In January the board at 911 Media Arts Center asked me to serve as guest curator for the New Media Gallery and HallSpace through July. For the first of two exhibitions I am pleased to present "Memory Whole" featuring the video sculptures and installations of artist Tony Weathers. The exhibition will run from April 9th through May 25th 2007. Gallery hours are from noon to six pm Monday through Friday.

The main gallery space contains a new work exclusively created for 911 Media Arts Center. Entitled "Memory Whole", the two channel video installation features thirteen drawings with red water patterned after the famous ink blots of Dr. Hermann Rorschach, Weathers makes each drawing with a sponge and then erases them with the same sponge. The audio track is from the actual process of making. Seeing the two screens in the gallery, the viewer is confronted with the acts of making and unmaking. Both channels are counter synched so you can watch both elements occur at the same time.

The first object based video sculpture in the HallSpace is "Arm Chair General", a teak high chair with video projection on a 10-inch white pedestal base. The top of the chair is festooned with a white wild pig's skull in the tradition of a Georgia O'Keefe still life. The small projector hidden beneath the seat of the chair and splotches of canned food explode onto the pristine white pedestal. Humor is a vehicle which this artist drives the viewer into new places that they have never been before. Originally shown at the alternative gallery Crawl Space on Capitol Hill, the sculpture works well with the other items in the exhibit.

"Artist Statement" is another video installation projected in the HallSpace that was featured at Crawl Space. In this piece, the artist spells out each letter of his statement using the language of international aviation. Alpha, Lima, Whiskey, Tango are all words where the viewer can transcribe the statement for themselves. Recorded in a rented garage, this work dates from 2001. The height of the projection in the space is a conscious decision to enable the viewer to be as uncomfortable as the artist making the statement.

"Marco...! Polo...!" is a brand new object based video sculpture created for 911 Media Arts Center. A short continuos cartoon loop featuring kinetic slapstick egg on you head comedy is set on a large black and white monitor against video of snails in the artist's garden. The animation serves as the background for the zen like slow movement of the snails. The frantic competes with the tranquillity of the garden showing the viewer the ironic beauty of life's contradictions.

Critical Response

"The Bawdiest and the Brightest
The Video Art of Tony Weathers
By Abigail Guay
The Stranger
04/18/07

"Tony Weathers takes video on a nimble mind trip"
By Nate Lippens
Seattle PI
04/27/07

About Tony Weathers:
Born in 1971, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Tony Weathers earned a BFA at Cornish College of the Arts with an emphasis on Video and Sculpture in 2000. From 1999 through 2005, he was the studio assistant/ apprentice to artist Gary Hill. His work has been included in international group exhibitions produced by Sudwest Television and SF DRS Television in Switzerland along with the European ARTE Television [Germany, France, Switzerland]. Locally he has shown in Seattle, Bellevue, and Renton. His work has been published in DAS JUBILAUMS SONDERMAGAZIN BILD STORUNG, CRTL SPACE:Internationaler Medien Kunst Preis [Catalog], and the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER. In 2001, he was nominated for the Internationaler Medien Kunst Pries ZKM (Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie), in Karlsruhe, Germany. He has won both the Artist Trust GAP grant and Fellowship in 2001. He has held residencies at Consolidated Works (2006) and The Experimental Television Center in Oswego NY (2001)