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Ben Evans
The Pegasus Project
February 25 - March 28
Ben Evans is a Newfoundland artist with a keen interest in the impact of technology on arts and culture. Evans was excited to see what would happen when a computer was brought into an art gallery (where the public and private sharply intersect).
The Pegasus Project: www.pegasusproject.ca is a new technology project that was funded in its early development stage by the Newtel/NLAC Innovation fund and the Canada Council for the Arts.
With the rise of home computers and imaging software, it is now theoretically possible for anyone with access to a computer to produce a conceivable image. By deliberately using the computer to generate crude, childlike scrawlings, Evans questions the legitimacy of the new, technio-aesthetic. His web site consists of a clickable image map leading the viewer into a web that was displayed in the gallery through the use of a digital data projector onto the wall. Evans also hung a series of playing cards based on the maze of images found on the site from the ceiling, offered the viewers the chance to take home a playing card by inserting coins into a card dispenser. The walls also displayed large scale paintings and digital stills based on the images found on the site. This site combined philosophy with pop culture, and art history with day time television. It questioned our own digital fast based world where we are constantly bombarded by images and information. The site successfully questions how we process information.
Evans actively investigates new technologys relationship within the gallery setting by successfully molding the internet site within this context. He fully utilizes the space so that when the site is projected it becomes a completely visceral rather than an optical experience.
This exhibition was very well attended with a high demand from school groups visiting the gallery. The opening reception saw well over two hundred people attend the exhibition. On March 28, artist Lori Clarke and Ben Evans talked about their artistic practice, in particular recent projects which included Breathe and the Pegasus Project. They also discussed the impact of new technology within their own art work.
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