COLLISIONcollective

COLLISION17:transformer assembles a wide range of new work from 6 countries to explore the notion of transformation. Power, signal, material and meaning are altered, recast and impedance-matched to underscore and harmonize with the ceaseless change of our lives. Curated by COLLISIONcollective members William Tremblay and Georgina Lewis, COLLISION17:transformer is the seventeenth COLLISIONcollective show and the sixth held at Axiom. The 22 works that comprise the show span sculpture, photography, video, surveillance, interactivity and research, making this the most comprehensive and far-reaching COLLISIONcollective show to date.

A transformer is a device that changes one form of energy to a different form, then changes it back to an altered version of the original. In COLLISION17:transformer we present the artist as transformer of experience though metaphor, translator of ideas between language modes, and transmuter of physical phenomena into forms optimized for human perception.

Included in the show is work by Natalie Andrew, Ryan Boatright, W. Benjamin Bray, Sophia Brueckner, Alicia Eggert, Juan Escudero, Joseph Farbrook, Antony Flackett, Ben K. Foley, Dave Gordon, Rob Gonsalves, Lori Hepner, Wei-Ming Ho, Faith Holland, Annette Isham, Arnold Koroshegyi, Victor Liu, Andrew Neumann, Bob Kephart, Jean-Michel Rolland, Mark Stock, Wayne Strattman and Topp & Dubio.  

Opening Reception: Friday, March 2, 6-9 pm

Artist's Talk: TBA

AXIOM Center for New and Experimental Media - 141 Green Street located in Green Street T Station on the Orange Line

Hours: Wednesday and Thursday 6-9 pm , Friday and Saturday 2-5 pm, or by appointment.

Press please note: For images, interviews, or more information please contact Heidi Kayser at 617-676-5904 or hkayseraxiomart [dot] org  

About AXIOM:
AXIOM's mission is to support and encourage experimentation in the arts through exhibitions, events, educational programs and collaboration with like-minded groups in an effort to foster the development of new practices in contemporary artmaking.
Our interest lies in technology based, innovative combinations of sculpture, installation and live performance. Axiom has had a history of success in bringing together members of the new media community as well as outreaching to the general public, supporting emerging and established artists alike.

Read the review by Bill Shaner in the The Dig Boston

Our world is fluid. Seven tenths of the Earth’s surface is water; a similar ratio holds for the body’s proportion of liquid to solid. Interesting things happen in fluid, and life seeks it out. Discrete elements dissolve and commingle. Change is swift and subtle forces hold sway, opening possibilities. Our culture and our creations exist solely in the fluid realm, exceeding the limits of material liquid and leaving us grasping the paradigm of change as the only solid.

COLLISION16:fluid, the sixteenth COLLISIONcollective group show of new work, explores the concept of the fluid and the changing, in a wide variety of manifestations and interpretations. These works range from a piece in which pixels on screen are programmed to act like a liquid, to works that explores the fluid boundaries of our perception, from work that aesthetisizes the “glitch” —an unanticipated or undesired change in the media stream, to a work that uses images projected on ice to explore our changing climate. What these works have in common is that they express the contingent and the unforeseeable. As technology’s rate of change continues to get faster and faster, it has dramatic consequences for our culture. In order to reflect our world, our art must be able to embody the fluid. We believe the work in COLLISION16:fluid does exactly that.

COLLISION16:fluid was co-curated by John Slepian and William Tremblay. The opening reception was February 25, 2011, from 6 - 9pm.

Work by: Jonathan Bachrach and Jonathan Ward, Kevin Benisvy, W. Benjamin Bray, Chris Fitch, John Craig Freeman, Rob Gonsavles, Giles Hall, Ben Houge, Heidi Kayser, Georgina Lewis, dan paluska, Dan Roe, John Slepian, Mark J. Stock, Wayne Strattman