ARTIST STATEMENT
I conceived of the States of Being interactive installation to expand the artistic potential of interactivity, while fostering a symbiotic relationship between participant and artwork in expressive interconnection. Video and music components are mapped spatially to respond to peoples’ movements. Straddling both real and digital worlds, participants enact virtual creations of themselves through their actions. I created several short videos based on dancers’ connections with each other in the installation, each uniquely expressing our precarious human condition amidst the fluctuating states of being we strive to balance.
In here and there, now and then, two dancers move fluidly and visually through space and time. Their movements unite the historical, black and white film footage with contemporary colour video, while creating a compelling soundscape. They traverse public and private locations, inhabit physical and virtual realms, and explore connections and relationships between the past, the present and our uncertain future. Imagery of daily life gives way to hot and swirling climate maps, forging a continuum between here, there, now, and then.
Just as the dancers’ bodies intertwine with each other in balance, strength and beauty, it is perhaps this goal of mutual support and connection that can guide all of our actions moving forward as we navigate our shared future together.
Dancers: Rion Taylor and Wyeth Walker | Music: Jesse Stewart
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Cheryl Pagurek’s artistic practice highlights the constructed nature of lens-based media, while embracing the creative expression offered by computing and technology. Since receiving an MFA from the University of Victoria, her work in video, photography, digital and interactive media has been shown widely in Canada and internationally, including exhibits at MSVU Gallery (Halifax), Patrick Mikhail Montréal, Vu (Québec), Gallery 44 (Toronto), Carleton University Art Gallery (Ottawa), numerous video screenings in Canada, USA, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Colombia, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Ethiopia, and public art events in several cities. Her 2019 solo exhibit Connect/Connexion at the Ottawa Art Gallery featured an interactive video and audio installation. She received the 2020 Corel Endowment for the Arts Award celebrating the integration of technology and the arts. In 2024, she presented her second interactive installation, States of Being, in a solo exhibit at Centre d’exposition Art-image in Gatineau, Québec.
Her works feature interconnections and tensions between public and private, past and present, representation and abstraction, urban and natural spaces, the many facets of contemporary life. She integrates technology into her practice in service to the artistic content, while prioritizing the continuity of her visual vocabulary. She welcomes the exciting possibilities introduced into her work through coding and interaction. The invitation to engage in the ongoing evolution of her artworks brings participants into the creative triad of artist, viewer, and technology. As a woman in the cross-over area of art and tech, she aims to broaden approaches and themes presented in the field.
© Cheryl Pagurek