Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Meet the Artist:: JoWonder

In 2006 artist, Joanna Woodward started to incorporate scientific themes in her work under the name JoWonder .

Most prominent are her video pieces in which she mixes up and plays out common themes of science, mythology, old wives tales and science fiction. He most recent work Flatlanders was created to draw attention to a scientific experiment which took place this fall at the Centre for European Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland.

here's an excerpt from her site:

...They will be conducting an experiment to try to recreate the sub-atomic structure of the Universe that existed immediately after the Big Bang. Some believe that they may find the elusive Higgs Boson -this is known as the 'God Particle' because of its importance to matter. Others worry that the experiment could unintentionally create a mini Black Hole, with all its fearful consequences...

..In ‘Flatlanders’, I would like to create a piece which challenges our perceptions of scale, time and gravity, reminding us that there are unseen dimensions to existence and that we are indeed ‘Flatlanders’ and that the frontiers of science reinforce this...In my installation, the activities depicted turn the logic of our world on its head; a ghostly woman dressed in an 18th century costume, rides on a swing while holding delicately balanced scales, as if like Aeacus from Greek mythology she will judge the situation. Below her, suspended on a giant cup of coffee, mortals roam aimlessly while out of the sky Icarus, both loses his wings and falls into the sea and regains his wings and is resurrected...

..For the sound track of the piece, I used live recordings of the scientists at work at CERN and the sound of the particle accelerator makes while the experiment was in action...


..I agree with philosopher David Gamez that maybe striving to provide a complete account of the world and our position in it is fatally flawed, because some of our best and most successful theories clash with each other or contradict their own basic assumptions. We want to understand everything about the world, but blindspots at the heart of our knowledge will always prevent us from achieving a final and complete description of reality for me art is an attempt to bridge that gap...

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For the DCAC show, JoWonder will be displaying Flatlanders along with two other videos.

for a glimpse at her body of video work, check out her page on the Saatchi web site here: http://video.saatchigallery.com/artist/details.php?id=16079