Sparkle, a trail of new exhibitions will be switched on at the Threshold artspace on Saturday, 2 December.
The exhibitions will continue to illuminate the gallery throughout the festive season up to 31st January 2007. Sparkle features 15 works by more than 15 Scottish and international artists — a glowing selection of brand new additions and old favourites from Scotland's only permanent collection of digital art at the Threshold artspace.
As a theme Sparkle is an organic fit for the artspace,
notes Iliyana Nedkova, creative director of new media at Horsecross. The artspace thrives on moments of sparkles, i.e. the way artists use flash, light, time, sound and electricity as their media of choice. We literally shine a spotlight on these basic ingredients of digital artistic practice and hope to bring a touch of glitter to the concert hall this winter.
The Sparkle trail of exhibitions starts at Threshold Welcome — the giant interactive sound box at the entrance of the Perth Concert Hall. Walking though, visitors will be able to trigger at random more than 200 new sound snippets from a medley of classic Christmas crooners and carols to more surprising songs — guest-curated by Andy Shearer in collaboration with sound artist Matt Green.
Next, the exhibition takes over the Threshold Wave — probably the world's longest digital canvas of 22 flat screens. Sparkle's brand new highlights include Sonorous Forms — a piece for cello, water and 22 screens in C Major by emerging artists and musicians Catherine-Anne Lee and Eilidh Glynn; Berlin-based artist Graham Robertson experiments with a roll of film slowly winding it through the camera with shutter open capturing brilliance, time and motion; Simon Wilkinson's Light Fantastic recreates the euphoria of the search light show which bathed the skies over the concert hall in space age glamour.
There will also be a special video entitled Snowdome by Theresa Pickles. It features a special collage of treasure like miniatures of fake snow specially shaken and filmed for the screens on the Threshold Wave. Recently launched Counting Until the End of Time by Lee Cox will provide a breather of a flickering intermission between each film.
The interactive playground at Threshold Stage is divided between the new arrival at the artspace collection Random Snow Generator — digital snowflake fiesta by Ross Cairns and the old favourite Influx, a tricky digital mirror by Joanna Kane. At the Threhsold Flush, the secret screens tucked away in the toilets of the concert hall, people can dip in and out of The One Minute Wonders – a selection of 20 seriously funny films of 60 seconds each by young people from across Europe.
The exhibition launch will round off with artist Simon Bogle's Glowing Throwies workshop in electronic graffiti for the over 12s — an inexpensive, DIY way to add a touch of sparkle and colour to any magnetic surface.