Oct 2, 2008–Feb 22, 2009
Kidspace

Opening Reception
Thursday, October 2, 3:00–5:30 p.m.

Illuminations will feature five technology-based works that (re)construct text, dialogue, and images forming interactive collages of film, poetry, and visual art. The Kidspace curriculum for the semester will make connections to collage as a traditional art form; a visible language (i.e., hyper-texting, visual poetry, Dada-like posters and poems, symbols); and a contemporary interactive / technology-based art form.

Illuminations will feature five technology-based works that (re)construct text, dialogue, and images forming interactive collages of film, poetry, and visual art. The Kidspace curriculum for the semester will make connections to collage as a traditional art form; a visible language (i.e., hyper-texting, visual poetry, Dada-like posters and poems, symbols); and a contemporary interactive / technology-based art form. The work of leading digital artist Adam Chapman will be featured in the exhibition, along with new work created by North Adams 4th and 5th graders as part of a residency program with Chapman and local technology art gallery Greylock Arts (Adams, MA).

Specifically, Illuminations will include five interactive collage-like video installations by the Brooklyn-based artist Adam Chapman. A large video project in which he spliced together different images and dialogue from Alfred Hitchcock's Rope will be projected in the exhibition. Exploring the formal aspects of film, Chapman deconstructed an existing movie and reassembled it into new work so that the entire movie is viewed in the span of 5 actual minutes—the result is a fast-paced collage of images and dialogue. A generative video installation will be projected onto the ceiling in the gallery where birds fly about in a natural manner, periodically converging to form letters which slowly spell out ancient Japanese haikus. Chapman's work will also include a video installation in which a fragmented video portrait of gallery visitors is generated within a single image forming a Cubist-style self-portrait. The final two pieces in the exhibit were constructed over the past two years and challenge traditional drawing as the artist uses video and computer technology to form dynamically fluid kinetic watercolor-like and graphite-like drawings of birds.

Adam Chapman is an adjunct professor in the Communication, Design, and Technology department at Parsons, the New School for Design, and was recently a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. He has shown his work nationally at the Pittsburgh Children's Museum, the American Museum of the Moving Image, and the DeCordova Museum, among others. Chapman grew up on O'ahu, just outside of Honolulu, Hawaii and he now makes his home in Brooklyn, NY.

Programs for North Adams students funded by a Massachusetts Cultural Council Creative Schools grant will include in-school artist residencies with an Inkberry writer, a Greylock Arts artist, and Adam Chapman; visits to Kidspace; and teacher workshops and curriculum development.

Adam Chapman, Miroir pour les demoiselles d'Avignon, 2002