Teresa Ascencao will present her work methodology and discuss aesthetic and concepts behind her work as well as the technical component of her pieces. The presentation intends to re-view the dialogue between artists and audience; it will give the audience, artists, and public their own moment on participation and creation.
This conversation offers an environment for debate allowing audiences’ access to an insider’s point of view. The intention is to offer a context where ideas, questions, and the creation process can be shared through participatory dialogues between artists, curators and the audience, offering their unique perspective on process, techniques and production.
Teresa Ascencao is a media artist based whose work deals with gender and sexuality constructs through unique cultural perspectives and technological approaches. Often using out-of-the-ordinary interactivity, her poetic and kitschy artworks invite audiences to rediscover gender and sexuality through peculiar folk and pop inspired artworks. Teresa Ascencao was born to Azorean parents in Sao Paulo, Brazil and immigrated to Canada at a young age. She holds a Graphic Design Diploma from Humber College and graduated with distinction from the University of Toronto’s Honours Fine Art Studio program. She recently graduated with an MFA from OCAD University, specializing in Media Art and Sex-Positive Feminism. Ascencao’s work has been exhibited throughout Canada and internationally. She lives and works in Toronto and teaches at Ontario College of Art University. Actually, she was invited to facilitate a residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point at Toronto Central Island.
http://teresaascencao.com/
Curated by Colectivo TorontoTeresa Ascencao will present her work methodology and discuss aesthetic and concepts behind her work as well as the technical component of her pieces. The presentation intends to re-view the dialogue between artists and audience; it will give the audience, artists, and public their own moment on participation and creation. …
Use CTRL+F to find key words if it is a longer transcript.
0:09
thank you so much for being here the
0:11
work it really does mean I exclaimed I’m
0:14
very interested in gender how gender is
0:17
constructed in society we for a long
0:21
time think Oh male female and there’s
0:24
many forms of gender any ways that
0:26
people identify sexually I got very
0:30
interested in that because of the very
0:32
rigid way I was being brought up with in
0:35
my culture and I personally feel very
0:38
connected to video and digital imagery
0:41
because it’s the medium of today like
0:43
it’s what we see on television on
0:45
billboards on hung on our cell phones on
0:49
you know with YouTube it’s it’s the tool
0:52
of today like you know you were saying
0:54
what the sculpture that was made and
0:55
carves a flat today cool is like digital
0:59
technology the first two works that I
1:01
ever did was based on trying to find out
1:03
what my mother was about how she her
1:06
gender was constructed and when my
1:07
father how his generous can start to him
1:10
like well where did that come from right
1:12
my government was raised on the item’s
1:15
of the Azores I egos word in Brazil so I
1:18
did a whole bunch of explorations around
1:21
where that came from from my father is
1:23
his identity for being male and and i
1:26
went to my mother’s side so i explored
1:28
from a religious perspective Catholicism
1:31
where my mom and women of her generation
1:36
but your gender identity so there’s 12
1:40
pieces and in each one the the doll
1:42
character Maria the Virgin Mary Maria
1:46
herself Mary actually appears to Maria
1:51
in each of the scenes to see the
1:53
animation you have to almost religiously
1:55
gem flex and learn the art works
1:58
literally you have to see yet you’re
2:00
envious so like those old particular
2:03
images or the sooner you see and
2:05
religious catholic shops where is Eliza
2:09
Nicole from across I played around a
2:11
technology and so in this case Maria is
2:14
freshly washed bedsheets the Virgin Mary
2:17
appears on them after they wash then you
2:20
know there’s a little bunch of other
2:21
things that Maria goes through this one
2:24
is a folk dances of religious folk dance
2:27
within this one she’s being coy and
2:29
Roman sexual and it’s funny because not
2:35
supposed to really be able to see under
2:36
the witness skirts but it is part of the
2:38
t’s I think the Attorney instinct so
2:42
she’s over indulging in the berries she
2:43
was full screen as a metaphor for sexual
2:46
indulgence whether or not people get it
2:48
I was being settled with a lot of them
2:50
in the end it finishes with the last one
2:54
she becomes
2:55
the bridge appear yourself but if we
2:57
incarnated it around birds and bees I
3:01
would like to address here are three RM
3:05
nature and you know this cultural
3:08
attention is our HR all the time so that
3:12
was the RIA series I’m going to jump now
3:15
to this one here and I’ll show it to you
3:20
it’s a large touchscreen at the time I
3:22
was really impressed actually is the
3:25
word by my technical collaborators
3:27
because touchscreen technology wasn’t in
3:29
its infancy at its line and I asked them
3:32
if they do this the technical
3:35
collaborators are Jim resin and merius
3:38
chevelle here Isabella and soul show you
3:41
the work it’s an exploration of the
3:43
first female moons in cinema the image
3:46
that you’ll see and it is Audrey months
3:49
in the first move female to appear nude
3:52
in cinema mainstream cinema
3:55
team in a field called inspiration so
3:58
she’s made up of a whole bunch of other
4:00
videos little miniature videos of the
4:04
other first video news
4:17
I’m just going to lower the audio what
4:19
you’re hearing are the actual clips of
4:21
the other piece as you touch in certain
4:23
places so all that shimmering which I
4:26
like to call the silver shimmering
4:29
silver screen is actually made up of a
4:32
whole bunch of other movies so I love me
4:34
an energetic component and layering of
4:37
history intense culture and in a way
4:42
conceptually more than other way than
4:44
literally
4:49
Oh play at all just to give you a sense
4:55
of it I collaborated with people who
4:59
identify as women and I asked them to
5:01
contribute either video or audio or
5:03
bolts of themselves soft pleasure e and
5:07
this was very important for many women
5:11
to participate in this because it wasn’t
5:13
no an artwork that I felt was just on me
5:16
but an artwork that politicizes central
5:18
agency so it was a political work it’s
5:23
hard to see the image you can see it on
5:25
my screen better a little bit you’re
5:28
just people on the ground playing with
5:30
you
5:54
we’re very large projection screen on
5:59
the ceiling but since Brian McMillan
6:01
working projecting it on the mirror to
6:04
get a larger distance right to go my
6:08
shine Martindale to the projection
6:12
frames lug people of B is amazing what
6:14
your music marketer and artist that’s
6:18
the projection screen and it got lifted
6:21
up by pulley system this is a picturing
6:23
it really see that people so much on the
6:25
ground that this is about what it was
6:28
like all sixties or seventies parties
6:31
what it felt and funny enough the second
6:34
exhibition was at a sacred sexuality
6:36
consciousness conference where I met my
6:38
partner there
6:40
but this is the kind of stuff that was
6:42
going on you know like people doing
6:46
different workshops around sexuality and
6:48
believe it or not the artwork actually
6:50
became a plate playgrounds for people to
6:52
play under it so let’s try it so
6:58
somebody’s got a pink one and somebody’s
7:01
about everyone
7:07
so the sounds are here
7:13
videos are
7:27
when you turn it what it does is
7:30
actually changing video and the volume
7:32
but in this is the video with
7:35
interpretation or team self the color
7:39
desaturate said anything it does is and
7:43
actually adds an audio filter that
7:45
sounds like a cold dry it’s hard
7:49
to distinguish it with the other ones
7:51
but it’s uh it just changes the sound
7:54
alumina sounds a little bit who’s got
7:58
the paint Pink’s back there got what it
8:01
does is actually speeds up the degree
8:04
that it readings and it also stretches
8:07
the sound and stretches it like makes it
8:10
almost like a whale sound it produces
8:13
numbers because it’s communicating
8:15
through bluetooth with the computer
8:17
those coordinates or numbers are pushed
8:21
into the software and tells the soccer
8:23
what to do that concept I feel strongly
8:26
that it was a cool like the economy and
8:28
people getting women to contribute part
8:31
of each and pretty process the delivery
8:34
of it well I think what people gotta
8:37
admit they didn’t really know what it
8:39
was about and they were underneath this
8:41
Kennedy of you know kaleidoscope and
8:43
surround sound they were like more
8:45
animed of state wish which was actually
8:47
really quite a big part of my interests
8:49
within sacred sexuality and this
8:52
in touch with your inner being and you
8:54
know feeling like your body isn’t just
8:57
here or physical where your skin stops I
9:01
was interested in those concepts so in
9:04
that sense yes the evil people were
9:06
getting me and held in it they were
9:07
really like some of it like oh the
9:09
interface and just you know allow
9:11
themselves almost to meditate and
9:13
underneath it so that part yes but the
9:15
other part the concept of the interstate
9:20
of sexuality of the women experience got
9:23
lost I personally didn’t feel like it
9:25
was a problem for me but yes some people
9:27
know there’s a disconnect yeah that’s it
9:31
bye though really really interesting
9:33
part of what I’m hearing is that part of
9:35
this project was the women experiencing
9:39
controlling their own sexuality so what
9:41
I’d really interesting as he said that
9:43
they were just way too many things that
9:45
the controllers are doing there were too
9:46
many different visual and sound effects
9:48
so when you’re this Rodney is the
9:50
difficulty of someone trying to take
9:52
control of those women’s sexuality and
9:54
interesting and they can’t do it doesn’t
9:56
work it’s a yeah it’s a lot experience
9:59
but it’s the people who didn’t try to
10:01
control it who just lay there and
10:02
observed it might have enjoyed it the
10:04
most I just yes that’s what me I really
10:07
stood out to me what you were saying
10:08
just now and sometimes we’re creating
10:10
and I know I’m not trying to justify
10:12
that it works on the level that you just
10:14
said maybe it does maybe
10:16
exactly the missing link that I didn’t
10:18
have what you just explain it is
10:20
ultimately about power you know putting
10:23
and we were creating real multi-member
10:26
working intuitively and I’m not trying
10:28
to take credit but I do feel like I was
10:31
in some way grappling with that if I
10:35
felt the most powerful particle jet was
10:37
actually the process of England’s
10:39
opinion and stories that they were
10:41
coming back to me with that I didn’t
10:43
share that didn’t get Sharon and it was
10:46
like the process of the art meeting for
10:48
me was the the art and the presentation
10:52
that where people are handling the
10:54
interfaces the only way that I can
10:57
explain that I’ve seen it interfaces is
10:59
like getting it but like engaging in the
11:03
inner state of sexual experience that
11:08
these women
11:09
and but the reason I’m so interested in
11:11
section a sexual agencies this my own
11:14
experience might believe that many many
11:16
people would advise women also have
11:19
similar experience our sexual desire our
11:22
pleasure is so directly linked to being
11:26
the object of desire right what is our
11:30
desire aside from being the object of
11:33
the diary and why is our pleasure what
11:36
like how do we take pleasure Jose and
11:39
grew up with like being the object of
11:41
desire and really like I feel pleasure
11:44
or desire from that still but unlike
11:48
whales until I have been training myself
11:51
to look to be to gaze also and that’s
11:55
just part of it and I know it means i’m
11:57
turning somebody else into an object of
11:59
desire but but i don’t think as women
12:03
weird but it’s not okay to do that so
12:07
much thanks so much for I feel too very
12:12
selfish thing to be able to share this I
12:16
really do value your interest and your
12:19
time for suit for sitting
12:22
so thank you
12:45
you
No results found