Today there is one month left to visit the Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition at York St Mary’s – York Art Gallery’s contemporary art space. Featuring eight artists working in media from photography to film and painting to installation, the show represents the breadth and quality of work being produced today in the UK and internationally. The finalists hail from New Zealand, Chile, Germany, Italy and Britain; and the works of a further 92 international artists is displayed on monitors with the gallery. To celebrate this landmark exhibition in contemporary international art, we highlight works within the Video, Installation and Performance category, which can all be viewed here via YouTube and Vimeo.

Kathy Hinde, Piano Migrations
The inside of an old upright piano, rescued from destruction, is transformed into a kinetic sound sculpture. A beautiful video of birds landing on telegraph lines is projected directly onto the piano strings to provide an ever-changing musical score: the movements of the birds trigger small machines to twitch and flutter, causing the piano strings to resonate.

claRa apaRicio yoldi, Laisse Tomber Les Filles (Leave the girls alone)
This films pays homage to Godard, Gallo and Eisenstein and his montage theory. By cutting and looping short segments of footage from both “dance scenes” of Vivre sa vie and Buffalo ’66, where the directors break the logic and continuity rules of narrative cinema, yoldi creates a new meaning: a play of seduction and frivolous dance where individual dramas are hidden behind loops and repetitions. The soundtrack is another appropriation and “looped” interpretation of the French song Laisse tomber les filles composed by Serge Gainsbourg.

Echo Morgan, Be the Inside of the Vase
The performance Be the Inside of the Vase is divided into two parts; the first deals with Morgan’s experience of her father attempting to commit suicide during her childhood and reveals the uneasy and difficult relationship they shared. In the second part, the story moves towards the artist’s relationship with her mother, who was an inspirational female role model and encouraged strength and independence, reflected in the title of the work – Be the Inside of the Vase instead of the empty outer shell of the vase itself.

The Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition, in partnership with York Museums Trust, runs until 22 June at York St Mary’s, Castlegate, York, YO1 9RN. Open daily from 10am – 5pm, free admission. For more information visit www.aestheticamagazine.com/artprize.

Credits
1. Echo Morgan, Be the Inside of the Vase.

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