“So You Say”
Hans Rosenström, Jessica McElhinney, Katie Collins, Miriam Bäckström, Pål Sommelius, Will Box, Jennifer Rainsford, Lena Christina Bergendahl, Rut Karin Zettergren and Dominic Redfern
23 Mar → 14 Apr 2012

So You Say features video artists who engage with self-representation by occupying the role of the protagonist in their work. The artists are drawn from communities of practice in Stockholm and Melbourne across the spectrum of experience levels from recent graduates early in their exhibiting career to artists who have exhibited at the Venice Biennale. All of the artists combine approaches that are both thoughtful and playful toward the history of ideas that have challenged our conception of the self as innate and enduring. So You Say focuses rather on the history of the self as a constructed, multiple and mutable entity. The corporeal nature of performance practice means these ideas are ‘lived in’ and we believe this makes an important contribution to the applied and poetic interpretation of contemporary theories of subjectivity. Performance video necessarily involves the body as site and artifact and challenges various binaries that separate form and content, self and other, thought and action, artist and audience, truth and fiction.

Biographies:
Katie Collins (AUS) is a video and web artist. In 2010, Katie’s work was exhibited at the Hatched National Graduate Show at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art and screened at the Bangalore Queer Film Festival. Katie’s past work has looked at online performance and new narrative forms that can be developed through social media. More recently she has been developing and exhibiting work based on ideas of cyborg femininity and technological violence. Katie has upcoming exhibitions at Art Beat and Signal Space and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honors) from RMIT University.

Jessica McElhinney (AUS) is an artist working with video and performance. In 2011 Jessica had a solo exhibition at BUS Gallery and Dianne Tanzer Gallery, as well as group exhibitions at 24 HR Art Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art in Darwin and at RMIT Project Space, Melbourne. She has done collaborative performances in numerous institutions in Melbourne and Sydney, at HSP Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand (2010) Sydney and This is Not Art Festival in Newcastle (2009). Jessica holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting, Honors) from RMIT University.

William Box (AUS) is a video artist who often uses spatial elements in his works, creating installations that relates to the content of his videos. Wil has exhibited at RMIT Project Space (2011), Open Space Gallery (2009) and Horse Bazaar (2008). Wil holds a Bachelor of Arts (Media Arts) and a Bachelor of Art (Fine Art Photography) from RMIT University.

Dominic Redfern (AUS) is a video artist. He has worked particularly at the intersection of site, screen and identity and in recent years his work with identity has increasingly focused on narratives of place. He exhibits widely in Australia and around the world in exhibitions ands screenings programs and he works as a senior lecturer at RMIT’s School of Art. www.dominicredfern.net

Anabelle Lacroix (FR) is an independent curator based in Melbourne who has completed the International Master Program in Curating Art from the University of Stockholm, Sweden, with a focus on video art. In 2011, Anabelle has expanded her interest to the Public Space and curated Something to live for at Victoria Trades Hall as part of State of Design Festival, Recipes for Encounter: Temporary Art in Public Space, City of Greater Dandenong. www.anabelle-lacroix.com

Hans Rosenström (FIN) is an installation-based artist who works between Stockholm (Sweden) and Helsinki (Finland). In 2011, Hans had a solo exhibition at Steirischer Herbst, Graz, Austria and The Studio, Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, and Kluuvi Gallery, Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland (2009). In 2011, Hans also participated in The 6th Momentum Biennial, Moss, Norway the exhibition Nordic Art Today, Loft Project ETAGI, Saint Petersburg, Russia and Intersection, Prague Quadrennial, Prague, Czech Republic. http://hansrosenstrom.net/

Jennifer Rainsford, Lena Christina Bergendahl and Rut Karin Zettergren (SWE) is collective formed in 2008. Their productions has been exhibited at Galeri Mejan, Stockholm, 2010, FULL PULL, Malmö, Sweden and Makere Art Gallery, Kampala, Uganda in 2011. The artists graduated from a Master of Fine Arts at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, Sweden and are the founding members of the web platform Crystal Beacon. http://www.crystalbeacon.se/

Miriam Bäckström (SWE) is an artist who disrupts the relationship between reality and its representation and the conventions of narrative, using the mediums of photography, video and performance. Miriam represented Sweden at the Nordic Pavilion with Carsten Höller at the Venice Biennale in 2005 and has exhibited widely in major institutions and biennales around the world. Her most recent exhibition took place at Lunds Konsthall (Sweden, 2012). Miriam Bäckström is represented by Gallery Nicklas Belenius in Stockholm. http://www.niklasbelenius.com/

Pål Sommelius (SWE) is a video artist. Investigating performativity with elements from the absurd, Pål’s imagery is meticulously composed. Pål had a solo exhibition at Konstfack University Gallery (2010) and has exhibited in group exhibitions at Miliken Gallery (2005), Sollentuna Art Fair (2006), and Bruno Gallery in Stockholm (2008). He co-founded Magazine Motiv, worked as photographer for the daily newspapers in Sweden, and is currently completing a Master of Fine Art at Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden.
http://www.sommelius.com/