening on Thursday, 17th January and will remain on display for a month. An in-conversation event with the artists chaired by conceptual artist, researcher and writer Dr Cornelia Sollfrank will take place on 18th January.
Curator Sophia Hao said "Estrangement reveals a haunting cinematic space in which apparitions of places and figures are imagined and followed. The works featured in the exhibition populate the moving image with a range of characters and situations and, in each of the evocative video pieces, different aspects of estrangement are captured.
"The films are both unsettling and ambiguous as the artists call upon the familiar and unfamiliar, the real and the illusory, to create rich visions of fragmentary landscapes that invite the viewer to be carried along solely by the looks of the world.
"We are extremely delighted that two of the participating artists, Istanbul-based Fatma Bucak and Zürich-based Evariste Maïga will come to Dundee to meet with our audience and share their thoughts and ideas at an In-conversation event on 18th January."
Each of the artists invited to exhibit have an emerging profile on the international art scene. Turkish-born Fatma Bucak has shown her works across Europe and in 2012 she won The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers Prize with her video performance 'Blessed are you who come', which will be seen in Estrangement.
Ceramist Larisa Daiga, from Indianapolis, holds a residency at BrickHouse Ceramic Art Center in New York City. Her interest in the process of design led her to explore what happens when an object becomes autonomous of its maker, and this is reflected in her video piece to feature in the exhibition.
Selected for the prestigious Bloomberg New Contemporaries, British artist Samuel Williams works primarily with sculpture and video and has been critically acclaimed for his series of 'Twenty Second Sculptures'. He has exhibited in Germany, Russia and the USA as well as in the UK.
Evariste Maïga was born in Togo before moving with his family to Switzerland. His work asks how creativity is altered when confronted by the unknown. He has provided two films for Estrangement, both of which were selected for this year's Bloomberg New Contemporaries.
Estrangement opens with a Preview Evening on Thursday, 17th January from 6-8pm which is free and open to everyone to attend. The exhibition will remain open until 16th February, with the Gallery open from 9.30am to 5pm on weekdays and 10.30am to 4.30pm on Saturdays.
The in-conversation event with Fatma Bucak and Evariste Maïga will be chaired by Dr Cornelia Sollfrank and take place at Cooper Gallery from 12.30-1.30pm on Friday 18th January.
More information is available at www.exhibitions.dundee.ac.uk.
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