The Moving Image Award
UPDATE: October 17, 2013
Jessica Faiss and Rollin Leonard Receive “Moving Image Award”
Their Artworks “Solitude” and “360º / 18 Lilia” Were Selected for 53 Art
Museum in Guangzhou, China.
Moving Image art fair, is very pleased to announce that artists Jessica Faiss, represented by Galleri Flach, Stockholm, Sweden, and Rollin Leonard, represented by Transfer Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, are the recipients of the 2013 Moving Image Award. The Moving Image Award funds the acquisition of artwork exhibited at the fair for the permanent collection of contemporary art institutions. For the 2013 London edition of Moving Image, the selection was made by Mr. James Hu, curator for 53 Art Museum in Guangzhou, China.
Jessica Faiss, Solitude, 2012, video, 8:40min loop. Courtesy the artist and Flach Galleri.
Solitude by the Swedish/Swiss artist Jessica Faiss, is one of two videos in which the beholder follows a suggestive movement forward from the inside of a car or a train, experiencing greyish or autumnal sceneries passing by.
The videos are based on motion and suggestive moments in unpopulated areas in a Nordic environment and describe a state of traveling in a continuous, meditative movement, which is a recurrent theme in Jessica Faiss’ works. The artist describes it as a way to capture a sense of vulnerability and loneliness but also of peace and liberation. It’s about to face oneself in an existential condition in which suggestive and repetitive movements through landscapes creates conditions for such a meeting to take place.
Although Jessica Faiss is an artist that works in several different techniques the imagery is held together by a visual purity and reduction. Thus emerges a natural dialogue between the different expressions – video, photography, collage and painting – which highlights different perspectives on a ground state. The images in the videos are alternately seductive and disturbing that attract and hold the viewer’s gaze and perception. It is a visual language that refers more to painterly qualities than to narrative and narration.
Artist Bio
Jessica Faiss was born 1973 in Martigny, Switzerland, but lives and works since many years in Stockholm, Sweden. She is educated at the University College of Crafts, Art and Design in Stockholm and has since then participated in a series of exhibitions in Sweden and internationally.
Rollin Leonard, 360º / 18 Lilia, 2013, Video. Courtesy theartist and Transfer Gallery.
360° / 18 Lilia exploits the mathematical concept of ‘highly composite numbers’ and what the artist dubs ‘visual elasticity’ (a common thread in Leonard’s work). The number of photographs in this work totals 360, a highly composite number and one with an extraordinarily large number of divisors. This allowed for several timelines to be abstracted evenly from the set and to optimize the time it takes to syncopate again. The result is the face falls out of and back into order in the fewest frames possible. Human faces, bodies, and familiar objects are frequent subjects for the artist partly because of our innate ability to recognize the objects despite scrambling or distorting the image. A face, a subject with high visual elasticity, is especially resistant to being obscured or lost in pattern. Just as you see faces in wood grain, clouds, and shadows, your mind easily knits Lilia together even when fragmented.
Artist Bio
Rollin Leonard, born in 1984, lives and works in Portland, Maine where he maintains a photography and production studio. He has shown largescale video installations, photographic prints, and web based work since 2004. His medium varies but his conceptual approach is consistent – projecting the logic, meaning, or pattern from one domain into another, often using the human body as a vehicle to do so. Leonard earned a BA in Philosophy and a BA in Painting from the University of Minnesota in 2007.
Leonard’s work has been shown at The Photographer’s Gallery, London; Point Ephémère, Paris; Museum of the Moving Image, New York; Essential Existence Gallery, Leipzig; Moving Image Art Fair, New York & London; NADA Art Fair, New York; and online at Fach & Asendorf Gallery.
ABOUT THE MOVING IMAGE AWARD
Established in 2012 to help incorporate video and film into the permanent collections of art institutions, the inaugural Moving Image Award honored San Francisco collectors Pamela and Richard Kramlich, who have supported contemporary artists working in video, film, and new media through their private collection and through the New Art Trust, a nonprofit organization they founded to advance the collection, preservation, exhibition, and understanding of technology based art forms. The Kramlichs’ dedication has inspired Moving Image to reach out to similarly minded supporters to expand the inclusion of video, film and new media in museum collections globally.
Moving Image cofounders Murat Orozobekov and Edward Winkleman noted that “presenting a global snapshot of contemporary video art has been one of the goals of Moving Image since its inception and having this opportunity to collaborate with and connect artists with collections on an international level is a testament to our mission. We are so grateful to Mr. Qiangbo Li for his generous support of the Moving Image Award, and have so enjoyed working closely with Mr. James Hu of 53 Art Museum on the award this year. We feel Moving Image London 2013 is perhaps the strongest presentation of the fair to date, and we are delighted that Jessica Faiss and Rollin Leonard have been selected as the recipient of the 2013 Moving Image Award.”
ABOUT 53 ART MUSEUM
Moving Image is very pleased to announce details on the second annual Moving Image Award to be presented October 17, 2013, the opening day of the London version of the fair. This year, the Moving Image Award will fund the acquisition of an artwork from the fair for the permanent collection of 53 Art Museum in Guangzhou, China. The award is sponsored by Qiongbo Li, founder of Guangdong Wanpin Culture & Art Development Co., Ltd, in Guangzhou, China.
Established in 2012 to help incorporate video and film into the permanent collections of art institutions, the inaugural Moving Image Award honored San Francisco collectors Pamela and Richard Kramlich, who have supported contemporary artists working in video, film, and new media through their private collection and through the New Art Trust, a non-profit organization they founded to advance the collection, preservation, exhibition, and understanding of technology-based art forms. The Kramlich’s dedication has inspired Moving Image to reach out to similarly-minded supporters to expand the inclusion of video, film and new media in museum collections globally. The inaugural Moving Image Award funded an acquisition by Tate for their permanent collection, as selected by Tate’s Curator of Film, Stuart Comer.
Recipient of the Moving Image Award in 2012: Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck in collaboration with Media Farzin. Chronoscope, 1951, 11pm; 2011 (gallery view) Single channel HD video installation, 24:49 min, B & W, stereo sound. Presented at Moving Image London by Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE.
Moving Image co-founder Murat Orozobekov explained, “We are delighted to announce the establishment of a new ongoing fund generously sponsored by Qiongbo Li, founder of Guangdong Wanpin Culture & Art Development Co., Ltd. The mission of Moving Image has always been to bring our visitors an international selection of the best contemporary video and experimental film. With Mr. Li’s generous sponsorship, the Moving Image Award helps us expand the global opportunities for participating artists as well.”
The Moving Image Award grants $10,000 toward an acquisition for the permanent collection of 53 Art Museum, the first non-profit private contemporary art museum in the major Chinese city of Guangzhou. 53 Art Museum’s building was designed from repurposed China rail hangars, resulting in a unique environment that echoes history and contemporary trends in architecture. Under the slogan of “Standing in Guangdong, with eyes on the world”, 53 Art Museum devotes itself to promoting contemporary art, especially video art.
Qiongbo Li, is the founder of Guangdong Wanpin Culture & Art Development Co.,Ltd, as well as Director of 53 Art Museum and Executive Chief Editor of Gallery Magazine. Mr. Li has been an active promoter and publisher in contemporary art in China since for many years. “We are living in a time of new media,” said Mr. Li of his sponsorship of the Moving Image Award. “Video art can be regarded as one of the most important ways for artist to record their history as well as express themselves. Personally, I am very interested in video art and have expectations of its bright future. I am grateful that the Moving Image Award offers me the chance to provide video artists from all over the world with opportunities to exchange with each other, especially in bringing creative ideas to artists both at home and abroad.”
53 Art Museum curator James Hu added, “We are very grateful for Mr. Qiongbo Li’s generous devotion to the permanent collection of video art in 53 Art Museum. Video art, as a matter of fact, has been a key focus of the Museum, for which we have made a series of exhibitions concerning the development of video art at home and abroad, trying to construct an international platform for dialogue and communication between artists with different backgrounds, delineating the position, sphere of influence and future trajectory of Chinese video art within the global context.”