Evenement: Åpent Forum presenterer: Barbara T. Smith
tirsdag 20. januar 2009 kl. 19:00 på Kunstakademiet i Oslo
Åpent Forum Presents: Artist Talk by OCA’s ISP Resident Barbara T. Smith
Barbara T. Smith, Field Piece, 1968-72 Installation Shot ‘Whatever Happened to Sex in Scandinavia?’ Courtesy of the artist and The Box, Los Angeles Photo: Vegard Kleven Åpent Forum Presents: Artist Talk by OCA’s ISP Resident Barbara T. Smith
Tuesday, 20 January / 19:00 kunstakademi i Oslo, St. Olavsgate 32
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Screening: The 21st Century Odyssey
Monday, 19 January / 18:00 OCA’s ISP Studio, Nedre gate 7, Oslo
The 21st Century Odyssey dir. Barbara T. Smith, (1991-1993, 210 min, sound, color) In OCA’s effort to extend the experience of ISP visiting artists to various institutions throughout Norway, Barbara T. Smith, OCA’s visiting ISP artist in residence and participating artist in ‘Whatever Happened to Sex in Scandinavia?’ will make a special presentation at Oslo’s Art Academy as part of their series, Åpent Forum. As the first part of this presentation, Smith will screen her performance documentary entitled The 21st Century Odyssey on Monday evening, 19 January, at 18:00 at OCA Studio 2, followed by a presentation about the work at the Art Academy on Tuesday evening, 20 January at 19:00. Please note that Barbara T. Smith will also have a presentation about her additional work within the symposium entitled ‘Art, the Social and Gender Politics in the 1960s and 70s’ scheduled to take place on Wednesday, 21 January and Thursday 22 January (For more information and scheduel, please visit www.oca.no).
About the Film The 21st Century Odyssey is a two year long durational performance that Barbara T. Smith enacted globally between 1991-1993 in collaboration with Dr. Roy Walford, the physician who was inside Biosphere 2, an artificial closed ecological system in Arizona U.S.A. In this work, Smith embodies the mythic consciousness of Odysseus while Walford, documented while confined within Biosphere 2, represents Penelope. The film loosely weaves Homer’s classic with that of Smith’s actual journey, replete with adventure, inevitable tribulations, and ultimately transformation.
About the Speaker For three decades, Barbara T. Smith has been at the forefront of feminist, body and performance art in California, USA. Trained as a painter, Smith began her body-oriented work in 1965. As one of the originators of California performance art scene, Smith worked together with artists such as Nancy Buchanan, Chris Burden, Allan Kaprow, Suzanne Lacy and Paul McCarthy. Her work is aligned with 1970s art practice that explores, among other things, the body and the patriarchal structures within the art world. Her work externalises psychic materials, in the form of mythic rituals that deal with issues of gender, spirituality and sexuality. Smith approaches the intimate, personal and participatory, and often the works evolves into extending over several days.
Barbara T. Smith is a founding member of several artist-run galleries and is Chair of the Performance and Video Programming Committee at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art. She has worked as a curator and organised many panel discussions, performance events and workshops. Smith has also written about other artists’ work in various West Coast publications, gave numerous guest lectures and taught in California universities since 1974.
Barbara T. Smith recently had a solo show ‘Barbara T. Smith 1965-1972’, at Maccarone, New York City (2008). For the exhibition ‘Allan Kaprow – Art As Life’, Smith reinvented ‘Push and Pull: A Furniture Comedy for Hans Hofmann’ (1963), MOCA, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2008). Her work was also part of the exhibitions: ‘Art Since the1960s: California Experiments’, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach (2008), ‘WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution’, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, curated by Connie Butler (2007), among others.
About OCA’s International Studio Programme The International Studio Programme Oslo is available for international artists and curators by invitation for a stay from two weeks up to six months, independently or in connection with research in Norway. The programme comprises three studios located in Grünerløkka, Oslo.
*Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) The Office for Contemporary Art Norway is a private foundation and was founded by The Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs and The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in fall 2001. The main aim of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway is to develop collaborations in contemporary art between Norway and the international art scene. The Office for Contemporary Art Norway aims to become a key contributor to the discourses of contemporary art.
— Åpent Forum er en serie med forelesninger, presentasjoner og samtaler med kunstnere initiert og arrangert av Kunstakademiet i Oslo. Åpent Forum finner normalt sted hver mandag kl 19.00 i auditoriet i St. Olavsgt. 32, og er åpent for alle som er interessert, også utenfor Kunstakademiet.
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