|
|
|
|
WARC Gallery is pleased to present a dual channel video installation by Cheryl Rondeau |
|
|
Pénétrations Cheryl Rondeau April 14 – May 12, 2012 Opening Reception
|
Video still, Pénétrations, Cheryl Rondeau, 2012 |
|
Pénétrations Cheryl Rondeau investigates and dissects codification and the sub-textual around the female form evidenced within a mainstream entertainment realm. Rondeau has culled hours of footage from Science Fiction films; an archive that is both rich in imagery relating to the strength of female protagonists and, at the same time, preoccupied with the spectacle of the female body mapped, through probing, prodding and manipulation. In both circumstances, there is an integral dialectic of macabre and the sexualized wrapped in a vocabulary authentic to Sci-Fi - a genre, to a large extent, built on concepts of gender bias, objectification, titillation and colonization. The installation is assembled as a circular narrative designed to examine the dichotomy of self and other; underscoring notions of the self as both embodied and alienated, solid yet malleable, hermetic but porous. These female protagonists are extracted from their original context, liberated from a cinematic matrix and free of linear narrative. Thusly, they are free to weave and transform between and within each other, blurring the boundaries dividing self and other. These characters inhabit moments of transition that resist an ultimate completion, ever infolding and outfolding. These short vignettes are digitally manipulated and rhythmic, punctuated by moments of black and underscored by an immersive soundtrack. Rondeau has spawned a bewilderingly layered and fragmented portrait of the female body as fluid and temporal. Her protagonists are in a constant state of flux, always at the threshold between estranged experience and transformative potential and serve as a ceaseless examination of the corporeality as a constant regenerative process. The artist would like to acknowledge the Ontario Arts Council for production support in the realization, and presentation, of this project Cheryl Rondeau is a visual artist who works with both still and moving imagery to transform moments of transition and quotidien into the monumental with the intent of exposing influences and mechanics that mediate representation, embodiment and subjectivity. Her practice can mimic investigative scientific method, embrace the thievery of appropriation or inhabit the role of storyteller – in all cases, she collects, isolates and extracts specific gestures and moments constructing an intermix of the real and fabricated. Her visual arrangements are rhythmic compilations of repetition and mimicry creating images of ambivalence and agency. Born in St. Catharines (Canada), Cheryl Rondeau studied photography and video at the Ontario College of Art (Toronto), has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social/Cultural Anthropology from the University of Toronto and recently completed an MFA at York University (Toronto). Her work has been included in exhibitions and festivals internationally including Festival international du film sur l’art (Montreal, Québec) Mediawave International Festival of Visual Arts (Gyor, Hungary), Scope Art Fair (New York City) and Museum of Modern Art (Bogota, Colombia). WARC Gallery gratefully acknowledges the support of our members, volunteers and the following funders: |
