Photographic Soundscape Installations

PREMIERE SOLO SHOW BY ELLA COOPER
June 1 – 17, 2009 @ *Hotshot
– 181 Augusta Ave. Toronto

Wednesday, June 10th SPECIAL PANEL, PRESENTATION & PARTY Function 13 Gallery & *Hotshot Exhibition Space
Panel @ Function 13 Gallery -156 Augusta Ave @ 6:30 pm Party & Exhibition @ *Hotshot -181 Augusta Ave. (across the street) - 8 pm

KC ADAMS (Gallery Director Urban Shaman Gallery - Winnipeg)
SONNY ASSU (Mixed Media Artist - Vancouver)
RICHARD LEE (Actor, Fight Director & General Manager Fu-Gen Theatre - Toronto)
ELLA COOPER (Multidisciplinary Artist & Founding Director of the Emerging Arts Professional Network - Montreal/Toronto)

WITH A SURPRISE GUEST from CALGARY!
Moderated by A + I Sound Advisor Arianne Robinson.
Presented by the Emerging Arts Professional Network.
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Press Release June 1, 2009 – Ella Cooper and the Emerging Arts Professional Network present Art + Identity, a playful interactive photographic soundscape installation that explores the changing face of Canadian society and our hybrid identities reflected through interviews and portraits with eight Canadian contemporary visual, theatre and dance artists in their 20s and 30s from across Canada.

Art + Identity is the debut solo exhibition of emerging creative arts photographer/multidisciplinary artist Ella Cooper and who is also the founder of The Emerging Arts Professionals Network. Art + Identity is a multi layered show that includes a playful exhibition and exterior site specific installations created with support from Echomobile (co-creator of murmur) that places artists framed in transcanada highway signs around the city with a phone number to call and hear their soundscape interviews. Art + Identity also features a special event where featured artists will be flown in for one night of presentation and partying!

Think artists framed in Transcanada highways signs, 5 minute sound pieces, giant moose, maple syrup and lots of Canadian.

Art + Identity is a deliberately cheesy and playful exhibition, Ella fills the space with hopeful pictures of artists framed in Transcanada highways signs while covering the walls in silhouettes of stereotypical Canadian imagery including life size moose and Canada geese. Art + Identity is about hybrid identities and all the influences, experiences, cultural backgrounds, outside forces that make up who we are. The soundscapes created in collaboration with composer Edgardo Moreno include interviews with each artist, juxtaposing typical Canadian imagery and sounds with the ways in which these artists actually define themselves within Canadian society. As part of the process, each artist was asked to come up with five objects that they would use to describe themselves, this created intimate, show-and-tell type interviews that lend a more intimate view into the artists perspectives.

Art + Identity is a new work created in collaboration with composer Edagrdo Moreno with invaluable support from sound advisor Arianne Robinson.

Featured artists include: Sonny Assu (Vancouver), Terrance Houle (Calgary) , KC Adams (Winnipeg) , Marika Schwant (Toronto) , Richard Lee (Toronto), Mario Doucette (Moncton), Ghislaine Dote (Montreal) & Becka Viau (Charlottetown).

Show runs until June 17

Outdoor Installation runs in Toronto until August 10, 2009