Chris Welsby
Chris Welsby - Biography
Welsby began making landscape films and installations in the early 70s, and although he has worked across a range of media he has always concentrated on one particular theme: how do we see ourselves in relation to the natural world and how should we position our selves and our technologies within it? His art practice was heavily influenced by Structural Materialist film theory at the London Film Makers Co-operative and by cybernetic and systems theory at the Slade School of Fine Art, where as a student and later as a faculty member, he came into contact with some of the pioneers of interactive technology and computer-driven art forms.
Peter Wollen has argued that, “Welsby’s work makes it possible to envisage a relationship between science and art, in which observation is separated from surveillance and technology from domination.” According to writer, Fred Camper, Welsby’s work, “...rejects the long tradition of landscape painting (and much subsequent landscape filmmaking) in which images serve as metaphors for the artist’s emotions.” Instead of observing nature as a Romantic “other”, Welsby uses the mechanics of the moving image to interact with his environment. The resulting films, expanded cinema works and installations explore notions of interconnectedness and agency within our ever-changing environment.
Since 1972 Welsby’s films have screened consistently in Cinematheques and art galleries around the world. A pioneer of moving images in the gallery, his expanded cinema works and installations from the ‘70s and ‘80s are now gaining renewed attention by public and private galleries in Europe, North America and Asia. “Twenty-five years ago, when he made his first projections for large spaces, film and art rarely met in the gallery; now it is common and installation art is a distinct practice.” – A.L. Rees, Author of A History of Experimental Film and Video.
Between1993 and 2014, Welsby has been making weather driven digital media installations. These were featured in his 2005 solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Winnipeg Canada, and his 2007 solo exhibition at the Letharby Gallery, London UK. His recent video and new media collaborations with software programmer Brady Marks have been widely exhibited for example: Toronto, at the 2006 Images Festival, the 2006 Gwangju Biennale South Korea, the Singapore Biennale and currently online and at MIRE gallery, in the city of Nantes, France.
In 2015 Welsby completed two new single channel video works. The first, is called “Momentum” and was shot in a derelict hotel in Mexico. It is 36minutes long. The second, shot near his home on Gabriola Island, Canada is 17minutes long and is called Entrance Island.
Welsby has written a number of scholarly essays over the years and has recently published two new essays. The first was based on his presentation at the Tate Modern’s symposium on Expanded Cinema (April 2009) It can be found in Expanded Cinema Art, Performance Film Tate Gallery publishing 2011. Chapter #3 p 276 Cybernetics, Expanded Cinema and New Media: from representation to performative practice. The second essay is an extensive artist’s statement and is published in Leonardo Journal of the Arts and Sciences.Volume 44 #2 2011 Technology Nature, Software and Networks: Materializing the Post Romantic Landscape. Published by MIT Press. A recent interview with Katherine Elwes is available in the Moving Image an Art Journal and Review. MIRAGE Vol 2 #2 2013.
An online Media installation entitled “Time After” is currently being exhibited live in the city of Nantes. It features a 3 year photographic exposure of the river and old city. http://www.mire-exp.org/timeafternantes/ (It runs round the clock but is best viewed between 5am and 9pm GMT -1hr)
Welsby is a graduate of the Experimental Media Department at the Slade School of Fine Art, University of London UK. He holds the position of Professor Emeritus, (Fine Arts Film and Electronic Imaging) Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Arts Science and Communication. He is a member of the Institute for Computing, Information, and Cognitive Systems at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and lives on a small island off the Pacific coast of Western Canada.
Phone: 250 247 7529
Welsby began making landscape films and installations in the early 70s, and although he has worked across a range of media he has always concentrated on one particular theme: how do we see ourselves in relation to the natural world and how should we position our selves and our technologies within it? His art practice was heavily influenced by Structural Materialist film theory at the London Film Makers Co-operative and by cybernetic and systems theory at the Slade School of Fine Art, where as a student and later as a faculty member, he came into contact with some of the pioneers of interactive technology and computer-driven art forms.
Peter Wollen has argued that, “Welsby’s work makes it possible to envisage a relationship between science and art, in which observation is separated from surveillance and technology from domination.” According to writer, Fred Camper, Welsby’s work, “...rejects the long tradition of landscape painting (and much subsequent landscape filmmaking) in which images serve as metaphors for the artist’s emotions.” Instead of observing nature as a Romantic “other”, Welsby uses the mechanics of the moving image to interact with his environment. The resulting films, expanded cinema works and installations explore notions of interconnectedness and agency within our ever-changing environment.
Since 1972 Welsby’s films have screened consistently in Cinematheques and art galleries around the world. A pioneer of moving images in the gallery, his expanded cinema works and installations from the ‘70s and ‘80s are now gaining renewed attention by public and private galleries in Europe, North America and Asia. “Twenty-five years ago, when he made his first projections for large spaces, film and art rarely met in the gallery; now it is common and installation art is a distinct practice.” – A.L. Rees, Author of A History of Experimental Film and Video.
Between1993 and 2014, Welsby has been making weather driven digital media installations. These were featured in his 2005 solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Winnipeg Canada, and his 2007 solo exhibition at the Letharby Gallery, London UK. His recent video and new media collaborations with software programmer Brady Marks have been widely exhibited for example: Toronto, at the 2006 Images Festival, the 2006 Gwangju Biennale South Korea, the Singapore Biennale and currently online and at MIRE gallery, in the city of Nantes, France.
In 2015 Welsby completed two new single channel video works. The first, is called “Momentum” and was shot in a derelict hotel in Mexico. It is 36minutes long. The second, shot near his home on Gabriola Island, Canada is 17minutes long and is called Entrance Island.
Welsby has written a number of scholarly essays over the years and has recently published two new essays. The first was based on his presentation at the Tate Modern’s symposium on Expanded Cinema (April 2009) It can be found in Expanded Cinema Art, Performance Film Tate Gallery publishing 2011. Chapter #3 p 276 Cybernetics, Expanded Cinema and New Media: from representation to performative practice. The second essay is an extensive artist’s statement and is published in Leonardo Journal of the Arts and Sciences.Volume 44 #2 2011 Technology Nature, Software and Networks: Materializing the Post Romantic Landscape. Published by MIT Press. A recent interview with Katherine Elwes is available in the Moving Image an Art Journal and Review. MIRAGE Vol 2 #2 2013.
An online Media installation entitled “Time After” is currently being exhibited live in the city of Nantes. It features a 3 year photographic exposure of the river and old city. http://www.mire-exp.org/timeafternantes/ (It runs round the clock but is best viewed between 5am and 9pm GMT -1hr)
Welsby is a graduate of the Experimental Media Department at the Slade School of Fine Art, University of London UK. He holds the position of Professor Emeritus, (Fine Arts Film and Electronic Imaging) Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Arts Science and Communication. He is a member of the Institute for Computing, Information, and Cognitive Systems at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and lives on a small island off the Pacific coast of Western Canada.
Phone: 250 247 7529
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"In all my films and installations I use the simple structuring capabilities of moving image technologies, such as variable-frame rate, in-camera editing and multiple projection, in combination with natural phenomena such as wind and tides and the rotation of the planet, to produce works in which mind, technology, and nature are not seen as separate things divided along Cartesian lines, but as interconnected parts of one larger dynamic system."
"In all my films and installations I use the simple structuring capabilities of moving image technologies, such as variable-frame rate, in-camera editing and multiple projection, in combination with natural phenomena such as wind and tides and the rotation of the planet, to produce works in which mind, technology, and nature are not seen as separate things divided along Cartesian lines, but as interconnected parts of one larger dynamic system."