It Was There

May 7 - 9, 2015

Opening Reception: May 7, 7:00 - 10:00 pm

Connected through a mutual interest in assemblage and materiality, Edelberg and Sands Phillips are interested in working through the inherent restrictions and limitations of found materials, remolding film and video as a way to create new moments. "It Was There" features two works that involve accessing, retracing, and altering memory. These videos are fragments in time, assembled out of salvaged and historical footage of foreign spaces and structures. Using anything from found 8mm film and footage sourced from YouTube and cellphone cameras, both artists are challenged to explore how these vintage and contemporary images are filtered and impacted through their past and present contexts.

Edelbergs "Ecstatic Shocks" is a maze with no exit in sight. The found footage is assembled out of disparate spaces from cellphone and YouTube videos. Each frame has been reanimated and colored by hand.

Investigating ideas around beauty and decay, "Endings No. 1 Sail" was made by splicing together the perforated ends of found 8mm footage. This film format was manufactured with punctured tails, usually discarded in the splicing process. Bringing the past into the present, these rough abstracted moments are collaged together in an effort to honour closing seconds of dismissed time.

Benjamin Edelberg is a Chicago-born, Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist. He works on video, canvas, paper & installations. Most recently, his work was featured in the 53rd Ann Arbor Film Festival.

Sarah Sands Phillips completed a BFAH at Queen's University, Kingston, majoring in studio art and art history. She investigates a variety of mediums and modes of image making as a deliberate strategy in understanding form. Her work will be shown as part of Proof 22 at G44 in June.

The artists would like to thank the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council and the Toronto Animated Image Society TAIS.