The Niche in the Fine Arts Library

Heather Warren-Crow: Feb. 1 - Feb. 27

2012-02-01T05:24:00.001-08:00

Bedtime For Suffragettes (still from webcam transmission)

2011

Heather Warren-Crow is a performance artist and professor based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her solo work both critiques and embraces representations of identity in the mass media. Bedtime for Suffragettes is a recording of a live webcam transmission that uses stylized speech and gesture to investigate the ambiguity of political action and inaction. It was originally performed as part of Low Lives 3, an international networked performance festival. More about Heather's work can be found here.

Jesse McLean: Jan. 9 - Feb. 1

2011-12-12T10:57:00.001-08:00

Climbing (video still)

2011

Jesse McLean is a visual artist and media maker who lives and works in Chicago. Her work investigates the mediation of screens - computer screens, television screens, film screens - and the space between participation and observation. More about her can be found here.

Takahiro Suzuki: Nov. 28 - Jan. 2

2011-11-28T06:31:00.001-08:00

Reservoir (video still)

2011

Takahiro Suzuki is the current Aunspaugh Fifth Year Fellow in the Studio Art department at the University of Virginia. The film Reservoir is inspired by the short story of the same title by Christa Romanosky. Shot from the first person perspective of the story’s protagonist, the film offers glimpses into the tranquility of the late night landscape and the character’s feelings of darkness, confusion, and uncertainty. More of Takahiro's work can be found here.

Oscar Santillan: Oct 24 - Nov. 28

2011-10-23T19:17:00.000-07:00

The Cannibals (still) 2011

Oscar Santillan’s work is rooted in sensual post-politics that aspire more to mood than to message. Born and educated in Equador, Santillan received an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011. The Cannibals was produced in collaboration with artist Signe Schmidt. More about Santillan’s work can be found here.

Jeff Whetstone: September 26 - October 24

2011-09-15T05:57:00.000-07:00

On the Use of a Syrinx (video still)

2011

Jeff Whetstone's work deals with the relationship between humans, particularly men, and nature. On The Use of a Syrinx, which frames an early morning turkey hunt as a narrative about seduction and domination, is influenced by his backgrounds in both zoology and documentary photography. Whetstone was a Guggenheim fellow in 2007 and is a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. More about his work can be found here.

Andrew Deutsch: Aug. 23 - Sept. 26

2011-08-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

Chelation (video still)

2011

Andrew Deutsch is an artist who works primarily with sound, sometimes in concert with video. He is the founder of the Sonic Arts program at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, NY, where he is a faculty member. Chelation refers to a medical therapy by which excessive metals, including iron, can be removed from the bloodstream. More of Andrew's video work can be found here.

Chris Kennedy: July 1 - August 22nd

2011-07-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

film still Simultaneous Contrast

2008

Chris Kennedy’s experimental film work engages with the transparency and materiality of film. Simultaneous Contrast uses the diagonal designs on city bus shelters in San Francisco, where he lived while working toward his MFA, as a formal device for exploring the interplay of background and foreground. Chris currently lives in Toronto where he works as a film programmer and writer. In Spring 2011, he was a visiting artist in the UVA department of Art. More about his work can be found here.

Bill T. Jones: June 3 - July 1

2011-05-24T08:13:00.001-07:00

Bill T. Jones

During a residency at UVA in April 2011, celebrated artist Bill T. Jones and his company conducted research for a new work tentatively titled Story/Time, in which Jones's inventive choreography will accompany a selection of short stories drawn from his life. The work is inspired by artist John Cage's Indeterminacy. This month, in conjunction with the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, The Niche will be screening work-in-progress footage from Story/Time. The finished work will premier in January 2012 at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Regular Niche programming will resume in July.

Monica Duncan and Lara Odell in The Hook

2011-05-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

Laura Parsons wrote her column in the local weekly about The Niche this week. Read it here.

Monica Duncan and Lara Odell: May 3 - June 3

2011-05-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

Four-Color Fire Pattern (video still)

2009

Monica Duncan and Lara Odell have been working collaboratively for nearly ten years. Four-color Fire Pattern is part of a series of performative videos that investigate camouflage by playing with the relationship of female bodies to their environment. Monica Duncan recently completed her MFA at the University of California at San Diego. More about her work can be found here. Lara Odell lives and works in Long Beach, CA. More about her work can be found here.

Sasha Huber: April 1 - May 2

2011-03-31T07:56:00.000-07:00

photo by Siro Micheroli, copyright Sasha Huber

Rentyhorn - The Intervention

2008

Sasha Huber's multi-media work focuses on issues of identity in relation to the Caribbean Diaspora. Rentyhorn is the video component of an intervention that aims to re-claim the Swiss peak Agassizhorn for Renty, an African-American slave. Renty was part of the research by Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz after whom the peak is officially named. Agassiz commissioned daguerrotypes of slaves, including Renty, which he used in developing the theory of "scientific racism", a classification system that was popular among those who sought to justify slavery. Huber is herself of Swiss-Haitian descent. She lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. More about here work can be found here.

Vashti Harrison: March 1 - 31

2011-02-24T14:57:00.000-08:00

Pleasure Girl (video still)

2010

Vashti Harrison's current work investigates her Caribbean heritage through the juxtaposition of folklore and contemporary imagery. Pleasure Girl gives a glimpse of the famed Nylon Pool off the coast of Tobago, rumored to be a fountain of youth. Vashti is an Aunspaugh Fellow in the art department at UVA for 2010-11 academic year.

Maria Pithara: Feb. 2 - March 1

2011-02-01T06:26:00.000-08:00

Hiccups (video still)

2009

Maria Pithara uses video to choreograph everyday objects and gestures into surreal, psychologically charged vignettes. She received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2009 and is currently en route to Santa Fe, NM, where she will be an artist in residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute. More info about her work can be found here.

Torsten Zenas Burns and Darrin Martin: Jan. 4 - Feb. 1

2010-12-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

Animatronlove (animation still)

Darrin Martin and Torsten Zenas Burns are long time collaborators whose work uses roll-playing and animation to explore relationships between gender, representation, and the technological body. Animatronlove uses CGI technology designed for choreographers to stage a virtual dance between super heros and stars of the contemporary art world. Martin lives in California where he teaches at UC Davis. Burns lives and works in Massachusetts where he directs the Parsons Hall Project Space. More about their individual and collaborative work can be found here and here.

Kara Crombie in The Hook

2010-12-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

Laura Parsons wrote her weekly arts column on Portraits 1. Read it here.

Kara Crombie: Dec.1 - Jan. 3

2010-11-27T10:32:00.000-08:00

Portraits 1 (video still)

Kara Crombie is a video artist and photographer who uses animation to explore American culture through both a contemporary and historical lens. Her recent series, Aloof Hills, takes the form of a Civil War soap opera to address culturally specific taboos including interracial relationships and drug use. Kara teaches as Moore College of Art in Philadelphia and was recently named a Pew Fellow in the Arts. More about her work can be found here.

Jerstin Crosby: Nov. 1 - Nov. 29

2010-09-29T06:01:00.000-07:00

Telepathic News (video still)

2009

Jerstin Crosby is a multimedia artist whose work engages with the tropes of pop culture, environmental activism, and psychadelics. Jerstin is also one of the founders and the current producer/curator of Acid Rain, a televised video artist series that airs on public access is North Carolina and New York City. Jerstin currently lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA. More about his work can be found here.

Rob Carter: Sept 29 - Oct 31

2010-08-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

Metropolis (animation still)

2009

Using stop-motion animation, time-lapse video and large format photographs, Rob Carter’s animations explore human attempts to understand and control the natural world over time, especially through architecture and urban development. Originally from the UK, Rob currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. More information about his work can be found here.

Kelly Sears: September 1 - 29

2010-08-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

The Body Besieged (animation still)

2009

Kelly Sears makes collaged animations that draw on ephemeral American imagery from the past hundred years. Through visual juxtaposition and enigmatic narrative, her animations reflect critically on our understanding of our own history and ideology. She is currently in her second year as a fellow of the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX. More about her work can be found here.

Schedule for 2010-11

2010-08-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

We're pretty excited about it.

Sept. - Kelly Sears

Oct. - Rob Carter

Nov. - Jerstin Crosby

Dec. - Kara Crombie

Jan. - Torsten Zenas Burns and Darrin Martin

Feb. - Maria Pithara

Mar. - Vashti Harrison

Apr. - Sasha Huber

May - Monica Duncan and Lara O'dell

Check back each month for more info about what's showing.

Niche programming continues in the fall...

2010-07-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

We are hard at work setting the screening schedule for the coming semester. Thanks to Aaron Henderson for his excellent programming over the last year - he is off to Pittsburgh to take a permanent position at Pitt and we wish him luck. Please check back soon for more info about what's upcoming.

Danièle Wilmouth: June 15-August 3

2010-06-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

A Heretic’s Primer on Love & Exertion
29 incidents of dual consequence

Directed by Danièle Wilmouth
Written & performed by Trevor Martin & Kym Olsen
24 minutes, film transferred to video, 2007

Synopsis:

Pulling from traditions of vaudeville, movement and performance art, artists Trevor Martin and Kym Olsen slip from monologue to dance, female to male, in a collection of related vignettes. A Heretic's Primer on Love & Exertion reveals the duality of identity and a collapse of meaning - probing the construction of gender, the manipulation of desire, and the colonization of the human body within a web of social dysfunction.

A Heretic's Primer on Love & Exertion was produced in 2007 and is based on the live stage works of performance artists Trevor Martin and Kym Olsen.

Jodie Mack: April 1-30

2010-04-05T05:53:00.000-07:00

Yard Work is Hard Work
16mm, color, sound
28 minutes

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Part experimental animation, part romantic comedy, part light critique of capitalism, this musical follows a pair of newlyweds as they learn the perils of homeownership and life in general.

More information: http://www.extvsaic.org/tv/artists/jodie-mack/

Michael Underwood: December 1-30

2009-12-03T13:29:00.000-08:00

Escapement
Single-channel Video
28 minutes

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

In the summer of 2002, I traveled to the state of Washington with my brother Matthew to investigate a story about environmentalists’ proposal to remove four dams from the Snake river, a major tributary of the Columbia river. To make a long (9 part) story short, the dams are killing off the salmon, a fish that many people depend on for their livelihoods. Of course, many people also depend on the dams for farming and electricity, and the interests of everyone are balanced by the government through the Army Corps of Engineers. This knotty problem continues to this day, as reported recently in the Los Angeles Times.

Escapement examines the interconnectedness of everyone who uses the river, and the history of our government’s administration of the land dating back to Lewis and Clark. The original score was composed by American roots singer William Elliott Whitmore (Courtesy Anti Records), and expertly recorded by Scott Faine, who also played drums on some of the tracks.

More info: www.michaelunderwood.com

Shane Mecklenburger: October 30-November 26

2009-10-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

Halcyon Atmosphere, 2009
Single-channel HD video
9 minute loop

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Halcyon Atmosphere is a video made from found digital 3D models of guns I downloaded from the Internet. The guns were originally made for shooter games. The work is part of a larger series of images and objects called pwn3d (pronounced “owned” or “powned”), which is a gamer term meaning appropriated or humiliated, usually referring to a defeated player or computer system. The pwn3d series investigates how masculinity is constructed in first-person shooter games, where the gun often replaces the body. Video games are an incredibly powerful cultural intersection between entertainment, art, warfare, and the market. I'm especially interested in how we assign value to objects and images, and the way this constructs identity.

BIO:

Shane Mecklenburger is Assistant Professor of New Media Art at the University of North Texas. He received his MFA in Film, Video, and New Media from SAIC in May 2009. He lives and works in Dallas.

More info: www.shmeck.com

Anthea Behm: October 1-29

2009-10-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

Submission, 2009
single channel hdv
10 minutes 23 seconds

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

The work starts with a monochrome & ends in a landscape.

In between there is an interview and a dance sequence, which are presented in parallel.

I am interested in looking at the boundary between art and entertainment. The questions in the interview are lifted from a Reality TV show application, but are answered using language drawn from art theory and politics. The dancing sequence could be seen as an audition video, but at the same time is the artwork. It is meant to be ambiguous what type of “show” this submission is for: television, art? Ultimately, it could be applied to both.

I am interested in the transmission of stereotypes relating to place, and how this affects social values and aspirations. For example, moving from the “provincial” to the “international centre”, which the art and the entertainment industry both highly value. This was dealt with in “Submission” through the contradictions that arise when talking about “needing to get out” and having a “significant life”, and is shown in direct relation to a pathetic action done in a location that is in a state of disrepair. It is also important that, although I was directly referencing the relationship between Australia and the U.S., it could be applied within the U.S. itself, or other cultural relationships.

Similarly, in terms of the verbal language and visual aesthetics, I wanted everything to be applicable. For example, the dance sequence could be referred to as “aesthetics of the relationship of body and space”, or “the contingencies of modern day structures” referring to broken debris being dislodged underfoot of the dancer. However at the same time, I wanted to reveal these notions as totally ridiculous, and critique how meaning is generated, mediated, and ultimately, unstable.

Sources for the script include: Andrea Fraser’s “May I Help You?” (1991), Obama’s speech from the Democratic Convention, August 28th 2008, Catherine Wood, “Art of Authenticity”, Artforum, Summer, 2008, Jacques Ranciere, “Art of the Possible”, Artforum, March, 2007, John Burger, “On the Problem of Autonomy of Art in Borgeoise Society” 1984, Terry Eagleton, “The Politics of Amnesia”, 2003, Paris’ BFF, Application (MTV). The song & dance routine sourced from the movie: “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”.

BIO:

Anthea Behm is an emerging visual artist working with video, performance and photography. Through her practice she questions how forms belonging to both high and popular culture contribute to the dominant hegemony, and how this may be subverted. Recently, Behm received her MFA in studio art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and currently she is completing her MFA by research through the College of Fine Arts, Sydney. Recent awards include the 2009 New Work Grant, Australia Council for the Arts, and the 2007 Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship. In 2008, Behm’s paper on her work “The Chrissy Diaries” was published in Difference Reframed: Reflections on Art and Difference (ed. A. Kokoli, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, London, 2007), and her work has been reviewed in X-TRA, EXIT BOOK and Art and Australia. Forthcoming exhibitions include Dubbo Regional Gallery, NSW (solo) and Concertina Gallery, Chicago (two person). Behm currently lives and works in Chicago.

Aaron Henderson: August 28-September 30

2009-09-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

Aaron Henderson explores the way the public performs and plays. His Metamorphoses series (Biggie, Britney, George, Oprah and Michael) was shot at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in 2007. It documents transgressive and playful interactions that occur as people stage encounters with “celebrities”. More info available here

Fall programming

2009-08-26T04:54:00.000-07:00

Programming will continue this year under the direction of Aaron Henderson, who is teaching new media in the art department. Aaron is a media artist most recently based out of Chicago. More about him can be found here. Please check back soon for more information about fall plans.

A. Jacob Galle in The Hook

2009-08-20T07:54:00.000-07:00

Laura Parsons wrote about Jacob Galle's work in The Hook last week.

Read the article here.

A. Jacob Galle: August 2 - 31

2009-07-31T06:13:00.000-07:00

still from unititled
single channel video
2009

A. Jacob Galle’s videos focus on the performance of invented, unnecessary physical labor as a means of exploring the meaning and history of work. These interests reflect his life as a woodsman and farmer. Galle currently lives and works in Maine. More information about his work can be found here.

Monica Panzarino and Nadine Sobel: July 7 - 31

2009-07-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

still from Hiti & Dena

single channel video

2008

Paper dolls, long johns, and a clever manipulation of scale are used to explore the mutability of identity in Hiti & Dena, is a collaboration between artists Monica Panzarino and Nadine Sobel. Panzarino and Sobel are both graduates of the New York State School of Art and Design at Alfred. More info coming soon.

David Colagiovanni and Jerstin Crosby: June 22 - July 6

2009-06-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

still from Billion Year Voyage

single channel video

2007

Billion Year Voyage (remix) is a collaboration between artists David Colagiovanni and Jerstin Crosby, who run Acid Rain Productions, a video art broadcast project out of Raliegh, NC. Named after a quote from Dr. Timothy Leary, Billion Year Voyage (remix) explores the hypnotic potential of television. More about Acid Rain can be found here. More about Jerstin's work is here and more about David's work is here.

Summertime

2009-06-02T11:47:00.001-07:00

Niche programming will continue through the summer. We're still working out the schedule and will post things as we screen them. Please check back.

Adriane Little: June 2 - 17

2009-06-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

still from Call Home Mothers Dead

single channel from multichannel video installation

2003

Adriane Little's work investigates the trauma and ritual of loss, particularly the loss of a mother figure, through the manipulation of absence and presence. She is currently an assistant professor of photography and intermedia at Western Michigan University. More information about her work can be found here.

Julia Brown in The Hook

2009-05-19T08:01:00.000-07:00

Local arts writer Laura Parsons has again written about The Niche in this week's The Hook, this time focusing on Julia Brown's American Vernacular. Read it here.

May 1 - June 5: Julia Brown

2009-05-01T06:12:00.001-07:00

still from American Vernacular

single channel video

2006

American Vernacular is inspired by representations of African Americans in advertising and as decoration on household goods, especially from the late 19th century. Julia Brown received an MFA from CalArts in 2006 and is currently a Visual Arts Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, RI. More information about her work can be found here.

Lilly McElroy in The Hook

2009-04-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Laura Parsons, the art writer for Charlottesville's weekly paper The Hook, writes about Lilly McElroy's video The Square - After Robert Lombardo in this week's edition. Read it here.

April 18 - 30: Lilly McElroy

2009-04-17T09:23:00.001-07:00

still from The Square - after Roberto Lopardo

single channel video

2004

Lilly McElroy uses performance to express the desire and difficulty of human connection by engaging strangers in interactions that provoke both amusement and confusion. She is a 2008-09 fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2006. More about her work can be found here.

April 1 - 17: 17 Days Vol. 1

2009-04-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

still from Read My Lips

Stephanie Lempert

2005

Ranging from goldfish linguistics to Portuguese gardens, 17 Days is an international curatorial project that collects the work of seventeen experimental film and video artists to be shown over seventeen days. The project was created and programmed by Adriane Little, an artist and professor at Western Michigan University. More information about her work can be found here. Descriptions of individual works can be found here and a schedule for 17 Days can be found here.

March 11 - 31: Mondo March

2009-03-09T05:34:00.000-07:00

Production still

Mondo horror shoot

Spring 2006

Every semester since 2004, students in Kevin Everson's cinematography classes at UVA have written, starred in, shot, and edited films in the Mondo tradition. Six years of Mondo filmmaking have resulted in a collection of short films that dare to impress, disgust, amuse and even move viewers. Emblazoned by the patron saints of the Gudter - John Waters, Paul McCarthy, and the Andy Warhol Factory films, among others - the Library Niche presents nineteen of the best Mondo cuts. Programmed by Andrew Mausert-Mooney.

Mondo cuts by:

Jamie Williams

Konstantin Brazhnik and Purim Jung

Julia Pontecorvo and Mina Karimi

Advanced film class, 2006

Smokey Robinson and Leslie Buker

Diana Cole and Andrew Mausert-Mooney

Jessie Katz and Nicholas Bacon

Christina Tkacik and Emily Hamel

Elena Coyle and Virginia Moore

Katie Gar Smith (x2)

Ashley Chipman and Alex Campbell

Johathan Taee

Sean Kelly and Jeanne Cupper

John Lorenzo (x2)

Tory Hanabury and Mia Magruder

Yasminica Wilson and Ranjan Khan

Rita Xia

February 16 - March 10: Kate Gilmore

2009-02-05T11:51:00.000-08:00

Baby, Belong to Me

single channel video

2006

also screening Star Bright, Star Might from 2007 and With Open Arms from 2005

Kate Gilmore's work parodies the machismo of process and performance art from the 1970's, dressing it up in ballet flats and a skirt. In these three pieces, she takes an ironic approach to the desire for fame and the struggle for love. Kate Gilmore was awarded the Rome Prize in 2007. She lives and works in New York City. More information on her work can be found here.

Article in The Hook

2009-02-04T13:14:00.000-08:00

Laura Parsons, who writes about art for the Charlottesville weekly The Hook, wrote her column about the Niche this week. You can read it here.

February 1-15: Julia Oldham

2009-02-01T12:22:00.000-08:00

Bramble Standoff
single channel video
2008

Julia Oldham translates invertebrate rituals into choreography for video. The strangeness of insect movements being performed by a human body is meant to illustrate her awkward and tenuous relationship with nature. She received an MFA from the University of Chicago in 2005 and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. More information about her work can be found here.

January 13-31: Christy Gast

2009-01-12T06:52:00.001-08:00

Onion Creek Incident

single channel video

2004

Christy Gast is a multimedia artist whose work explores the intersection of cultural history and identity politics with landscape. Her projects range from curatorial projects in the Utah desert to performative videos about mermaids. She received her MFA from Columbia University in 2004 and currently teaches digital media at the University of West Florida. More information about her work can be found here.

Schedule for Spring 2009

2009-01-11T15:07:00.000-08:00

More information about videos and films will be posted as we screen them.

Jan 13–31: video by Christy Gast

Feb 1–14: video by Julia Oldham

Feb 14–28: videos by Kate Gilmore

March 1–31: Andrew Mausert-Mooney programs Mondo films

April 1–17: Adriane Little programs 17 days

April 18–May 2: video by Lilly McElroy

May 2–May 30: video by Julia Brown

2009-01-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

The Niche is a project of the Fine Arts Library at the University of Virginia in conjunction with the new media program in the Studio Art Department. At least for now - we're hoping as other folks see what we're up to they'll have some ideas of their own (architects? musicians? engineers?). Spring 2009 will be our first semester of programming and we're going to kick off by focusing on video art.

The Niche consists of a Mac Pro and a sixty-inch HD capable flat screen monitor mounted on a wall in a highly trafficked area of the library. There will be a couple comfy chairs to encourage viewers to take their time and several pairs of wireless headphones are available(since it's a library, we can't really keep the sound up). Videos will loop continuously while the library is open, seven days a week.

Check back soon for a schedule and more information about the work we'll be screening.