Channels
V4 | Canales V5
two-channel video installation 4:32 min loop 2004 Channels V4 combines images, sounds and texts that are structured in a non-linear manner creating a mindscape where memory, language and issues of displacement and simultaneity play a central role. It was produced for the exhibition None of the Above: Contemporary Works by Puerto Rican Artists as a two-channel video installation. Canales V5 es la versión en español de Channels V4. Combina imágenes, sonidos y textos que han sido estructurados de manera no lineal, donde la memoria, el lenguaje, el desplazamiento y la simultaneidad juegan un papel central. Fue producido para la exhibición Ninguna de las anteriores: obras contemporáneas por artistas puertorriqueños como una instalación/proyección de dos canales. None of the Above: Contemporary Works by Puerto Rican Artists Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT 2004 Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR 2005 Featuring Manuel Acevedo, Allora & Calzadilla, Javier Cambre, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Dzine, Cari Gonzalez-Casanova, Ivelisse Jimenez, Charles Juhasz-Alvarado, Ignacio Lang, Malika, Arnaldo Morales, Bea Santiago Muñoz, Enoc Perez, Carlos Rivera and Chemi Rosado Seijo. Curated by Silvia Karman Cubina, Deborah Cullen and Steven Holmes The exhibit included work by 15 artists, who live and work in Puerto Rico, on the mainland, and in Europe. While other exhibitions of Puerto Rican art have often focused on nationalism, identity, or geography as unifying themes; this exhibition proposed a new way of seeing and thinking about Puerto Rican art, going beyond the standard curatorial frameworks to identify and embrace critical strains that have typically not been seen as central to Puerto Rican art practice, and to include artists whose Puerto Rican identity transcends physical location. In conjunction with the exhibition, Real Art Ways published a 200 page illustrated catalogue, edited by Deborah Cullen, which examines the relationships between this contemporary generation and its predecessors in the art scene of the 1970s. (excerpt from press release) Esta exposición incluyó obras de 15 artistas, que viven y trabajan en Puerto Rico, en los Estados Unidos y en Europa. Mientras otras exposiciones de arte puertorriqueño mayormente se han enfocado en el nacionalismo, identidad y geografía como temas unificadores; esta muestra propone una forma alternativa de mirar y analizar el arte contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, sobrepasando las bases curatoriales estándares para identificar y abrazar tendencias críticas que tipicamente no se ven como centrales a la practica del arte puertorriqueño, y para incluir artistas cuya identidad puertorriqueña trasciende el lugar físico. Como parte de esta exhibición, Real Art Ways publicó un catalogo ilustrado de 200 páginas, editado por Deborah Cullen, que examina la relación entre esta generación de artistas contemporáneos y sus predecesores de la escena del arte de los 1970. (comunicado de prensa) Excerpts from essays and reviews: “Nayda Collazo-Llorens creates digital projections that employ repetition, variation, layering and sequencing. These forge autobiographical, but disjunctive, narratives. She frequently uses double projections to offer a layering of diaristic imagery alluding to passing time and subjective experience. Stream-of-consciousness text constantly shifts between Spanish and English as the frames both synch and contrast. These techniques are employed in her work, Channels V4.” excerpt from the book-catalog None of the Above: Contemporary Works by Puerto Rican Artists “Nayda Collazo-Llorens, also interested in coding, cites the temporal physicality of Minimalism as an influence on her work. Both her large-scale abstract paintings and video installations such as Channels V4 and V5 are meant to be experienced as interactive spaces. She comes to video as an abstract artist, not a cinematographer. Channels V4 layers images and sound in a non-linear, non-narrative structure. At times the screens contrast, beach/snow, and at other moments, they flow continuously, water/water. A mixture of Spanish and English, along with sounds of birds, the subway, and water flowing, add to this complex, multidimensional accumulation of sensory perceptions. While accessing both her Island and New York existences, Collazo-Llorens leaves her meaning open to interpretation.” Laura Roulet, “The Obscure Thread In Puerto Rican Art: Abstraction” Published in the book-catalog None of the Above: Contemporary Works by Puerto Rican Artists. 2004 “Nayda Collazo-Llorens, también está interesada en cifrar y cita la fisicalidad temporal del minimalismo como una influencia en su trabajo. Tanto sus pinturas abstractas como sus video instalaciones de gran escala, tales como Channels V4 y V5, tienen el propósito de ser experimentadas como espacios interactivos. Llega al vídeo como una artista abstracta, no como una cinematógrafa. Channels V4 presenta imágenes y sonido en una estructura no lineal y no narrativa. A veces las pantallas contrastan, playa/nieve, y, en otros momentos, fluyen continuamente, agua/agua. Una mezcla de español e inglés, junto con sonidos de pájaros, del tren, de agua corriendo, añaden una compleja y multidimensional acumulación de percepciones sensoriales. Al tiempo que hace accesibles experiencias vitales tanto en la Isla como en New York, Collazo-Llorens deja el sentido abierto a la interpretación.” Laura Roulet, “Los oscuros principios del arte puertorriqueño: abstracción” Publicado en el libro-catálogo de Ninguna de las anteriores: obras contemporáneas por artistas puertorriqueños. 2004 “Nayda Collazo-Llorens’s digital stream-of-consciousness projections of alternating visuals and texts are structured in a non-linear manner by disjunctive narratives dealing with psychological and corporeal deterritorialization.” Klaus Ottmann, “None of the Above”, ArtUS, Sept-Oct 2004 “The most complexly orchestrated of all the works in the show is a gorgeous dual projection (two video images, side by side) by Nayda Collazo-Llorens, which lays out a binocular experience of landscape intercut with text. Phrases flash by in narrative sequence (”... she sat down beside me ... I couldn’t help but notice ... “) as the video stands us, first on the platform at a subway station as the subway car passes by, then in the moving car itself, as the view out the windows dissolves into a blur with the movement. Throughout the five minutes loop, we never stand still -- things move past us laterally, then we dive into the viewpoint. We are submerged into a blue-watery world, surface, and then move into a high vantage point over a city -- the ocean dominates the distance, pinned to the sky. A message blinks on screen (”enter password”), taking us out of our reverie; then another (”increase speed”).” Patricia Rosoff, “Home Improvement: Puerto Rican artists show us some irreverence” Hartford Advocate, May 27, 2004 |