"BRAINGIRL + E + PUSSY WEEVIL: Work by Claudia Hart, Larry Bercow / Marina Zurkow, Julian Bleecker"
2003-05-15 until 2003-06-21
bitforms gallery
New York, NY, USA United States of America

"BrainGirl" + "e" + "Pussy Weevil" is an exhibition which investigates the relationship of character, and narration. Each project presented uses varied media, hardware and collaborative production structures to create the context for which the narrative can be read. This is a production strategy that is commonly used in the fields of Mass Media, literature, and technology.

Marina Zurkow presents "Braingirl" created in Flash animation, which is usually experienced online. The animated character and story "Braingirl" is a hybrid of the adolescent girl's exaggerated sense of self and the artist's viewpoint of teens' externalized emotions. Braingirl's position is realized through a complex of iconic animated imagery and simple narratives, which symbolize the juncture between self, family and society. The series is presented as a continual loop projected into the gallery space. Marina Zurkow + Julian Bleecker also present "Pussy Weevil" using Flash animation, custom code + java to create a screen-based 2D animated character whose behaviors are reactive by a set of rules that defines its characteristics, and responds to the position of the viewer, influencing what is viewed. "Pussy Weevil" is housed in a 17" screen embedded into the gallery wall.

Claudia Hart + Larry Bercow present "e meets the Photography of Larry Bercow". Here, Claudia Hart uses 3d software to create the character "e". "e" is a being that can de-form her features and body to correspond to her clothing or her milieu. In this series, "e" is composited into photographic landscapes by Larry Bercow that Claudia Hart has appropriated, and is garbed in 3d versions of fashions by cutting edge fashion designers. These works evoke narratives portrayed in fashion layouts, linking them to advertising and the commercial market's uses of fictional narratives to create links with products, thereby providing unconsciously absorbed self-identifications for consumers.

"BrainGirl" + "e" + "Pussy Weevil" expose multidimensional aspects of character. In our current culture, individual characters typically created with production media imply specific narratives, some of which can be viewed in the context of this exhibition. As a group narrative, the exhibition has a common denominator: the exchange between artist and viewer, suggesting a contemporary practice of storytelling and character development within the realm of contemporary digital art.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of New York

Other Important Exhibitions in New York