VIDEO ART @ HOME

Over the next few weeks, CLARK will share videos that were originally presented as part of its previous programming and that are now shared online by the artists. Whether you’re seeing them again or you missed them the first time, make the most of this collective isolation period by (re)discovering them in the comfort of your own home!

WEEK 1 / April 24, 2020
SHANA MOULTON & NICK HALLETT
WHISPERING PINES 

What better way to inaugurate this series than with Whispering Pines, a psychedelic piece by Shana Moulton and Nick Hallett. Saelan Twerdy’s description seems to evoke, at least in part, an exaggerated view of reality experienced by many of us during these challenging times: “Sheltered from society, clad in an endless series of frumpy-yet-cozy loungewear ensembles, and surrounded by crystals, salt lamps, yoga mats, exercise balls, and New Age objets d’art, Cynthia experiments with home décor, self-help, and cosmetic therapy while kaleidoscopic video editing levitates and transports her through multiple dimensions.”

– Watch the video, presented online by Creative Capital, HERE

– An interview with the artists about their project on Creative Capital’s website. 

– This exhibition was presented at CLARK in September 2018. Read the full exhibition text HERE.

WEEK 2 / May 7, 2020
SUNITA PRASAD
PRESUMPTUOUS (14 m 29 s)

For the second video of this series, we present Presumptuous by New York-based artist Sunita Prasad. In this piece, the intimate and performative actions between strangers in public space seem even more unlikely. Manon Tourigny writes, “Using a hidden camera, Prasad filmed individuals acting in strange ways in public. For example, a man sits next to another man on the Paris metro and places his hand on the other’s knee. The latter responds by taking the stranger’s hand in his and caressing it. This brief moment of intimacy reveals something both unexpected and very sensual, but which could also provoke unease among other riders.” Viewed through the lens of the current pandemic, these simple actions seem potentially dangerous and capable of provoking real anxiety among others. At the same time, they might evoke nostalgia for a time when human touch was not a threat. We invite you to discover this and other projects by Prasad, whose practice questions societal norms through works that both reveal and subvert our behavioural codes.

– Watch the entire video on Sunita Prasad’s Vimeo page, click HERE

– For more information on this project and to discover more works by the artist, visit her website HERE  

– This exhibition was presented at CLARK in May 2017. Read the full exhibition text HERE

WEEK 3 / May 22, 2020
NICOLAS GRENIER
PREFACE TO VERTICALLY INTEGRATED SOCIALISM: A FEW WORDS ABOUT HORIZONTALITY (9 m 50 s – English)

This week we’re featuring a video that was first presented in May 2017 as part of Nicolas Grenier’s exhibition Vertically Integrated Socialism. The video, titled Preface to Vertically Integrated Socialism: A Few Words About Horizontality was projected in Room 1, which was transformed into a kind of waiting room, classroom, or timeshare presentation room. The video served as an introduction to a lecture-performance given by Grenier three times a week, in French and English, for the duration of the exhibition. His lecture dealt with a vertically integrated model for socialism within a fictional architectural space, which inevitably raised a number of issues and questions from the public. Grenier explained that “the video and installation referenced each other in an exploration of architectural and ideological “infinities.” As a whole, the exhibition was a metaphysical reflection on social divisions. While the current state of the world forces many people into isolation and withdrawal, it’s important to remember how it also exacerbates social disparities and wears down society’s most vulnerable people.

– Watch Preface to Vertically Integrated Socialism: A Few Words About Horizontality (9 min 50 s – English) on Nicolas Grenier’s Vimeo page HERE

– The complete presentation of Vertically Integrated Socialism (43 min – English) is available on demand:  [email protected]

– For more information on the artist and his art practice: nicolasgrenier.com/

– Read the full exhibition text by Manon Tourigny HERE