Charlottetown – Abstractions in light-dance-music, 1980-2008, a new exhibition by well known Island artist Judith Scherer, opens with a unique performance and reception March 20 at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery.
The exhibition presents a survey of ten dance-performances that were produced and performed in Europe, the United States and Canada over a twenty-eight year period. It includes conceptual drawings, performance notations, graphic music and sound scores as well as video excerpts from selected performances. A new, multi-channeled video installation titled Tread Lightly will be shown for the first time.
Scherer’s exhibition launches with a performance beginning at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 20. It will commence on the upper plaza of Confederation Centre of the Arts, move inside the building and then to the exhibition space of the Art Gallery on Level 2.
“For the March 20th performance, the eight participants are local and volunteers, who have agreed to rehearse with Judith,” says the exhibition’s curator, Ihor Holubizky.
The footage for Tread Lightly was shot during a residency at Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, with the assistance of Parks Canada and The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery in St. John’s.
The inspiration for this work came when Scherer was on a commercial flight that passed over the site. For the artist, the bare mountain plateau offered a striking site, or “stage” for a figure in a landscape. Scherer worked with Newfoundland dancer Sarah Stoker, who performed a choreographed sequence of movements on the mountain plateau. Stoker’s performance was shot on 16 mm film and video with Scherer taking additional still photographs from a small aircraft. She added special effects in the post-production stage.
Tread Lightly received supported from the Prince Edward Island Council of the Arts, Island Media Arts Co-op and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Judith Scherer was born in Zürich, Switzerland. She studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Art College) in Zürich and at the Art Academy Düsseldorf, in Germany. She moved to New York in 1980 where she continued to study and present performance works. She moved to Prince Edward Island in 1989 and lives and works in Cherry Hill.
Judith Scherer, abstractions in light-dance-music 1980 – 2008, runs March 22 to May 18.
Cutline: Still photo from Tread Lightly, by Judith Scherer.
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Media contact: Dan Wall, publicist, Confederation Centre of the Arts, phone (902) 628-6135
Email: confederationcentre.com, web www.confederationcentre.com