Art News:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Schick, 215-235-3405
Images Available Upon Request
InLiquid at International House presents
Just Add Maggots
An installation by Colette Copeland
Featuring videos MyDeath.com and Ossa
March 11 - April 30, 2011
International House Video Lounge
3701 Chestnut Street, first floor, Philadelphia, PA
Opening reception: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 6 – 8 pm
(Philadelphia, March 2011) This spring, InLiquid presents Just Add Maggots, an installation of two-dimensional work and videos produced by Colette Copeland at the International House Video Lounge. The exhibition will be on view from March 11 through April 30, 2011. There will be a reception for the artist on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 from 6 to 8 pm.
Just Add Maggots features an installation of two and three-dimensional work and two videos, each drawing the viewer to a darker place through Copeland’s fascination with death and macabre. From creating a fantasy, dark world, to giving a humorous “how-to” instruction on planning a funeral quickly, the artist shows us the beauty in death and darkness.
Ossa, 2009, stop-action animation, 3.13 minutes
Produced by Christopher Dunkle & Colette Copeland
Music from River Weeds composed by William Harper
“Gifted with a box of small animal skeletons, I envisioned creating a magical, but dark world, where the skeletons came alive, enacting primal rituals. Animator
Christopher Dunkle shared my vision and together we collaborated on this short video inspired by the Quay Brothers and Tim Burton’s “Corpse Bride”.” (Colette Copeland)
Mydeath.com, 2007, digital video/animation, 90 seconds
Directed/animated by Colette Copeland
“The video, Mydeath.com (a.k.a. how to plan a funeral in 90 seconds or less) humorously asserts the Internet as the ultimate commodified marketplace. Recontextualizing images downloaded from various ‘death’ websites, the work celebrates the bombardment of visual information questioning our saturation point and how we decipher the accuracy of information.” (Colette Copeland)
“In Mary Roach's darkly humorous best-selling book,
Stiff--The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, she states that there are many people who feel that ‘to do anything other than bury or cremate the dead is disrespectful, which includes writing a book about them.’ I'm guessing there will be those who feel the same way about this exhibition, suggesting I am irreverent, a shockaholic
, or worse, suffering from psychotic dementia. To them I say—
Please sample the French Onion Soup with Salmonella sauce.” (Colette Copeland)
Colette Copeland is a multi-media visual artist, writer, and cultural critic whose work examines issues surrounding death, the macabre, and contemporary culture. She teaches visual studies and writing at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her BFA from Pratt Institute in New York and her MFA from Syracuse University. She is the recipient of a Leeway Foundation Award for Art & Change. Over the past 7 years, her work has been exhibited in 12 solo exhibitions and 52 group exhibitions/festivals spanning 17 countries. Highlights include the Arad Biennale in Romania; the Museum of Fine Arts in Venado Tuerto, Argentina; the National Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow; Novosibirsk State Art Museum in Russia; City Nord in Hamburg, Germany; Ars Latina in Macerata, Italy, Mexicali, Baja and Castellon, Spain; Cultural Communication Center in Klapeda, Lithuania; Los Angeles Center for Digital Art; Scope Hamptons in New York; Kratkofil Film Festival in Bosnia/Herzgovina; and a traveling exhibition throughout India and Bangladesh, including Calcutta, Bombay, and Dhaka.
Ms. Copeland is a contributing writer for Ceramics—Art and Perception, Exposure
Journal, and Afterimage—Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism. For seven years, she wrote a quarterly column for Fotophile Magazine and contributed to The Photo Review. She lives in Media, PA with her husband Ian, two children – Camille and Cole – and boxes full of dead things.
Gallery hours at the International House are Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm. Admission is FREE to International House art exhibitions. Video installations at International House are made possible with the support of Genesis Asset Protection.
