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Lisa Anita Wegner

“I make stuff and sometimes write about it”

Tag Archives: video art

April 25, 2017 Road to Human Realignment

“I am working on a performance film series called Metamorphosis Human Realignment. This physical stretching practise has changed my life and now through that doorway I am creating a piece in which I tell the truth with my body. I am very excited about this work.”

After speaking at Open Show Toronto about two of my therapy videos I have become even more aware of the clear path my body of work is taking.

I created the Fictitious History of the Haus of Dada as a therapeutic art practise and the bulk of my film and performance work has stemmed from it. After using persona and then the Dada movement as parameters I now feel compelled to strip everything down and tell my story with my body. I’ll talk a bit about that in a moment.

I started here in 2008 when I was still very sick. I made this Eva and Bobby video series in my home with iMovie and started to find my voice

 

 

 

Mama Dada was going to host the installation but that didn’t feel right. Thin(k) Blank Human was born that night.

The work progressed with a library of videos like Marry The Night

A Collaboration with Steve Weiss and Leslie Barton

A solo performance at The Mod Club in Toronto

Thin(k) Blank Human: Metamorphosis is a performance piece by artist Lisa Anita Wegner (haus of dada) and musician Ray Cammaert (Pink Moth). It began as an extension of Wegner’s Trauma Therapy and represents a safe place in the search for one’s self after complete annihilation. It is both a confirmation of vitality and a call to action. The piece explores male and female layers of the neutral self and uses vibration of sound to assist in the expression of terror, hysteria, madness, resilience and joy on the journey to re-birth.

 

After this metamorphosis I realized that I will always continue to embody Thin(k) Blank Human but as for my personal artistic through line I have come through the structure of relying on artifice to find authenticity. My current work is based in realigning my chronically tight psoas muscles which have caused a leg length discrepancy and making my physical body unstable and chronically crooked. After going to a stretch class of Mary-Margaret Scrimger’s at Pursuit I understood the power of stretching my body and how I felt different immediately. Now every day I stretch for at least 10 minutes, some studio days I stretch up to three hours. In this stretching and realignment I am finding myself and who I really am as an artist without all the performance bombast that I so enjoy.

I am working on a nude performance / film series called Metamorphosis Human Realignment. This physical stretching practise has changed my life and now through that doorway I am creating a performance to tell the truth with my body. I am very excited about this work. It’s also the first time I am not sharing as I go.

LAW

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July 2, 2014 The only thing missing is you #WINDOWBOXSELFIE

 

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To embrace the high angle and tall shape of The Window Box I found myself looking up into the empty Gallery 1313 Window Box space while contemplating what I wanted to fill it with. While I was contemplating someone took a picture of me. I have been fascinated by the fact that so many Smart Phone users now choose to interact with the world through the lens of their phones, constantly taking photos and video of everything that they experience and interact with. Even more fascinating is their desire, at events such as concerts, to take pictures of themselves with the action in the background, with this seemingly as important a part of the event as witnessing it firsthand. As an installation and performance artist, I have been struck by how a good 80% of the audience opt to look at my work through their phones.

 

The installation #windowboxselfie that will be in Gallery 1313’s Window Box during July of 2014, is designed to play on this compulsion, creating an invitation to its viewers to create a self-portrait while they take a picture of an art installation. The round mirror angled toward the viewer shows their face while jewel-tone film gels create a halo around their face. Mirror film with RoscoFlex S lighting gel creates a surreal reflective surface, giving the viewer a playful saint-like self-portrait created from their own reflection, in a celebration of the self made possible through new technology.

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The title #windowboxselfie is printed in on the glass front of the Window Box so that it will be captured in each photo taken; and this will result in the Window Box exhibition space itself proliferating in self-portraits posted on social media.

 

Through the artist’s and Gallery 1313’s online social media, there will also be opportunities for viewers to see the best of submitted selfies, and vote for those they like best in various categories, continuing the interactive nature of the installation.

 

#windowboxselfie was created by Lisa Anita Wegner, and continues the trends of her recent art practice in its use of found objects, and the theme of reflection. This installation in particular focuses on using film expendables for the majority of its construction, creating extra layers of meaning in using film supplies to create a ‘set’ that then encourages people to make their own ‘filmic’ records.

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Construction and design expertise was provided by Nikolai Berda of Longbranch Design, a company which specializes in providing design solutions for professionals in various creative fields. This is the third collaboration between Lisa Anita Wegner and Longbranch Design, with their design and fabrication skills having previously brought her installations for ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche 2013 and ARTrageous Art In Motion 2014 to life.

 

Materials for the installation have been supplied by The Haus of Dada, Lisa Anita Wegner’s film and art collective, with additional funding provided by Partners In Art.  Process video by Lisa Anita Wegner

 

We encourage taking and tagging of #WINDOWBOXSELFIE selfies. We will choose from the most interesting ones and prizes will be awarded and at the end of the month. So come to Gallery1313 at 1313 Queen Street West, take a look into the mirrors and take a picture of yourself.

 

The only thing missing is you.

 

Here is a short video of how we made it

 

 

Taking a Selfie Has More to Do With Self Worth Than You Realize: Read what Molly Fosco at Huffington Post has to say

 

#WINDOWBOXSELFIE

instagram @gallery1313 @lisa_anita_wegner @longbranchdesign

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December 16, 2013 Outside the Haus: New Year’s Day Dada Happening

Two experiences brought this idea together:
 
On Hallowe’en I put up some Roscoe Tough White Diffusion in the front Window of the Haus of Dada. It makes a terrific crisp rear projection both inside and out. I played clips of black and white monster movies and the scariest scenes from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Even before the sun set it was nicely visible from the street and I was surprised that even on such a rainy night people stopped and watched for longer than I expected. Some came back several times and some sent other family members.
 
On Nuit Blanche I did a performance projection installation where I was a 25 foot Queen at the corner of Queen Street West and University Ave. It was interesting to have huge walking by audience and again I was surprised how long people stood watched and interacted with me.
 
So I had an idea for a Happening. I think that is a perfect term for what I have in mind. On New Years Day from 7pm to 11pm I will project a selection of my Moment Study Videos out the large front window of The Haus of Dada.
 
I made an invite on Facebook, for some folks who have expressed an interested in seeing my video studies projected. But I’m not sending out invitations like a usual event, I am more interested in the experience of the passerby. I will set up a GoPro camera to catch the silhouettes of viewers.
 
I am keen to see what happens.
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