Erik Sanner at the Big Screen Project

Posted by / May 2nd, 2011 / No responses

As part of LISA’s partnership with the Big Screen Project, we will be showing excerpts from some of Erik Sanner‘s works during the month of May on the Big Screen at the Eventi Hotel at 30th and 6th in Manhattan.  We are excited that Erik is working with us for this project!

Erik Sanner’s Bio as of May 2, 2011:

Erik Sanner is a media artist living and working in New York City.  He began exhibiting in Tokyo in the late nineties.  Sanner was awarded Manhattan Community Arts Fund grants in 2007 and 2009.  In New York he is represented by Emmanuel Fremin Gallery.  Upcoming exhibits include projects at Wave Hill (the Bronx), Carmichael Gallery (LA), LICHT FELD 11 (Basel), the Danforth Museum (Massachusetts), and the Courtauld Institute of Art (London).

Sanner integrates traditional and contemporary methods to create dynamic installations he calls “paintings that move.”  Original software constantly recomposes video; the resulting imagery is projected onto oil paintings.  Each “moving painting” is constantly changing, providing the viewer with a unique experience every time it is viewed.

Sanner sometimes works with other artists, finding that joint efforts lead to outcomes neither individual would have anticipated.  Recent collaborators include Lisa Kellner, James Merrell, and Kazue Taguchi.

Sanner is an active member of LISA (Leaders in Software and Art), and co-founded the APE (Aesthetic Purposes Exploration) discussion group.  He maintains a personal blog sharing his creative process.

Sanner’s overarching goal is to expand our experience of painting by utilizing technology.

Here is his statement about the piece that will be shown:

The Unanswered Question (2011, 8:58)

In my direct experience with art, as a viewer and as a maker, I treasure confusion.  “The Unanswered Question (in Fire and Snow)” is an homage to the early 20th century American composer Charles Ives.  His piece “The Unanswered Question” is, I believe, a meditation on the essence of art.  Maybe he’s asking how we can listen to the same songs over and over again and never grow tired of them.  Maybe he’s asking what art is, or what art is for.

I often wonder what art is for.  Why do we paint?  What does it mean to be a visual artist in 2011?

In order to pose those questions in visual terms, I turned to the traffic cones which populate our 21st century American environment.  Why are traffic cones cone-shaped?  Why don’t we have traffic pyramids?  Some maintain that the concept of “ideal forms” indicates alternate universes.  With every traffic cone manufactured, with every painting painted, our universe becomes more strongly defined as this-universe-not-an-alternate-universe.

I want this universe to contain art which resists understanding.  In this piece one actual cone is burning, while a simulacrum of another cone is sculpted out of snow.  Why?

_______________

May’s Leaders in Software and Art choices (a 40-min. loop that plays three times through in a two hour period), including works by Phillip Stearns, Erik Sanner, Deborah Johnson and Blake Carrington, will show on the Big Screen at the following times:

5/10- 9-11AM
5/12- 12-2PM, 8-10PM
5/24 9-11AM
5/26- 12-2PM, 8-10PM 6-8PM