SLIDESHOW: Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies; The Animated GIF as Place at GRIN

by Michael Anthony Farley on June 9, 2016 Events + slideshow

Last week, GRIN Gallery in Providence opened the AFC-curated exhibition Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies: The Animated GIF as Place. It’s the IRL version of our online exhibition with Providence College—Galleries and will be installed until July 2nd. GRIN sent us these install shots, and it’s pretty remarkable how different and complimentary the physical component feels to the online show.

In the gallery, we displayed GIFs included in the online exhibition from Hugo Moreno, Sara Ludy, Petra Cortright, Dina Kelberman, Ying Miao, Clement Valla, and Gizelle Zatonyl as well as different works from Nicolas Sassoon and Wickerham & Lomax. We also installed two pieces from Victoria Fu—the only artist not included on the website—the video projection “Velvet Peel 2” and animated neon sculpture “Pinch-Zoom.” These are all about the way bodies relate to screens and illusionistic space, so Fu was a perfect fit for an IRL exhibition about digital spaces. For Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies‘ physical iteration, the tension of image-as-place was a theme we strove to explore with scale. In GRIN, Dina Kelberman’s Star-Trek-sourced “Doors” are projected nearly life-size on opposite walls, a nod to the fictional holodeck. Using the same projector set up, Gizelle Zatonyl’s sweeping window views of an alien landscape feel immersive beyond the screen when sized and positioned to surround the body. On the other hand, displaying Hugo Moreno and Sara Ludy’s respective GIF series on Electric Objects screens hung like paintings nods to proto-cinematic relationships between location and representation—the sequential stained glass window or sublimist landscape updated for the digital age.

We also screened all of the GIFs in the exhibition as well as longer video works from the artists and longer-form GIFs from Jacolby Satterwhite. GRIN (60 Valley Street, Unit 3
Providence, RI) is hosting another outdoor screening on June 25th from 8 – 10 p.m., so if you didn’t catch the opening, be sure to check it out! We have to say, even if we hadn’t curated this show, we’d be giving it a giant neon thumbs-up.

08 Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies Installation at GRIN June 4 - July 2

[Left to Right] Dina Kelberman, “Doors,” 2012-ongoing; Clement Valla, “Approximate GIFs from Google Earth (46°42’19.50″N, 7° 5’20.26″E)”, 2015; Nicolas Sassoon “Favourites,” 2012; Victoria Fu, “Pinch-Zoom,” 2015; and Hugo Moreno’s “Art Department: Walls,” 2015.

01 Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies Installation at GRIN June 4 - July 2

Petra Cortright, “System Landscapes”, 2007 (Left) and our online exhibition, displaying Jonathan Monaghan “Escape Pod,” 2015 (Right)

02 Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies Installation at GRIN June 4 - July 2

Sara Ludy, “Seychelles Isles Surf Beach” and “Miami Beach” from the series “Beaches,” 2014.

03 Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies Installation at GRIN June 4 - July 2

Sarah Ludy, “Beaches,” 2014; Ying Miao, “Flowers All Fallen, Birds Far Gone”, 2015; and Petra Cortright, “System Landscapes”, 2007.

04 Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies Installation at GRIN June 4 - July 2

GIFs from Hugo Moreno’s “Art Department: Walls,” 2015 and Wickerham & Lomax “BOY’DegaEdited4Syndication” (interactive website) 2014.

05 Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies Installation at GRIN June 4 - July 2

Victoria Fu, “Velvet Peel 2,” 2015; Giselle Zatonyl “Modular Landscape (Kyplon)”, 2016; Victoria Fu “Pinch-Zoom,” 2015; and Clement Valla, “Approximate GIFs from Google Earth (46°42’19.50″N, 7° 5’20.26″E)”, 2015 (foreground flatscreen).

06 Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies Installation at GRIN June 4 - July 2

Installation View.

07 Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies Installation at GRIN June 4 - July 2

Nicolas Sassoon, “Favourites,” 2012; Victoria Fu, “Pinch-Zoom,” 2015; Hugo Moreno, “Art Department: Walls,” 2015; Wickerham & Lomax, “BOY’DegaEdited4Syndication”, 2014; Giselle Zatonyl, “Modular Landscape (Kyplon)”, 2016; and Clement Valla, “Approximate GIFs from Google Earth (46°42’19.50″N, 7° 5’20.26″E)”, 2015 (foreground).

09 Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies Installation at GRIN June 4 - July 2

Wickerham & Lomax, “BOY’DegaEdited4Syndication”, 2014 (interactive website).

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