Sarah Pupo, Kandis Friesen, Kerri Flannigan

February 24–March 28, 2013

Finissage March 27, 5 à 7

(york corridor vitrines)

En français

paperwork is a process-based installation of an animated “exquisite corpse” video project in the York Corridor Vitrine. Part residency, part studio, and part exhibition, the collaborative show takes the form of three animators working in three of the vitrine sections, with the fourth section dedicated to a regularly updated video projection of sequential animated loops as they evolve. paperwork aims to demystify the process of shooting frame-by-frame, drawing attention to the construction of the animated image, it’s materiality, and the labour and conditions of its making.

The playful, transformative nature of the exquisite corpse provides an ideal vehicle for us to experiment and work in direct dialogue with each other, responding to one another’s form, content and style. A classic surrealist drawing game, it collaboratively assembles an image by having one artist add on to a previous artist’s imagery. The words exquisite corpse themselves suggest the sensuous and the imperfect decay of the material world – this is fitting as our practices are linked by a passion for the detritus and the hands-on, messy manipulation of real objects and materials through combined old and new technologies.

During the exhibition this process and its debris will be on display, allowing research, experimentation and ‘finished’ work to coexist and bridging the often-intangible transformative process of turning material objects into ephemeral projections. As a public installation, passersby will be able to watch us at work and witness the animation unfold.

Sarah Pupo lives and works in Montreal, Quebec where she recently completed an MFA at Concordia University. Her practice integrates aspects of painting, drawing and provisional animation techniques that prioritize intuition, ritual, associative thinking and the flux of chance and control. Recently, Pupo was artist in residence at Kolin Ryynanen (Koli, Finland) and KIAC (Dawson City, Yukon) and screened animations in New York (MIX) and Montreal (Meta Wired Women Salon). Upcoming projects include a solo exhibition at Articule (Montreal, Quebec) and a residency at SIM (Reykjavik, Iceland). 

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Kandis Friesen is an artist and cultural worker based in Montreal, Quebec. Working across media, her practice maintains a dialogue between theories of video and theories of drawing, looking at immediacy, intimacy, and accessible representation as inherent and transmutable in both media. Friesen has exhibited locally and internationally at various festivals and galleries, including recent projects with DARE-DARE (Montreal), Fuse magazine (Toronto), and MIX (New York), and has been the recipient of several grants and awards, including a CALQ Visual Arts Grant (2013) and the Images Festival Steamwhistle Homebrew Award (2012).

Kerri Flannigan is a Montreal-based interdisciplinary artist, originally from Deep River, Ontario. Through drawing, writing, projection, and installation, Flannigan explores methods of experimental narrative and documentary; Grounded in both personal history and in-depth research, her work examines the sordid histories of small towns, coming of age memoirs and family histories. Flannigan has shown locally and internationally, recently receiving a CALQ Multidisciplinary Arts Grant (2011) and Best English Zine at the Expozine Awards (2011). Flannigan is currently producing work for an upcoming exhibition at ARTSPACE (Peterborough, Ontario).