This article originally appeared in in edition, a newsletter published by 
The University of Winnipeg's University Relations Department: 

Exhibition Takes Art 
from the Gallery to the Web

"Simulcast" on The University of Winnipeg's website, this exhibition is an exploration of the medium of the cathode ray tube (c.r.t.), more commonly known as a TV or computer screen. 

As a photographer, Hanks is interested in "the slice of time" captured in a flat two-dimensional image. He merged this interest with the motion-based medium of video, which dominates his job at the University. "The idea of the frozen moment and the idea of moving video--I wanted to play with these two seemingly disparate ideas," he explains. 

Hanks reviewed video footage that he had shot over the past three years, looking for moments that he could extract as stills. "I removed levels of luminance and allowed certain colours and frequencies to pass through and blocked others," he reveals. "I took fifteen seconds and compressed it to one moment." Hanks then photographed the resulting images from the television monitor. 

Although the images were originally reality-based, their realism is now lost. The resulting images are an abstract blend of colour, texture, and frozen motion. 

"This particular body of work just stands by itself," notes Hanks. "It's not coming out of anything. It's not going into anything. It's just there." 

Graphic designer Ian Lark will put Hanks' entire exhibition on the University's website in the art gallery section of Campus Life, marking the first time the gallery has put a complete show on the Internet. "His images suit the Web - they're images taken from the monitor," observes Lark. 

Hanks is pleased that Gallery 1C03 agreed to exhibit his work. "I wanted it to be here because I've been an employee of this institution for 16 years," he says. "I wanted to give something back." 

Hanks' work has appeared in a number of previous exhibitions, including From Behind the Veil and Peace Directive at the Floating Gallery in Winnipeg, I Can Stand on the Roof of my Car in Estevan and See Regina at the National Exhibition Centre in Estevan, SK, and Mid Continental Vision in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. 

 -by Marnie Hay 

Texts Index | Playing in the black box | Playing in the perceptual fields:
Conversation with John Statham

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