A commission by Nuit Blanche Ottawa+Gatineau, Artengine and DAIMON. Funded by the Ontario Council for the Arts.
The Strangeloops Collective’s unique combination of digital technology and traditional painting can be seen at three sites throughout the city, including the Plaza Bridge, The Rectory Art House, and at Le Café 4 Jeudis in Hull.
Following up their first work together at last year’s Nuit Blanche, the Strangeloops Collective is exhibiting throughout the city, including the Plaza Bridge (at the intersection of Wellington St. and Elgin St.), the Rectory Art House (179 Murray Street), and Le Café 4 Jeudis in Hull (44 Rue Laval).
Working with 13 artists the Collective is transforming the space under the Plaza Bridge into a magical and immersive video painting installation. As viewers enter the space, they are greeted by a mysterious, darkened soundscape, punctuated by totemic hydro poles emerging from the space as beacons of light. As they approach each of these, the installation comes to life: spiralling frescos appear on ceilings and walls; animated vignettes slowly emerge on rocky outcroppings; and watery sounds appear as painted waterfalls cascade to the floor.
Their project at the Rectory Art House reflects the intimate scale of a working studio. Building on the trompe l’oeil tradition from mural painting, the Collective combines their usual repertory of physical painting and digital technology to create an interactive and immersive video painting installation. They are transforming the North wall of the studio into an illusionistic window projecting through the wall to a scenic point overlooking the Ottawa River and the nearby Gatineau shore.
Their project at Le Café 4 Jeudis in Hull is a hyperkinetic and interactive remix of an earlier work, and provides the perfect backdrop to what will most likely be one of Gatineau’s busiest sites.
BIO/
Strangeloops Collective is a three-person, multi-disciplinary visual arts collective. Through a unique combination of large-scale, narrative painting, physical computing, and digital animation, Andrew Morrow, Adam Hill, and John Duffy, make interactive, environmentally aware art, grounded in traditional painting, but committed to innovation. Their work emerges from a fluid, and changeable, collaborative structure, and is dedicated to ephemerality, viewer engagement, and open-ended story. Their first project together, launched in September 2012, for Ottawa’s inaugural Nuit Blanche, was described by Guerrilla Magazine editor Tony Martins, as “possibly the best of NBO”. They followed up this project with a solo exhibition at the Angell Gallery in Toronto in December of 2012, and a residency at the DAIMON Centre in Gatineau Quebec in January 2013. In June 2013 the Collective was selected for the design team of the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Confederation Line Art Program. For this year’s Nuit Blanche, the Collective will be collaborating with 13 other artists, including lighting designer Michael Simon, sound artist Donna Legault, and painters Ryota Aoki, Toria Courtney, Nicole Crozier, Brendan De Montigny, Sharon Katz, Ali Kramers, Amélie Levesque, Niya Mirtcheva, Antoine Paquin, Paul Raiche, and Chris Simonite.
