Artist Statement
Stephan Kurr
Bad Idea for Paradise
Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby
Dates Showing: July 10th (opening reception) - August 13th, 2004
Stephan Kurr
'Artist Statement' is a very common term in Canada, but in Germany it
does not exist. Contextualizing art is the job of the curator or critic, and
not that of the artist's. Stephan Kurr, while working for the educational
program for Documenta 11, listened to dozens of artists talks. Many
artists had an extraordinary ability to articulate the ideas surrounding
their work. In 2002, Kurr started to document artists giving their
statements. Since that time he has taped more than 50 statements in
English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Serbian,
Croatian, Finnish, Turkish, Arabian and Japanese. The statements are
not edited; they are kept at their original length, between 40 seconds
and 15 minutes and are also kept in the order in which Kurr met the
artists. A very simple question was asked to each artist to initiate his or
her statement, "What are you doing".
Stephan Kurr lives and works in Berlin and has lead an active
career since the late 80's. His work has been exhibited throughout
Europe and North America and he has attended international
conferences such as, "Arte Pubblica. Progetti ed Esperienze Europee"
at the Venice Biennale in 1999. This year he received a book
production grant by the Senate of Science and has recently been
invited by the Cable Factory in Finland to do an artist residency.
Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby
Central to the autobiographical video work of Emily Vey Duke and
Cooper Battersby is the focus on self image, a handling of simplicity
and an attempt at interacting with the viewer. Duke and Battersby have
been working collaboratively since June 1994. They work in printed
matter, installation, curation and sound, but their primary focus is the
production of single- channel video. Bad Ideas for Paradise is a 20-
minute episodic videotape. Funny, touching and ambitious in scope,
Bad Ideas for Paradise continues to deal with many of the themes
addressed in the artists earlier works: addiction, spirituality, identity,
relationship dynamics and the ongoing quest for joy.
Cooper Battersby was born in Penticton British Columbia and Emily
Vey Duke in Halifax Nova Scotia. Their work has been exhibited at
galleries and at festivals in North and South America and throughout
Europe. Bad Ideas for Paradise was purchased for broadcast by
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and for the libraries at
Harvard and Princeton, and has won prizes from the NYExpo and the
Onion City festival.
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