Renascence / 07 Exhibition to open at the Kennedy Center
June 1-28, 2007 Renascence/ 07 Exhibition to open at the Kennedy Center: VSA arts presents an international, juried exhibition of new media by artists with disabilities in the Kennedy Center Terrace Gallery from June 1-28, 2007 from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm daily. The exhibition showcases installations, net art, video, and interactive sculpture that combine visual art and technology to convey personal experience in innovative ways.
Two California artists were chosen to display artwork at Renascence/07. Very Special Arts California warmly congratulates Clovis Blackwell and Kurt Weston.
Clovis Blackwell created his site, Megalopolis: The Official Home of Super-Clovis, to explore a superhuman persona. Megalopolis is an interactive online city for Super-Clovis and other heroes, villains, and citizens. The site is also Blackwell's response to the creation of digital objects and information that is categorized into databases, as well as online social networks that bring individuals together in a computer environment. Embracing the rebirth of culture in a digital era, Megalopolis serves as a vehicle for the characters to explore fantasy personas. The site also begs the question as to whether these personas serve as a valuable release from painful experience-or as escapism, which hinders growth.
Kurt Weston's digital video, Paper Doll, illustrates the full repertoire of the visual assist devices that Weston uses on a daily basis. In 1991, Weston was diagnosed with AIDS and eventually lost his sight. Paper Doll provides a humorous perspective of his subject-the spectator-using these devices to view a performance of a doll placing an old 78 r.p.m. record album onto a phonograph that plays the 1940's song, “Paper Doll.” Weston's intent is to ironically juxtapose the revival of the classic with high-tech devices and digital media.
- Clovis Blackwell
- Kurt Weston
