Preview • Blaenwelediad: Thu 22 Oct • 7-9.30pm • Iau 22 Hyd
Exhibition • Arddangosfa: Fri 23 Oct — Sun 29 Nov • Gwe 23 Hyd — Sul 29 Tach

Eddo Stern is an internationally renowned American/Israeli artist who works on the borderlands between fantasy and reality, exploring the uneasy and unconscious connections between physical existence and electronic simulation. His work incorporates video game modification, machinima (the use of real-time 3D graphics-rendering engines to generate computer animation) and installation. He explores new modes of narrative and documentary, technology and history, and cross-cultural representation in film, computer games and on the internet.

Stern’s diverse works mine the online gaming world at its paradoxical extremes: on the one hand exploring the untenable perversity of a life spent slaying an endless stream of virtual monsters; on the other, an ultimate mirroring of the most familiar social dynamics: the struggle with masculinity, honour, aggression, faith, love and self worth.

This solo exhibition, Stern’s first in the UK, features five of his acclaimed kinetic shadow puppets including Man, Woman, Dragon; Tsunami; Lotusman; Narnia Again (all 2007), and MELF (2009). These sculptures touch on the core elements of gaming: fantasy, conflict and role-play, and combine old and new technologies to create striking, colourful shadows on the gallery walls.

The shadow puppets are shown here alongside three animations:

Best Flame War Ever (King of Bards vs Squire Rex, June 2004) (2007), recreates an online flame war about degrees of expertise around the computer fantasy game Everquest. The specific points of contention may appear recondite at first glance, but gradually the unfolding narrative acquires an unexpected pathos and reveals a glimpse into the generic shifting codes of masculinity.

Level sounds like Devil (Baby In Christ vs His Father, May 2006) (2007) a teenager living with an adoptive Christian family posts the question to the online Christian forums: "Is World of Warcraft Evil ?" The Community helps him reckon with the moral and spiritual dilemmas of reconciling his life in gaming, with the strict edits of his father and the challenges of following his new faith.

Emoticon (2007) is the result of a year of fighting on World of Warcraft, during which Stern translated the legends, obsessions and symbols of the subculture he had experienced into art. Stern appropriates a wealth of icons and emoticons from online forums and uses them to crown and dress a synthetic goddess - herself an icon - which expresses the various emotions at her command in her own way.

Another work also features at Chapter – Portal, Wormhole, Flythrough (Fake Version) (2009) - that seemingly allows you to step inside another world. It houses a captivating, kaleidoscope projection of found 3D animations of tunnels, wormholes, voids, and fly-throughs — the iconic abstractions of computer gaming’s spatial aesthetics, a clichéd metaphor for timeless and endless transcendence.

Educated at CalArts in the US, Eddo Stern has taken part in group exhibitions and Festivals all over the world, including at the Laguna Art Museum, California (2009); Kuntswerk, Berlin 2007; MuHKA, Antwerp 2006; UCLA Hammer Museum, LA and ICC Tokyo 2005; International Film Festival, Rotterdam 2004 and the Ludwig Museum, Koln 2001. Solo exhibitions include HAIFA Museum of Art, Haifa 2009; Postmasters Gallery, New York 2007; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto 2004 and The Kitchen, New York 2003.

www.eddostern.com

This exhibition was made possible through the generous support of University of Wales, Newport, and is a May You Live in Interesting Times / Chapter commission.

Gallery Open: Tue — Sat 10-8pm; Sun 2-8pm; Closed Monday
Oriel ar Agor: Maw — Sad 10-8pm; Sul 2-8pm; Ar gau ddydd Llun

Image: Eddo Stern, Portal, Wormhole, Flythrough..., 2008.