Video Art Therapy: 14 Videos by Brian MacDonald
Video Art Therapy: 14 Videos by Brian MacDonald
Friday May 18 2007. 8PM
Award winning Victoria videomaker Brian MacDonald will premiere Video Art Therapy #1: journey to a distant planet at Open Space on Friday evening, May 18 at 8pm.
Video Art Therapy #1: journey to a distant planet is the first in a series of videos that aspires to make video art a useful commodity by providing therapeutic benefits for the viewer. A reassuring voice will help those who wish to escape depression or anxiety by guiding them on a fantastic virtual journey to an unexplored planet. Images of pretty lights, magic tricks, and ingenious sculptures are set to soothing music to facilitate relaxation and enable a temporary escape from a stressful world. Featuring sculptures by Aston Coles, Scott Evans, Emi Honda and Jordan McKenzie. Video art by Tor Jørgen van Eijk with music by Bryce Janssens and voice by Kate Lackey.
Brian MacDonald has developed his own unique style since the early 2000s, a style that reflects his fondness for narrative and interest in the relationships between intimacy, sexuality and solitude. To date, he has made 16 videos, most of them short works in which he observes human behaviour and emotions. With great sensuality he films bodies and faces, ironically exposing the fragility of situations that can turn tragic. His two most recent videos, both medium-length, are formally more ambitious, reflecting a mastery of editing, a profound knowledge of cinema, and an avid interest in the atmosphere of science-fiction films. 1
This program will feature 14 videos from his oeuvre including the BC premiere of: Video Art Therapy #1: journey to a distant planet.
This evening will also include the 4 channel video installation, Please Talk To Me, and a rare live musical performance of the award-winning, Murder and UFOs, by Bryce Janssens, Thomas Shields, Matt Skillings and Neil Cooke-Dallin.
Video Art Therapy will also be presenting the zoetrope, Satellite in Orbit by Aston Coles, and a selection of Intermissions, by the Norwegian video artist, Tor Jørgen van Eijk.
1 Nicole Gingras, Brian MacDonald -Volte-Face, solo program at Festival international du film sur l’art, Montreal, 2