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	PEARLMAIDEN
	Dara Gellman: pearlmaiden looping video projection installation with pixel-pearl screen soundtrack composed by Andrew Zealley. duration: 12 minutes 12 seconds In pearlmaiden, Dara Gellman draws on the pearl as an object, an image, and an idea. Throughout literary history, the pearl has served as metaphor for the feminine, for vision, for sensuality and for wisdom. Here, Gellman employs this precious and mysterious object as both subject and medium, mining the richness of the pearl's metaphorical significance and its mythic quality to put us as viewers in a fertile, ambiguous space where preconceived notions can be destabilized. pearlmaiden is an experimental adaptation of an anonymous 14th century text entitled Pearl, a dream vision narrative in which the author is lead by his search for a lost pearl into an alternate reality. Throughout the 1212 line text, the pearl has various meanings, morphing fluidly and even appearing as two things simultaneously. The pearl's transformation becomes its most substantial characteristic, and no physical manifestation is secure. The video component of pearlmaiden is based on this ambiguous dreamspace. Images of lush green foliage, layered water-landscapes, and luminous pixel terrains intertwine with images of a figure dressed in a pearl-encrusted gown. The pearl functions both as a quality and a subject of the imagery, and the various spaces and objects shown are blended and transmuted. The materiality of the artist's digital techniques is itself reflected and interchanged with the metaphor of pearl as pixel, as a component of vision, and as a luminous orb that projects as well as absorbs. This relationship is ultimately manifested by the large scale video projection screen that supports and defines this represented world. Made of 500,000 tiny replica pearls and floating in space, the projection screen serves as a boundary but also as a link between the world of the video and the physical world, holding the viewer in a liminal space between reality and imagination. In a way, the pearl is positioned as a metaphor for the screen, and vice versa. Accompanying the video is a soundscape composed by Andrew Zealley, also inspired by the text of Pearl. It is composed in 12 chapters, a number that figures prominently in the text, and in the key of C, known historically as the most "luminous". Diaz Contemporary 100 Niagara Street, Toronto January 12 to February 11 2011 opening: January 12, 6 to 8 pm artist talk: January 28, 5 pm image: Dara Gellman, Pearlmaiden (detail, 2012)
	CIENFUEGOS
	silent video with live audio accompaniment duration: 12 minutes 45 seconds OCAD University IAMD Department 205 Richmond Street West, Room 7514, Toronto November 25 2011 @ 2 pm images: Andrew Zealley: Cienfuegos (video stills, 2011)

PEACE
	SMILE TO THE FUTURE AND IT WILL SMILE BACK TO US
	WAR IS OVER IMAGINE PEACE