26-28 February, HIAP Gallery Augusta

Our time at HIAP has been full of experiments. We saw the residency as a great opportunity to collaborate on a project that combines our two distinct practices and allowed us to work outside of our comfort zones.

The project We are the stories we tell combines kinetic sculpture, sound, and shadows. We are currently researching shadow theatre and exploring ways in which the banality of everyday life can be made fantastic. During our stay in Suomenlinna, we invited the people of the island to visit us at the studio with an object that evokes a story for them. We photographed each object and recorded anecdotes, myths and tales relating to them. The collected images and narratives have been used to create the sculptural elements of the shadow installation. These elements have been made based on the stories, but they are not necessarily literal translations of them.

In addition to We are the stories we tell, we will also present other projects that we are currently working on – studio experiments, rough-cuts, trials and errors.

Opening on Thursday, February 26 at 5–7 pm. You’re warmly welcome!

About the artists

Jonathan Villeneuve’s work is made out of common objects and materials – familiar elements that evoke the architecture of the everyday. He assembles these elements in ways that highlight their poetic and narrative potential. His installations trigger a physical reaction in the visitor, particularly due to the scale of the work and its uncanny movements. They evoke a personal and embodied experience with architecture as constructed environment. Villeneuve builds structures that are activated by mechanical, electrical, and electronic mechanisms while addressing the modern notion of the autonomous object. This pseudo functional amalgam refers to the idea of the gadget, the “thing-a-ma-jig”, a thing of vague utility, with an imaginary functionality.

Pavitra Wickramasinghe’s practice is inherently multi-disciplinary and explores conventions of seeing. She has been preoccupied with new ways of conceptualising the moving image and experiments with video, animation and installation. Wickramasinghe’s work attempts to draw the viewer in through curiosity, intrigue and a sense of wonder while hovering between experiment and play. Her current work is an exploration of notions of traveling, fluidity of place and memory. She uses light and shadows as extensions of the projected image to create installations where the viewer occupies filmic space instead of being physically removed from the work.