Sofie Hodara + Suman Kabiraj + Pawel Pacholec
December 19–25, 2021
“Telescope Tondos” by Sofie Hodara
Above: still images from “Telescope Tondos”
Tell us about the artwork. What makes it unique?
“I am submitting a series of short looping videos taken from my iPhone through a telescope. These videos capture vistas, views into buildings, and street scenes captured from the window of an apartment in Brooklyn NY that I am temporarily living in, because of COVID. These videos are a response to my dislocation and social distancing. Each composition frames a potential story about a community or place I am not interacting with. The moving imagery is otherworldly as the telescope flattens and flips the space. This works asks: in the time of COVID – where everything is mediated by screens – can digital voyeurism stand in for intimacy and community?”
Tell us about yourself. How did you come to be an artist in video/digital media?
“As an artist, I integrate traditional print and design media with emerging technologies to create works on paper, interactive installations, and digital experiences. This practice originates in anxiety and confusion, which I transform into playful questions: What happens to our dreams in the era of the quantified self? How do we experience an iPhone ringtone when it is broadcast in a massive Walmart on Black Friday? What is left when the last Joshua tree at Joshua Tree National Park dies off? My interest in technology and design arose from my experience as a landscape painter. As a painter, I translated the ever-changing world around me into urgent and tactile brushstrokes. My current work is driven by the desire to bring the physicality and immediacy of painting into emergent digital spaces.”
“Pulse” by Suman Kabiraj
Above: still images from “Pulse”
Tell us about the artwork. What makes it unique?
“The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of our dysfunctional relationship with nature. Studies show deforestation and loss of wildlife cause increases in infectious diseases. Many people are wondering when life will get back to normal after the COVID-19 crisis. We should be asking: can we use this opportunity to learn from our mistakes and build something better? A focus on nature can help us understand where pandemics come from and how the socioeconomic fallout from the crisis could be mitigated. I have tried to depict the theme with a semi abstract moving image.”
About the artist:
Suman Kabiraj is a visual artist based in India. He pursued his MFA and BFA from the Government College of Art and Craft at the University of Calcutta. While growing up he became interested in making short experimental films. Now an accomplished video artist, Kabiraj various works are represented internationally at both event screenings and art galleries. Recent highlights include Patchlab Digital Art Festival, Krakow, Poland, “Art Under Lockdown” by Counterweave Arts, Rome, Italy, and “COVID19 Creative Outlet” by Ideas Block Art Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania.
“Momentum” by Pawel Pacholec
Above: still images from “Momentum”
Tell us about the artwork. What makes it unique?
“Someone once said that it is not strong will that matters, but keeping the momentum. Everything around us is in motion. What is physical, liquid, steam, but also mental. Is exploring knowledge a momentum worth keeping?”
Tell us about yourself. How did you come to be an artist in video/digital media?
“I have learned video production at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk where I'm studying. I like to put in motion my ideas and see them being alive. I have sentiment for a black & white movies so my video refers to an old and vintage times.”