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Land(e)scape by Static Channel

Showing in N/A Gallery at Necessary Arts Collective: June 6 2021 to July 3 2021

84 Wyndham Street N, GUELPH ON


Created by Static Channel (Monika Hauck and Alex Ricci)

With additional footage by Greg Bruns and Rachel Exler

3-channel, cyclical video (00:13:16)

Various display pieces




Land(e)scape


"AKA Now I Remember…

AKA a Misrepresentation of Memory


Climbing mountains in convertibles

A 10(000) year anniversary

A dream spilling out of our heads


As time accumulates following the event

Reality is compressed actuality is bent

The evidence degrades with each view

We renovate our stories each year new


A place is only the sum of everyone’s stories. The instant after a place is

experienced, it exists only in the realm of memory. We catalog those momentary

sensations - those brain-videos - in imperfect ways, smudging details. And we

are limited by the perspectives we arrive with. One place is never exactly the

same for two different people.


This temporary terrain offers an escape into a surreal environment, composed

equally of real memory-artefacts and digital reconstructions. This space invites

you to visit, to pause, to breathe somewhere else for a time, and ultimately to

return with a reminder of your presence in the environment you occupy.

Land(e)scape is a visual accompaniment to Levadas, a music album by Static

Channel.


During the past year-or-more, through the restriction of personal freedoms and

widening disparities between the wealthy and underprivileged, many of us have

sought escape. An inward journey into memories of more uncomplicated times.

An exploration of our psychological fringes through technological, meditative or

chemical experiences. Or simply building and affirming our own reality, of which

we are in control. An escape necessarily means a departure from existing

surroundings, whether by physical travel to other space, or intentional disregard

for the land we physically occupy. What consequences may befall us untrained

architects of our own realities? And should we be concerned with the

externalities of our digital escapes, the carbon tax of our aphysical consumption?


This land feels less and less like my land. I don’t own any part of it. Nor do I feel

comfortable affirming the legitimacy of ownership of land that is the subject of

countless broken treaties and profiteering environmental neglect. Escaping to the

land of my foremothers… Inconceivable to those surviving grandparents who fled

war and poverty for a chance to own their outcome in a “new world”. Can land

escape even be considered unsuspicious, when ours is a land hosting ongoing

systemic racism, oppression and genocide? In staying, do we have any hope of

washing our ancestors’ hands clean of the blood? Or our hands which are made

in their likeness… Land escape, a tax-haven for ancestral guilt. In leaving, do we

feign innocence? Colonialism raised us to these modest thrones, so shouldn’t we

now have to carry his baggage?


What is it about travel that compels us to spend our savings, endure exhausting

airports, and shock ourselves with the crossed wires of our cultural

perspectives… Is it the physical change in space; the colour of the skyline, the

smell of the air, the taste of exotic recipes? Or is it the anticipation - the looking

forward - and subsequently, the looking back, that drives our need to take a trip?

Is this temporary migration as healing as we often describe it? Airports and

resorts across the world look suspiciously like new colonial fortresses we

traditional settlers fortify to exploit the cheap labour and natural resources of the

world’s most desirable places. Can we really rest and relax knowing that many

others have to toil to afford us that opportunity?"


ABOUT

Static Channel is an ongoing audiovisual collaboration between visual artist

Monika Hauck and musician Alex Ricci. The duo create immersive and colourful

environments in live performances and installations. As Static Channel, as well

as under their previous moniker VERSA, they have performed at Hillside Festival

(Guelph ON), Kazoo Fest, (Guelph ON), Flourish Festival (Fredericton NB),

Electric Eclectics (Meaford ON), Hold Fast (St. John’s NL) and Y2K Live Looping

Festival (Mexico City MX). The group has also created multimedia installations

for Nuit Blanche (Toronto and Ottawa ON), AGO (Toronto ON) and Lumen

(Waterloo ON). More info at: https://linktr.ee/StaticChannel





Static Channel works in partnership with:



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