LUMINOCITY
Ruba Alshoshan
Lea Bucknell
Maureen Gruben
Doug Buis and Brad Harder
Allison Hrabluik
Jessie Kobylanski
Donald Lawrence
Nichole Mahon
Cindy Mochizuki
Jeneen Frei Njootli
Nicolas Sassoon and Rick Silva
Marlene Millar and Phillip Szporer
Howie Tsui
Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, Jeneen Frei Njootli, Chandra Melting Tallow and Tania Willard
Jin-Me Yoon
October 12 to October 20, 2018
Downtown Kamloops & Riverside Park
Curated by Charo Neville, Curator, Kamloops Art Gallery
Luminocity returns in the fall of 2018 for its third biennial event. A week-long video art exhibition, Luminocity showcases video projects by artists from across the country in public spaces throughout the downtown core of Kamloops. As an off-site Kamloops Art Gallery initiative, Luminocity embraces new creative concepts and modes of expression in the media arts field and brings recent video projects previously shown primarily in gallery settings to the outdoors.
Inspired by popular public art events such as Nuit Blanche that take over major cities throughout Canada, previous Luminocity events have transformed Kamloops’ urban environment with projections on the facades of buildings and from storefront windows, along with site specific installations at Riverside Park, projects at Arnica Artist Run Centre and performances in the Rotary Bandshell and the Old Courthouse.
This year Luminocity lights up similar sites and introduces new ones with a selection of diverse multi-media work by artists based nationally and from here at home. Highlighting themes emerging in current video practices, many projects feature predominantly female protagonists, explore Asian folklore and examine traditional Indigenous practices and our relationship with them today. Many of the videos probe fantastical stories of other worlds, at times ghostly and dark.
This year’s event will debut the next chapter of Howie Tsui’s Retainers of Anarchy, a 25-metre scroll-like video installation that references life during the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE). In his newest project Parallax Chambers (White Camel Mountain), Tsui employs the same honed production process of drawing, animation and programming by way of an algorithmic animation sequence with stereo sound and applies this to a suite of intimately animated rooms within the Kowloon Walled City (situated geographically and administratively beyond the borders of both Hong Kong and China). This project serves as an avatar for the transitory state inherent to the diasporic experience.
Delving into Japanese folklore and spirit worlds, and integrating a film noir aesthetic, Cindy Mochizuki’s Scissors, the third chapter of her trilogy Rock, Paper, Scissors, 2017, tells the story of K, a 175 year old blind ghost who walks around a furnace in a steel factory, circling a giant who cuts through time.
Works also include new video projects by artists Maureen Gruben, Jeneen Frei Njootli and Jim-me Yoon that were created as part of LandMarks2017, a curated series of contemporary art projects made in and around Canada’s national parks and historic sites in June 2017 that addressed Canada150, our collective histories and shared futures.
Allison Hrabluik’s Splits, 2015, offers a series of quick cuts showcasing fourteen individuals and groups, each demonstrating some kind of skill. Hrabluik’s mesmerizing video collage showcases an idiosyncratic cast of characters performing their strengths, aptitudes and obsessive interests, including rope-jumpers, weightlifters, dog trainers, a hairdresser, an opera singer, a piano player, a prolific hot dog eater and a tap dancing crew.
The Bandshell is once again home to evening performances and events throughout the week while Riverside Park is aglow with multiple video projections. Be sure to pick up a Luminocity guide at the Gallery or visit luminocity.ca to learn more about the multitude of projects, artists and events. Look for KAG art instructors who will be roaming Luminocity sites to offer you insights into the art work.
Copies of a printed Luminocity guide are available around Kamloops, at the Gallery and by clicking here.
Installation view of Luminocity 2018. Photo: Devon Lindsay
Photos: Devon Lindsay