Program 7: DOUBLE GANGERS, Curated by Morganne Wakefield
“By Way of Today presents….Laredo” by Cameron Gibson & Kyle Schlie
“Trial Child: Nurture A Better Nature” by Scotty Wagner & Bailey Hikawa
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Screen Share Gallery (outside Room 201)
Chicago, IL
Exhibition dates: Tuesday, September 26, 2017- Thursday, November 2, 2017
DOUBLE GANGERS focuses on the work of two collaborative duos: Cameron Gibson & Kyle Schlie and Scotty Wagner & Bailey Hikawa. Within each of the duos’ collaborative works, a few common strategies emerge. Both foreground the role of mise-en-scene, making the objects within each respective video works contenders for our attention. The use of “the commercial” and marketed goods appears to be a necessary inclusion, to contrast props from products; products have a more emotionally heightened role to fill, here. The scale of emotional response, likewise, in both Laredo and Trial Child, is also played with. In the former, the characters often underreact, creating a conversational cadence that comes across as productively awkward, flipping the conventional tendencies of the Soap Opera, as a genre. Trial Child dances on the line between the filmic and theatrical space and consistently presents moments to remind the viewer of such. Extreme close-ups, crisp audio and animation remind us that we are in the filmic space, however the tendency toward tableau and frontal presentation is equally as strong; we are reminded of the conditions and limitations of theater. These limitations are also dealt with (in both works), through the use of wigs and costume elements, to help a single actor play multiple characters. By shifting the scale and role of the basic tenants of the cinematic and theatrical world, both works create a discomfort that helps drive their specific narrative concerns.
By Way of Today presents…
Laredo
created by
Cameron Gibson and Kyle Schlie
a Globe Al Chemical Company Production
© 1984
By Way of Today is an expanded soap opera guided by Cameron Gibson and Kyle Schlie. Equal parts genre study, fan fiction and mundane sci-fi, it is a series like many and unlike none. Episodes “air” irregularly and in various forms such as video, script, rehearsal, live broadcast, performance, commercial, installation and animation.
Laredo, “Hazy Days” (C2D1)
“Island Time” (Commercial break)
“The Island Awaits” (Commercial break)
“Where’s the Pudding?” (Commercial break)
TRIAL CHILD: NURTURE A BETTER NATURE
created by
Scotty Wagner & Bailey Hikawa
“Trial Child: Nurture a Better Nature” is an unconventional household drama set in an imagined future where self-control is the single most important quality in human development. Trial Child, a robotic replica of a couple’s would-be child, is the newest technology. This tragicomic Pinocchio-esque tale addresses issues surrounding the cyborg identity and our growing personification of robotics in relation to gender, identity, technological absurdity and family politics.
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