New Video(s) online

Just added several new video releases from the Uber memoria (2007), Gothic memoria (2008) and Uber nocturnus (2008). Go to "Video Archive 2007/8". All versions are EXTREMELY low res, email me if you want a DVD compilation of the sexy HD versions. More examples will be added soon. Some other good references are on the Voyeur Video Collective and [PAM] profile links.

Uber Nocturnus 5-8

x4 new Uber Nocturnus works (5 mins each) are about to be released, heres a sneak pic...

New Screening in Berlin

Shaun Wilson, Uber Nocturnus iii (2007), HDV as single channel projection, DVD, colour, sound, 9 mins

After Cinema
Directors Lounge 2008
Berlin, Germany
07.02.08-17.02.08

Brie Trenerry
Tammy Honey
John A Douglas
Brendan Lee
Sam Keene
Shaun Wilson

New Screening: FLOAT

Shaun Wilson, Uber Nocturnus (2007), HDV as single channel projection, colour, sound, 50 mins.

Float: Watercraft in Art
Curated by Meryl Ryan & Diana Robson
Lake MacQuarie City Art Gallery
Booragul, NSW, Australia
14.12.07 - 03.02.08

Sally Smart
Allan Chawner
Tim Silver
Yvonne Koolmatrie
Jane Lender
Kendal Murray
John Turier
Shaun Wilson

New screenings of Uber Nocturnus, the first of several 50 min works in the curated exhibition Float which probes themes of the nautical in contemporary art. One of the most picturesque settings for a museum gallery in Australia, worth the visit...

New Gothic Memoria Filming

Production stills from the recent Gothic Memoria film shoots in Melbourne throughout November, 2007.

New Work in OPTICA 07

Still from Uber memoria 9 (short version) (2007), HDV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 10 mins

Uber memoria 9 (short version)
Optica 07: Gijon International Festival of Video Art, Spain
16.11.07 - 18.11.07
weblink

The first release of Uber Memoria 9 (short version) will be screening at Optica 07 in Gijon, Spain in mid November along with other Australian artists Emma Sterling & Dan Monceaux. More than 200 artists are screening throughout the city so it should be a great festival.

New Article on Video as Cinema

Have a read of Brendan Lee's article 'More Video Art Please' in the new edition of Artlink Vol 27.3 featuring a review of my overall work. The print version includes two colour plates of Uber memoria pics.

Gothic Memoria: new stills

New stills (raw footage) from recent Gothic memoria film shoots...

Gothic Memoria: the first shoot...

Here are some early pics from Gothic Memoria, the first film in the first trilogy...

Two New Feature Length Films

Two new companion feature length video art films of 'Gothic memoria' have just been announced: 'Epic memoria' and 'Locatus memoria' . These will sit as a trilogy of video art that re-addresses themes of Gothic Romanticism through the guise of video art.

Filming for all three works, and with their attached 'Uber memoria' variants (series 8 -20), will start on July 11th onwards.

More details will follow soon...

New work in 1st Athens Biennial 2007

Athenian Memory Palace
Artwave Radio
1st Athens Biennial 2007, Greece
Aired June 25-July 1, 2007
weblink

My new sound art piece Athenian Memory Palace will be aired in late June on Artwave Radio, 1st Athens Biennial 2007, Greece. The work reconfigures family sound recordings made in and around Athens during the 1950s into a mnemonic spatial framework.

update on Gothic memoria feature film

The Gothic memoria script is now complete and work on the film's production has started. All 21 scenes are approximately 5 minutes each and a casting call will be made over the next two weeks. Funding for the project has been successful so the initial location shots will be filmed shortly and the miniatures unit/cgi/greenscreen shots will begin in August.

More info and soon to come production stills will be released later in the month so stay tuned...

Final Production for extended Uber memoria series

The last Uber memoria series (9-21) will be filmed in late June/early July as a conclusion to the seven trilogy installation. This mammoth undertaking of x130 works is due to be filmed in various locations throughout Cairns, Melbourne and Hobart. Release of the complete works on DVD is due on October 18th, 2007; exactly one year since the first Uber film shoot in Germany.

Funding permitting, a back-to-back shoot will also happen at the same time - thank you Peter Jackson - with the yet to be named feature-length film using a selection of locations appearing in the final Uber works. The advantages of such are using the same crew, sets and actors amassed for the seven cam production (Uber series is shot on HDV, the new film shot on DVCProHD). More updates will be available soon.

Update on L.A exhibition

U-Turn
curated by Larissa Hjorth, Kate Shaw & Roger Dickes
Glendale College Art Gallery, Los Angeles, USA: 01.09.07 - 15.10.07
LAXART, Los Angeles, USA: 01.09.07 - 15.10.07

New dates and venues have been released for the U-Turn exhibition in September this year. I will be screening works from the Uber series along with 17 other artists including Stephen Haley, Laresa Kosloff, Nadine Christensen, Kate Shaw, Larissa Hjorth, Natasha-Johns Messenger, Paul Quinn, Iam Haig and Martine Corompt.

New Screening in Russia

In -Transition
curated by Helene Black
National Centre of Contemporary Art, Yekaterinberg: 27.10.08 - 16.11.08
National Centre of Contemporary Art, Moscow: 24.11.08 - 21.12.08

I will be screening a selection of the Uber memoria works in the forthcoming curated exhibition In Transition at two locations of the National Centre for Contemporary Art in Russia during late 2008. This also accompanies a 3-day international conference (exploring themes raised by the exhibition) to be staged at the Ural State Gorky University in Yekaterinberg.

Updates on the exhibition and conference will be made available soon.

New Screening in Melbourne

Voyeur One
69 Smith Street, Melbourne: 16.04.07 - 06.05.07
Zurich, Switzerland 25.07.07
Helsinki, Finland: 01.08.07
Amsterdam, Holland: 07.07
Weblink: http://www.voyeurcollective.com/index.html

I am participating in the group exhibition/project by the Voyeur International Video Collective opening Tuesday 6:00pm-8:00pm April 17th at 69 Smith Street Gallery in Melbourne. A total of 28 artists are screening their works who are based in Australia and elsewhere. My work features the first public screening of the Uber Memoria (short version) to be later displayed as a larger and more substantial edition.

The exhibition will tour to various venues in Zurich, Helsinki and Amsterdam later this year.

Image: copyright Voyeur Video Art Collective, 2007.

Uber memoria paintings

Shaun Wilson, Pool, oil on canvas, 25cm x 38cm

Some new paintings underway... Thanks to Doug for writing them up on the wiki this weekend.

Uber memoria series 4-7

Here are some new images from the Uber memoria series 4-7 filmed in Melbourne during February 2007. Once the first Uber DVD was released there semed to be a significant interest in the initial series from a few curator friends of mine who are placing these works in various shows from next year onwards who then asked for more. As I originally planned for a total of x20 Uber series but stopped because of production delays I've gone back to create forty new works (x10 each series) over the last month. The second Uber DVD should be ready for sale around July/August funding permitting.

Series 8-12 are due for filming around late April/May featuring the expanded Friedrich painting re-appropriations.

Also, as some of you may have heard me talk recently about the 'mystery' feature-length film inspired from the Uber works (in pre-production), I can't say too much now except that it will be filmed in Pro HD and should be ready in time for Christmas, so stoping asking me!

With many thanks to Phil, Tam, Krystal, Tess and others who participated in filming and phone banter encouragement from Mr Lee.



Shaun Wilson, video still from Uber memoria series 4 (2007), HDV as multi channel DVD, colour, sound, 25 mins.


Shaun Wilson, video still from Uber memoria series 5 (2007), HDV as multi channel DVD, colour, sound, 25 mins.


Shaun Wilson, video still from Uber memoria series 6 (2007), HDV as multi channel DVD, colour, sound, 25 mins.


Shaun Wilson, video still from Uber memoria series 4 (2007), HDV as multi channel DVD, colour, sound, 25 mins.

Uber memoria proto

Shaun Wilson, video still from Uber memoria proto (2007), HDV as multi channel DVD, colour, sound, 25 mins.


Shaun Wilson, video still from Uber memoria proto (2007), HDV as multi channel DVD, colour, sound, 25 mins.


*Shaun Wilson, video still from Uber memoria proto (2007), HDV as multi channel DVD, colour, sound, 25 mins.


Shaun Wilson, video still from Uber memoria proto (2007), HDV as multi channel DVD, colour, sound, 25 mins.

The new bridging works between the Uber 1 & 2 and Gothic memoria series is now called Uber memoria proto re-addressing German Romantic seascape paintings in context to memory and place. Filming occured yesturday in coastal areas of Melbourne (Black Rock, Brighton Beach foreshore and surrounding area) where the scuttled 19th century battleship 'Cerberus' is located. Also note the bushfire smoke coming from Eastern Victoria and over Melbourne on the starred picture credit. More stills will be posted as editing continues...

Final cut for Uber memoria 2

Shaun Wilson, video still from Uber memoria 2 (2006), HDV as multi channel DVD, colour, sound, 25 mins.


Shaun Wilson, video still from Uber memoria 2 (2006), HDV as multi channel DVD, colour, sound, 25 mins.

The last edit for Uber memoria 2 is underway. These first release video stills are from the London film shoot in December 2006. With many thanks to Jenna and Ian (featured).

This version (1 of 3) will be screened in Australian Gothic at the Directors Lounge, Berlin in Feb. 2007.

Sneak Look at Gothic Memoria

Shaun Wilson, Gothic memoria [1]: 2% Berlin (2006-07), 3GP as single channel DVD, black and white, sound, 52 mins.

This is the first released still from the initial Gothic memoria series 1 works titled 2% Berlin, recently filmed in November 2006 at the Berlin Wall and the 'Topography of Terror' site. The film speed is slowed down to 2%, hence the title. The audio score features a composed piano quartet (performed by me) taken from the larger Memoria Sonic series (or "M-Sonic" for short) written especially for the Gothic memoria videoworks (approx. 1000).

The M-Sonic tracks were recorded in December 2006 and January 2007 and will be released as a double CD in November 2007.

Screening of 2% Berlin and related works will be in late 2007/early 2008.

New curated exhibition in LA (2007)

Shaun Wilson, video still from Uber memoria II (2006), HDV as multi-channel projection, colour, sound, 25 mins.

I am participating in a group exhibition curated by Larissa Hjorth and Kate Shaw to be staged at the Glendale Art Gallery in Los Angeles in late 2007.

Works from Uber Memoria I & II have been selected.

More details available soon.

Shaun on the Wikipedia

I'm now listed as a detailed biography on the Wikipedia at last...

please go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Wilson

New Look for Shaun Wilson Research Blog

Welcome to the new look Shaun Wilson research blog. Over the next few weeks I will present new features including a comprehensive archive of exhibitions, essays, reviews and papers of my work from 1995 onwards. Hope you like it...

Here are some things to expect in 2007:

- memory and place videoart archive
- guestbook and online forum
- RSS calander of upcoming events
- playable video
- new curatorial blog release
- new gallery release
- new archive blog release
- international conference announcements
- international exhibition announcements
- international journal announcements
- new Shaun Wilson website linked to this blogsite with over 200 downloadable videos

New Curatorial projects planned for 2007

I am planning x4 curatorial projects in 2007 that investigate issues of video art in contemporary art. A catalogue documenting the four projects will be released in December 2007.

Australian Gothic: video art now


Image: Tammy Honey

Project Space/Spare Room, Melbourne
Directors Lounge, Berlin
Feb 2007
weblink

Far Away Land


Image: Alex Avtzoglou

site specific public locations in Melbourne and London
Proposed at the Melbourne International Arts Festival 2006
Proposed at the Athens Video Art Festival 2007
November 2007
weblink

De memoria
follow up from Ars memoria (2006)
online at Rhizome
August 2007

Post-Cinema


Image: Martin Koeppl

As part of the '2nd International Conference on Film and Memorialisation', Melbourne
Project Space/Spare Room, Melbourne
Proposed at Ssamzie Space, Seoul
October 2007
weblink

New Video Series 'Gothic memoria' planned for 2007

As a responce to the current Uber memoria II series (2006-07), new video works will be filmed in various sites including Melbourne, Hobart and London throughout 2007 - as per a large proportion of footage filmed in Berlin and Stuttgart in 2006 not used both the Uber I & II series - to make up a total of six groupings with a total of 1000 video paintings. Production will start in May 2007 with a release date of December 2007. Exhibition of these works will be anounced later in the year.

Locations used are sites of significance in terms of memory and place. For example, Soho Gardens contains WW2 yet to be restored Blitz air raid shelters beneath it's parkland; the RMIT University is home to sites of the original (and notorious) Old Melbourne Gaol and 1860s public hanging grounds cnr Swanston and LaTrobe Street; and the site of the Berlin Wall near Checkpoint Charlie, aka the 'topography of terror' presinct, contains the orginal sites of the State Police, the Reich Security main office, the SS, and the Reichsfuhrer. These builidngs were home to the Wannsee Conference and planning of the 'Germinisation' and 'Extermination' policies implimented by the Nazi government between 1942-1945.

Places used in Gothic memoria are:

Melbourne: Sherbrook Forrest, Old Melbourne Gaol site at RMIT University, Wreck of the Cerberus, Glenrowan
Victoria: Howqua Valley,
Hobart: Battery Point fortification tunnels, Lower Sandy Bay foreshore
Stuttgart: Castle Solitude
Berlin: Berlin Wall at the Topography of Terror site
London: Soho Square Gardens
Schwaebisch Hall: Schaebisch Hall prison
New Zealand: Kepler Track

Production images will be released throughout the year

New Video Art Exhibition in Melbourne

AUSTRALIAN GOTHIC
Curated by Shaun Wilson
Project Space/Spare Room, Melbourne: 05.02.07-23.02.07.
Directors Lounge, Berlin: 08.02.07-18.02.07
weblink

Brendan Lee
Marsha Berry
Tammy Honey
Robert Hecimovic
Alex Avtzoglou
Larissa Hjorth
Brie Trenerry
Shaun Wilson

I will be curating the touring exhibition Australian Gothic to be exhibited at Project Space/Spare Room, Melbourne and Directors Lounge, Berlin in Feb 2007. The exhibition will be a survey show of current emerging and established Australian video artists. Evidenced work will reflect a 'Gothic' mode, as further discussed by Gerry Turcotte in his essay 'Australian Gothic' (Turcotte, 1995), including Brendan Lee's Two Birds with One Stone, Brie Trenerry's fly infested Sleep Paralysis and Tammy Honey's pop-desire Threesome. Future exhibition venues in the UK and USA will be added later in the year.

A colour catalogue will be available closer to the exhibition opening or via email me: shaun.wilson @ rmit.edu.au.

Image: Tammy Honey (2006) video still from 'Threesome', single channel DV, colour, sound, 5 mins.

Filmic Memorials (PICA)

Shaun Wilson, Wonderlandic (2005), DV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 60 mins

01.09.2005 - 09.10.2005
Perth Institute of Contemporary Art
Perth , Australia
website

Small Worlds

Shaun Wilson, The Memory Palace (2003), DV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 5 mins.

Curated by Sean Kelly
March 2003
Contemporary Art Services Tasmania (CAST)
Hobart, Tasmania

Mnemonica Series 1

Shaun Wilson, Wonderlica (2003), DV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 5 mins


Shaun Wilson, 1986 (2003), DV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 5 mins


Shaun Wilson, November (2003), DV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 5 mins


Shaun Wilson, Place (2003), DV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 5 mins


Shaun Wilson, Easter (2003), DV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 5 mins


Shaun Wilson, Portal (2003), DV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 5 mins


Shaun Wilson, Through my Father's Place (2003), DV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 5 mins


Shaun Wilson, 1985 (2003), DV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 5 mins

Video $5,000 AUD each.

Research 2

Shaun Wilson, Place Diorama ii (2003), DV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 3 mins.

Curated by Vincent McGrath
05.09.2003 - 03.10.2003
Academy Gallery
University of Tasmania
Launceston, Tasmania

Ali Aedy
Edna Broad
Deborah Edwards
Tim Edwards
Niels Ellmoos
Robyn Glade-Wright
Graham King
Stone Lee
John Parish
Anthony White
Shaun Wilson

White Line Fever/Footballism

Shaun Wilson, Barry's Gig Game (2004), DV as single channel DVD, colour, sound, 3 mins.

White Line Fever
Curated by Malcom Bywaters
05.07.2004 - 06.08.2004
Academy Gallery
University of Tasmania
Launceston, Tasmania

Various artists




Footballism
14.09.2005 - 23.09.2005
PITSpace Gallery
RMIT University
Bundoora, Victoria

Hidden Worlds

Hobart - Shaun Wilson, The Hidden Worlds detail of diorama attached to gallery ceiling (2002), digital print, 70mm x 95mm

Entrepot Gallery
01.09.2002 - 14.09.2002
Centre for the Arts
University of Tasmania
Hobart, Tasmania

Artwork exploring the relationship between the miniature and spatial narratives.

Celebrating the Exquisite Corpse

Curated by Anonda Bell
Bendigo Art Gallery: 10.06.2000 - 23.07.2000
Monash Gallery of Art: 10.05.2001 - 24.06.2001
Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery: 25.09.2001 - 16.11.2001
Ararat Gallery: 14.12.2001 - 25.01.2002

120 emerging and established artists.


Celebrating the Exquisite Corpse

In Andre Breton's Dictionaire Abrege du Surrealisme of 1938 he describes the 'Exquisite Corpse' as: a game of folded paper which consists in having several people compose a phrase or drawing collectively, none of the participants having any idea of the nature of the preceding contribution. In Andre Breton's Dictionaire Abrege du Surrealisme of 1938 he describes the 'Exquisite Corpse' as: a game of folded paper which consists in having several people compose a phrase or drawing collectively, none of the participants having any idea of the nature of the preceding contribution.

The now classic example, which gave its name to the game, is the first phrase obtained in this manner: The Exquisite-Corpse-shall-drink-the-new-wine. The Exquisite Corpse was for Surrealists a way to access and generate concrete manifestations of the subconscious mind with a fevered and uncensored abandon not possible by any other means. Breton, referred to by some as the Pope of Surrealism, has been described as shouting with joy when he recognised the creative potential afforded by this unorthodox modus operandi. The Exquisite Corpse was the most popular of all automatic techniques, and was directly in keeping with the Surrealists aim of creating via 'the dictation of thought, in the absence of all control exercised by reason, and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations'.

Since the time of the Surrealists, many well known artists have played the Exquisite Corpse game. In 1995 I viewed an exhibition of contemporary Exquisite Corpse's as it was on tour in the United States which provided me with the inspiration to organise a version involving 120 Victorian artists. In keeping with Surrealists intentions I was at the outset determined, as much as feasibly possible, to allow the mechanisms of chance dictate the process. The artists were selected at random and came from a variety of backgrounds, from painters and printmakers through to digital artists. This included people fresh out of art school, all the way through to very well known artists. Most of the groupings (three artists contributed to each drawing) were anonymous, and people were often working with geographically disparate collaborators. Paper was provided but this was to be viewed only as a starting point, all else was left to the artists. The resulting works included many traditional mediums as well as hair, wire, insects, felt and leaves.

The main joy of organising this exhibition was the overwhelmingly positive response to the concept. Arts Victoria provided funding through the Regional Arts Fund, and as the Curator I was pleased by the tremendous support received from artists who dedicated their expertise and time. The Exquisite Corpse's exceeded my expectations. The works were intricate and blatant, dynamic and ambiguous, precious and haphazard. They embodied the spirit of Surrealism - a democratic, liberated and fun way to create art. They were the results of a game which embraced everyone and encouraged anything.

- Anonda Bell 2000 (from Arts Victoria website: June 2001 archive, Vol. 2, No. 2 weblink )

DIY: do it yourself

Curated by Malcom Bywaters
Switchback Gallery: 07.09.1999 - 30.09.1999
Faculty Gallery: 04.2000
Monash University
Victoria, Australia
catalogue ISBN: 0-73262-096-1

Bret Jones & Sarah Stubbs (Westspace)
Richard Holt and Andrew Seward (Platform)
Maggie McCormick (City Art Public Space)
Monica Adams & Shaun Wilson (Indigo Studios)