Five NSCAD students will have their talents on display next week at Seeds Gallery’s new exhibit, Good Artists Working With Video. Curatorial intern and NSCAD student Magnus von Tiesenhausen is the curator of the event. Von Tiesenhausen is going into his final year at NSCAD and had the opportunity to intern at the gallery over the summer.
Good Artists Working With Video showcases five current NSCAD students, Miranda Fay, Beck Gilmer Osborne, Ashley Bedet, Elizabeth Johnson and Krista Kirby. Von Tiesenhausen says it was difficult to choose just five out of the many artists that were interested. “I wanted to choose artists who were making work with video and I wanted to make it really diverse,” says von Tiesenhausen. “I didn’t want the art to conform to any one theme.”
Von Tiesenhausen wanted to get a snapshot of the wide range of things people are dealing with when using video as a medium. He chose video as the focus for the event because he believes it’s a medium that is not usually well represented in commercial galleries. He says video is a newer medium and doesn’t have solidified ways to be showcased like those that have been developed over centuries for more classic mediums like painting and sculpting. Video is different because you have to watch, pay attention, listen and become somewhat critically engaged with it. “I thought it would be a fresh way to show a specifically video show,” says von Tiesenhausen.
The work of the five artists is indeed varied. Their art covers questions of existence and being, subjectivity and time, queer and feminist theoretical exploration and moves between technical and formal experimentation. Von Tiesenhausen says there is such a wide range of work being made by the artists he felt it would be too controlling, as the curator, to say only one type of work could be showcased.
“I wanted to choose a range of things that are very different to more accurately portray what’s going on and the quality of the work,” says von Tiesenhausen. “So I guess the theme is good artists working with video.” Von Tiesenhausen hopes the showcase provides a space for the appreciation of the medium of video as well as the proliferation of young artists who are breaking ground with video. “We’ve got really contemplative and introspective work,” says von Tiesenhausen. “You’ll have to see for yourself.”
Good Artists Working With Video opens at Seeds Gallery (1099 Marginal Road), Wednesday, July 24 at 5:30pm and runs until August 18.