[ISEA2008] Artist Talk: Rachelle Viader Knowles – Border Crossings: blurring places and spaces of art, pedagogy and global citizenry

Artist Statement

My practice is hybrid, blurring borders between geographic locations, civic and national identities and language, and between art, research, pedagogy in its form. I create projects for exhibition, for the web, for the street and for the classroom, with audiences, with students, with participants. Project methodology is collaborative, discursive, and conversational in practice, constructed and mediated in form. Responsive to my own personal history of multiple citizenry and to larger issues of global migrations, my presentation will address the specific issue of border crossings and transmissions in my work, referencing four projects, indicative of my creative approach that utilizes digital technologies and telematic strategies to shift, blur or collapse space and time in an attempt to transport viewers and participants into fluid zones of encounter and exchange.

In the Neighbourhood : multi-channel synchronized video installation presents dialogues centered on stories of relationships with neighbours, positing questions of international relations, world citizenry and negotiations of borders and difference.

The Former Resident Project : http://www.former-resident-project.net/
Ongoing series of multifaceted, creative collaborations with participants in multiple cities addressing ‘residence’ as a series of narratives and residues that shift and slip over time. Exhibited/performed at Conflux, New York, 2006 and the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland, 2007. Each project takes different forms within a different context and happens in the streets and on-line.

Berlin Project : http://uregina.ca/rvk/berlin.html
Site-specific video project created for the CAFKA festival, presents constructed, mediated dialogues between three artists from Berlin Germany and Kitchener Canada. Installation in the council chambers of Kitchener City Hall.

Blur Street : http://blurstreet.uregina.ca/
A series of online video ‘conversations’, performed online, between students from the University of Regina, Canada, the University of the Arts, Belgrade, Serbia, the University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland and York University Toronto, Canada.