VAT

of MC ELWEE Van

UNITED STATES, 2005, 00:23:00

Production : MC ELWEE Van
Genre : Video art
Keyword : Allegory, Sound creation, Special effects

Summary :
Manufactured items are ideas materialized. VAT, created from hundred of acual objects performs a reversal: the artifacts emerge from a primal chaos into their ideal forms. The objects rotate continuously (the equivalent of an arcing camera), opening to reveal new spaces; as level upon level of impossible forms unfold. For the soundtrack, a recording of the ocean was literally played through all the strings of baby grand piano. The results wer used to excite the piano's string again and again, producing a variety of exotic tones and colorations.

Van McElwee's body of video work includes over sixty single channel pieces, installations and web projects. Grants and awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship,The American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Award, The National Endowment for the Arts Independent Production Fund (seven time recipient), and a travel grant from the Government of India. McElwee’s work has been exhibited extensively worldwide and is represented by The Kitchen in New York, Heure Exquise! in France, LUX in the UK, the Inter Media Art Institute in Germany, Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis and Trabant Gallery in Austria. McElwee is Professor of Electronic and Photographic Media at Webster University in St. Louis.

to print