Posts tagged: 2020

Artist: Joshua Turner

Title: A Seat in the Shade

Year: 2020

Medium: C-type photographic print, hand made by the artist.

Dimensions: H: 50.8cm W: 50.8cm

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A Seat in the Shade visually encapsulates a search for solitude in Venice, Italy. The print
was handmade by the artist in the colour darkroom, in an edition of 2. This photograph is
from a larger body of work titled Catch Your Breath, a photobook that was self-published
by the artist in 2020. Catch Your Breath is a meditation on the claustrophobia of Venice,
explored through a combination of photography and literature. This project was conceived
during the 2019 Venice Biennale Steward-Research Fellowship, coordinated by the British
Council.

This peice was gifted to the University Collection at the culmination of the artists Graduate Scholarship residency programme.

Artist: Antonio Roberts (1985-)

Title: Nodes

Year: 2020

Medium: Digital video and live coded audio

Duration: 4 minuites, 30 seconds

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Live coding is a performative practice where artists make music and visual art live using programming. This piece seeks to demonstrate the creative potential of this practice, showcasing two prominent software tools, TidalCycles (music) and Blender (visuals). The title refers to how the live coding community consists of nodes spread across the globe, linked by the software and interest in live coding.

Antonio Roberts (UK) is an artist and curator based in Birmingham, UK, working primarily with video, code, and sound. He is critically engaged with the themes surrounding network culture and in his practice explores how technology continues to shape ideas of creation, ownership, and authorship. As a performing visual artist and musician he utilises live coding techniques to demystify technology and reveal its design decisions, limitations, and creative potential.

Commissioned on the occasion of Peer to Peer: UK/HK Online Festival 2020 by Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Open Eye Gallery and University of Salford Art Collection. 

Artist: Parham Ghalamdar

Title: Birds or Borders

Year: 2020

Medium: Animated video

Dimensions: 6m12s

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Acquisition info: Co-commissioned for the Collection during the first Covid-19 lockdown, in collaboration with Castlefield Gallery. Watch the full video, and read an Q&A with the artist, here.

“Birds or Borders explores the medium of expanded painting and drawing, and responds to the context of Covid 19 lockdowns. Each of us experienced a unique context in lack of freedom of movement: people were not authorized to leave their houses. However the restriction of movement is nothing new. Asylum seekers, refugees, immigrants and people holding week passports have been dealing with life-threatening forms of such limitations; Trump’s travel ban is perhaps an radical example of it. Hopefully this situation would result in having more sympathy with each other”.