Ed Lust – Screensaver: COCA Window Project

4 April 2012

Ed Lust – Screensaver: COCA Window Project

COCA Gallery Window
66 Gloucester St
Christchurch
Launch: Thursday 5 April 8pm
Open 24/7 for the month of April

Thursday 5 April brings a new kind of exhibition to COCA, an inside out one.

After the 22 February 2011 earthquake the decision was made to close COCA Gallery for an interim period so the damaged building could be assessed and arrangements made for its repair.

During this time, curator Chloe Geoghegan developed two innovative window projects. The first to open is ‘Screensaver’ by Ed Lust. The second, Sam Eng’s ‘We Won’t Need Legs To Stand’, will follow.

All three of the participants are Christchurch locals. It has been crucial to the CSA Trust Board that the only part of the gallery able to be accessed in the building’s current state – the front window and carport – should be used in a way that allows the artists and curator to explore both the reality of our new cultural landscapes as well as current ways of living and working in Christchurch. The decision to act on this concept was made in mid-2011, however due to restricted access to Gloucester St, projects were unable to proceed until neighbouring demolitions had been completed.

For the artists and curator working within COCA’s window, the need to respond to the inherently fractured nature of Christchurch is readily evident on Gloucester St. Here, the numerous buildings that have arisen around COCA for decades have been gradually condemned and demolished over the past year and still are being removed, leaving all manner of structural remnants adjacent as the window projects have been constructed. It is the curatorial intention for part of this unsettling new landscape at COCA’s doorstep to resonate through Lust and Eng’s time and site-specific installations in the window. To simply stand before the window installation while listening to the surrounding cacophony of the central city, provides an unnerving and timely undertone to the window projects.

The first of the window projects, Ed Lust’s ‘Screensaver’ makes use of the undistinguished COCA carport, which becomes a temporary cinema for the passer-by. ‘Screensaver’ is made up of a complex gathering of multimedia projections and cinematic set installation, which at first appears to sit within a standard Christchurch street scene of earthworks and demolition. Upon a second inspection, it becomes clear that the gallery has become an enlivened force and with every breath something spontaneous and incredible emerges.

Lust describes the unstable animations of ‘Screensaver’ as having a life of their own: “Nebulous growths and astronomical amoebas move across the screen, simultaneously pixelated and biological. Arhythmically, they grow and disintegrate over time, exhibiting continual regeneration of colour and form. The video will play around-the-clock, forever in April, or until we've blown all of our bulbs.”

It is with great anticipation that COCA can once again present to the Christchurch public two new and innovative contemporary art exhibitions that can only be seen from the outside in, and that – unlike our regular visiting hours – will be able to be viewed at any time during the day or night over the month of April.

The CSA Trust would like to take this opportunity to thank Creative New Zealand for their support of the Window Projects.

Events: Loading Bay Talk (aka floor talk) by the artist, Ed Lust and curator Chloe Geoghegan, COCA Loading Bay, Thursday 12 April 8pm.

For further information and corresponding events please visit www.cocawindowprojects.co.nz

ENDS

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