Sophia Zheshui Lin

Accidentally Perfect - Dual World

2010-09-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

Captial, Jeff Winch, Photo

HTML Decay, Stan Krzyzanowski, Video Still

Ed Video Media Arts Centre presents:
‘Accidentally Perfect’

Artists:
Stan Krzyzanowski
Jeff Winch

Curator:
Sophia Zheshui Lin

September 16 – October 8, 2010
Reception: September 24, 7pm-10pm
Artist talks/workshops: September 25, 2pm-4pm

Ed Video Gallery
40 Baker Street, Guelph
Monday - Friday, 10am-5pm
www.edvideo.org
(519)836-9811

To view the online catalogue, please click:

www.ocadstan.ca/accidentallyPerfect/catalogue

When the idea to curate an exhibition called Accidentally Perfect was first formed, Stan Krzyzanowski’s name immediately came to mind. Kryzanwoski’s optimistic and sensible attitude towards his surroundings and his practice wholly embody the concepts Accidentally Perfect seeks to explore. His works are often about looking for and discovering perfections in familiar experiences. Krzyzanowski’s time-lapse video archive on his “Interval” website records hundreds of those findings, such as depictions of the Queen from her younger years to recent times by photographing the portrayals of the Queen on Canadian cents from 1941 to 2004 in order of sequence. When more digital and mechanical elements appear in Kryzanowski’s work, the new technologies do not cause him to waiver in his interests in natural behaviours, but rather strengthen and extend his curiosity to encompass the characteristics of modern technologies as well. His works use patterns and time-lapse videos as tools to remind himself of these discoveries.

The meaning of “accidentally perfect” cannot be expressed by a singular answer. One reading of this idea is to exhibit perfections that happen almost coincidentally; under this interpretation, Kryzanowski’s work is a clear match. Another interpretation of “accidentally perfect,” however, calls for a critical reading of what it means to be “perfect”. The search for this meaning prompts a wide array of questions: How do we define what it means to be “perfect”? What defines “accidental”? Can perfections exist? Jeff Winch joins the exhibition as his artwork seeks to answer such questions.

Winch is not only an artist and accomplished filmmaker, but also a local activist whose work often highlights the hypocrisies of Western ideals. His latest documentary, Bending the Rails, takes aim at a massive diesel rail expansion underway in Toronto and exposes some dirty politics (and at least one inept politician) along the way. In “accidentally perfect,” his photographs and interactive video installation raise some important questions. He asks us to look critically at the social “norms” we have come to see as ideal, and to ask ourselves, is a perfect middle-class lifestyle really perfect? Who pays the price for our affluence and desires?

Further complementing the on-site exhibition are two Canadian word-artists with two very different approaches to the concept of Accidentally Perfect. Dorianne Emmerton and Nichola (Nicki) Ward, bring their contributions to our exhibition with works inspired by the central theme of accidental perfection.

Emmerton focuses on using theme elements to create accidental narrative in a prose poetry medium. Ward, by contrast, takes a deconstructionist approach by using computer software to randomize theme elements, then using traditional techniques to transform them into rigidly structured Dadaist poems. The resulting pieces interact both with each other and with the exhibition to create new “perfect accidents”.

This world is full of wonders and doubts, matter and nothingness, facts and feelings, perceptions and reality. In Eastern philosophy, the elements of Ying and Yang help create a balanced world; consider, for example, the sun and the moon, regarded as opposites to one another, yet both are equally important to our life on earth. Kryzanowski and Winch’s works, in the exhibition Accidentally Perfect, are exactly that. Their works are complementary, yet they also create a tension that allows this exhibition to present a three-hundred-and-sixty degree view of the concept of “accidentally perfect”. The exhibition and the catalogue present the works of several artists, not so that one may judge which artist is favoured, but to raise discussions. The hope is that after you walk out of this exhibition, you will think critically about the easily-overlooked moments in our world, wherein may lie hidden perfections created by sheer accident.

Celebrity Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Clock

2010-04-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

The Latest in New Movies:
Celebrity Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Clock

It was a timely affair yesterday when World Peace Award nominees and noted chronophiles Mr. and Mrs. Clock premiered their documentary Celebrity Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Clock, their long-awaited collaboration with director Sophia Zheshui Lin and producer Ray Yee. Shot in the cities of China, Lin follows the Clocks as they strive to present an authentic, honest look into their lives, and show audiences what those lives involve. Lin admits that the Clocks’ frantic working pace was hard to document, but explains that the process also helped Lin to understand Mr. and Mrs. Clock better. In a recent interview, Lin said, “When I heard the offer, I was very excited. I wanted to portray the reality of their lives. Although they are always working, we kept the camera on them all the time, which was exhausting. But it was well worth it; it was a marvelous experience following every second of their lives, every one of their footsteps. You can’t help but to appreciate what it is they do after that.”

However, while Lin and Mr. and Mrs. Clock are toasting their achievement, the general public is considerably less enthused, outraged by the straightforwardness of the movie. “How can anything so real even call itself a movie?” complained one woman as she left the film’s screening. “I mean, the thing was 24 hours long! Mr. and Mrs. Clock are threats to our society, and this movie proves it: their true portrayal does nothing but remind us of how boring, horrifying and short our lives are. What kind of message is that for our children?!” Another man leaving the screening scoffed, “I am not interested in knowing what or who the Clocks really are. I am interested in knowing what they can do for me.” Fortunately for the Clocks, however, there is a very small majority responding more positively to the film. The Lollypop Sun News, for example, had a very different opinion than that of most critics: “The Clocks have added true value to our world. I am glad the movie emphasizes that.”

Still, the negative critiques haven’t killed Mr. and Mrs. Clock’s enthusiasm for the film. In a telephone interview, Mr. Clock remarked, “It is obvious that no film can portray one hundred percent of who we are. However, I am glad Lin did not try to shrink or expand us to fit with traditional movie running times. People never respect us for who we are. They always find our true selves unpleasant. I feel proud that this movie tries to give the audience the unvarnished truth, and it makes no apologies for doing so.”
With their movie finally done, the Clocks aren’t slowing down either: their next goal is to write an autobiography.

Reports by 2 Plus Studio, 2010 April 1st

Free Screening of “Latest Celebrity Interview with Mr and Mrs Clock” is on from April 1st, 2010 to April 31st, 2010, at Roadside Attraction, 911 Davenport St., Toronto.

Running Time: 24 hrs 0 min
Rated PG for realistic action involving large machines and situations too normal to handle, and for lots of cars emitting carbon dioxide.

A perfect collaboration with Gloria Bernal

2009-06-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

"Revisit Toronto"
video installation @ Music Market (217 ossington) May 30th, 2009

my curatorial project

2009-04-25T08:27:00.000-07:00

Opening @ Toronto Free Gallery, March 19, 2009

Darren O'Donnell

Swintak

Johanna Householder (on left), Jenna McLellan (on right)

Presently Absent @ Toronto Free Gallery

2009-04-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

2009-02-05T12:00:00.000-08:00

"Untitled"
-Built Upon Us part two-

I look above me and imagine the end. Walk up slowly step by step, I come closer to the goal. Only at the end do I realize, I see it better when I am below.

2008-12-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

conversations: dry dock

2008-11-26T18:37:00.000-08:00

second piece of "conversations" series. This time, I built a floor structure that tilt 360 degrees like a titter-totter. around 6 people can stand on it at the same time.

conversations: red chairs

2008-11-26T18:28:00.000-08:00

First piece of the series "conversations". using pulley system, two chairs hung suspended on opposite walls resemble the form of a conversation. viewers can sit on one of them changing the position of the chairs, like the power play in a conversation.

Time

2008-11-26T18:26:00.000-08:00

The viewers take attachable lights from the box I provided, and attach them near any imperfections on the wall they find interesting. Notes were scribbled beside them indicates some sort of thoughts

2008-02-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

Title: Untitled

Material: white wood book stand attached to the wall, orange wall paint, journal title "thoughts 07~08", security alarm

Presently Absent Project Launch

2007-12-01T07:09:00.000-08:00

In 2007, I began to develop a series talking in the voice of a curator called Presently Absent. This series aims to address the relationship between artist-artist, artist-artwork, artist-audience and artwork-audience.

P.A. project launch is a video installation of me as a curator giving a curator talk. This is the first work out of the series Presently Absent.

wood bowl

2007-11-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

Other than big installation and performance, I create functional or nonfuntional work by wood and ceramic. This piece particular is a series of three wood bowls made of Ash.

Travelling paper

2007-10-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

If you get a paper like the picture, please write your name and any thoughts down at the back, and mail it somebody else. The important thing here is "Mail", not email. "Handwriting" not typing. We all experience how internet make our life much easier. No exception for me since I made this website. Though, a letter in comparing to an email is perhaps more valuable for most of us. Why is that?

Maybe this is your chance to write to someone who you haven't contact for a long time. Or maybe this can be a surprise for somebody there for you all the time. Maybe.....

If you'd like to have a handmade paper like this, perhaps just as an excuse to write to your goodlooking neighbor or an old friend, email me your address, and I will send you the paper by mail. (The paper look much better in reality than the image)

My email: coccet@gmail.com

Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2007

2007-10-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

Wall+Paper 3, installation in Progress, at Xpace, 58 Ossington Avenue.

This installation was created in response to a show named Wall + Paper curated for Nuit Blanche. I handmade 600 pieces of cotton linter paper pigmented in variety of colors, and then tore each piece into 8 pieces, rolled them into tubes and secured them with paper clips. During the Nuit Blanche, I installed the top section of the wall space I was given, and visitors who come into the gallery were encouraged to fill the rest of the space with paper tubes. Most visitors who interacted with the installation added their own drawings or creations to the paper tubes.

Architecture & Humanity

2007-08-01T14:15:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a series called "Architecture and Humanity" in ceramics.

I've been working on a series called Architecture and Humanity in ceramics. The structures have tubes running through their interiors, so you can peek in through various spots I have created. This is one of them. The tubes on each side are hollow, so you can peek in as well. It's about the contrast between interior and exterior. My question here is: Is what you see always what it is? How can you know what's beyond what you see?

RIC

2007-07-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

During the summer, i was fortunate to join Jenna & Ryan in Chicago for their Recycling Intervention Committee.

For the 2 days we were there, we build public sculptures in front of Nature Museum of Chicago with recycling materials collected for 5 weeks from 15 households. It was amazing. I've talked with people who pass by the sculptures, and a lot of them were also very concerned with the recycling program they have in Chicago. It was a very fullfilling experience. The weather had also be very blessing for it had been quite sunny but not too hot for the day.
I also met a really quiet but interesting artist who build children toys with cardboard or recycling materials

the army

2007-05-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

The Army consists of five functional teapots shaped like military tanks. Each tank has a different design responding to the flag it carries. The flags are of China, The United States of America, Britain, Israel and North Korea. Those countries in my opinion destroy the peace for power. They are the most dangerous in the world right now. Most lids have two miniature figures in different poses attached to them top and bottom. The lids can be switched around.

F.E.W. 2006

2006-11-05T22:02:00.000-08:00

Flour+Egg+Water
Flour+Egg+Water (2006) explored the possibility of interaction between artists and strangers in the context of a gallery setting by having the process of making and eat dinner together be the catalyst for initiating interaction. By bring back the traditional method of preparing food into a gallery we challenged the ideology of “efficiency”, “fast food”, and the boundary of “art”.
For the first part of the show, we invited strangers from the streets into the gallery to prepare pasta from scratch. This part of show lasted three nights.

The second part of the show consists of artworks prepared by the 10 artists working for this project. I collaborated with Kelly Kehoe to create Awkward Dinner, in which we invited friends and strangers to have dinner with us over several nights. It started as an intimate dinner of 2-5 people each night. The dinner was video recorded and projected onto two TVs, one facing the diners, one facing towards the street. Passersby were able to communicate with the dinners through a microphone booth outside, and were recorded by the camera.
We decided to host a 20-person dinner for the last night. We invited friends, strangers, and friends of theirs. The whole process is included in the DVD of 24 minutes. It includes:

Chapter 1: 2 Artists + 22 Strangers, November 1, 2006
Chapter 2: All the diners were asked to write a message to say before dinner.
Chapter 3: Kelly Kehoe then interviewed each person while I recorded it on video camera.
Chapter 4: Grace Time: Each diner read the message written by the person on their right. They are video recorded by the person who wrote the message.
Chapter 5: Recording of how people interact with and without food.
Chapter 6: Everyone were asked not to talk for 5 minutes
Chapter 7: Resume to normal, Sue Goldstein interviewed everyone as they eat.
Chapter 8: Diners were given the authority to interview anybody and record it. The diner who has been interviewed then interviewed another diner.
Chapter 9: The awkward ending
Chapter 10: Credits

2006-03-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

Name: Post Postmodernism
Dimension: 9’’W * 13’’L * 3.5’’H
Material: Ceramic
Date: 2006

I have included a Pop symbol—coke on ceramic, one of the traditional methods of craft, to state the beginning of a new era, Post Postmodernism.