Showing in N/A Gallery at Necessary Arts Collective: June 6 2021 to July 3 2021
84 Wyndham Street N, GUELPH ON
Created by Static Channel (Monika Hauck and Alex Ricci)
With additional footage by Greg Bruns and Rachel Exler
3-channel, cyclical video (00:13:16)
Various display pieces
Land(e)scape
"AKA Now I Remember…
AKA a Misrepresentation of Memory
Climbing mountains in convertibles
A 10(000) year anniversary
A dream spilling out of our heads
As time accumulates following the event
Reality is compressed actuality is bent
The evidence degrades with each view
We renovate our stories each year new
A place is only the sum of everyone’s stories. The instant after a place is
experienced, it exists only in the realm of memory. We catalog those momentary
sensations - those brain-videos - in imperfect ways, smudging details. And we
are limited by the perspectives we arrive with. One place is never exactly the
same for two different people.
This temporary terrain offers an escape into a surreal environment, composed
equally of real memory-artefacts and digital reconstructions. This space invites
you to visit, to pause, to breathe somewhere else for a time, and ultimately to
return with a reminder of your presence in the environment you occupy.
Land(e)scape is a visual accompaniment to Levadas, a music album by Static
Channel.
During the past year-or-more, through the restriction of personal freedoms and
widening disparities between the wealthy and underprivileged, many of us have
sought escape. An inward journey into memories of more uncomplicated times.
An exploration of our psychological fringes through technological, meditative or
chemical experiences. Or simply building and affirming our own reality, of which
we are in control. An escape necessarily means a departure from existing
surroundings, whether by physical travel to other space, or intentional disregard
for the land we physically occupy. What consequences may befall us untrained
architects of our own realities? And should we be concerned with the
externalities of our digital escapes, the carbon tax of our aphysical consumption?
This land feels less and less like my land. I don’t own any part of it. Nor do I feel
comfortable affirming the legitimacy of ownership of land that is the subject of
countless broken treaties and profiteering environmental neglect. Escaping to the
land of my foremothers… Inconceivable to those surviving grandparents who fled
war and poverty for a chance to own their outcome in a “new world”. Can land
escape even be considered unsuspicious, when ours is a land hosting ongoing
systemic racism, oppression and genocide? In staying, do we have any hope of
washing our ancestors’ hands clean of the blood? Or our hands which are made
in their likeness… Land escape, a tax-haven for ancestral guilt. In leaving, do we
feign innocence? Colonialism raised us to these modest thrones, so shouldn’t we
now have to carry his baggage?
What is it about travel that compels us to spend our savings, endure exhausting
airports, and shock ourselves with the crossed wires of our cultural
perspectives… Is it the physical change in space; the colour of the skyline, the
smell of the air, the taste of exotic recipes? Or is it the anticipation - the looking
forward - and subsequently, the looking back, that drives our need to take a trip?
Is this temporary migration as healing as we often describe it? Airports and
resorts across the world look suspiciously like new colonial fortresses we
traditional settlers fortify to exploit the cheap labour and natural resources of the
world’s most desirable places. Can we really rest and relax knowing that many
others have to toil to afford us that opportunity?"
ABOUT
Static Channel is an ongoing audiovisual collaboration between visual artist
Monika Hauck and musician Alex Ricci. The duo create immersive and colourful
environments in live performances and installations. As Static Channel, as well
as under their previous moniker VERSA, they have performed at Hillside Festival
(Guelph ON), Kazoo Fest, (Guelph ON), Flourish Festival (Fredericton NB),
Electric Eclectics (Meaford ON), Hold Fast (St. John’s NL) and Y2K Live Looping
Festival (Mexico City MX). The group has also created multimedia installations
for Nuit Blanche (Toronto and Ottawa ON), AGO (Toronto ON) and Lumen
(Waterloo ON). More info at: https://linktr.ee/StaticChannel
Static Channel works in partnership with:
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