Isabelle Pauwels Explained

Isabelle Pauwels (born 1975 in Kortrijk, Belgium)[1] is a Vancouver-based artist who works primarily in video-based art.[2] Pauwels received a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and obtained an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. Pauwels' work explores narrative structures, forms of storytelling and how they shape moral and emotional experiences.[3] The narrative in her work does not follow causality; instead it performs in a twisting loop that circles around itself.[4]

Career

Pauwel's first exhibition at Or Gallery in 2001 has been followed by multiple local and international exhibitions including at the Galerie Tatjana Pieters in Belgium, Power Plant in Toronto, Henry Art Gallery, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2013, Pauwels was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award. In 2008 Pauwels was one of eight artists in the Exponential Futures show at the Belkin Art Gallery, alongside Tim Lee, Alex Morrison, Kevin Schmidt, Mark Soo, Corin Sworn, Althea Thauberger and Elizabeth Zvonar.

Notable works

Like…/ and, like/ you know/ totally/ right

This video work was made by Pauwels in 2012, as a part of her 2011 Media Arts production residency at the Western Front Society.[5] Performers in the video include her twin sister Valerie, Western Front co-founders Eric Metcalfe and Glenn Lewis, as well as Hank Bull, from the Western Front. Pauwels utilizes repetition, cliché, and satire, commenting on the oppressive dynamics of stories and storytellers.[6] The work references the site specific histories of the Western Front and numerous other fictions while simultaneously pointing at the viewer and their act of looking.[7] [8]

W.e.s.t.e.r.n.

A video piece made in 2010, Pauwels juxtaposes film footage of the artist's parents' home in Richmond with home movies shot in her grandfather's home in the Belgian Congo. The video aims to create space for the viewer to negotiate colonial history that resonates throughout the film.[9] The video is accompanied by stills that are a part of the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. The stills act as objects of evidence that simultaneously complicate and provide fragmentary evidence towards an understanding of the video projections.[10]

,000,

Through a residency with Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center Pauwels produced this work. The work debuted as a live performance which premiered at EMPAC in 2014, and was later adapted to a single channel video[11] and a radio play. [12]

Select solo exhibitions

Select group exhibitions

Notes and References

  1. Juan A. Gaitán, Monika Szewczyk, and Scott Watson, Exponential Future, 2008 (Vancouver: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 2008), 78.
  2. "Isabelle Pauwels LIKE…/AND, LIKE/YOU KNOW/TOTALLY/ RIGHT," Western Front, accessed March 11, 2017, http://front.bc.ca/events/isabelle-pauwels-likeand-likeyou-knowtotally-right/
  3. "Isabelle Pauwels LIKE…/AND, LIKE/YOU KNOW/TOTALLY/ RIGHT," Western Front, accessed March 11, 2017, http://front.bc.ca/events/isabelle-pauwels-likeand-likeyou-knowtotally-right/
  4. Helga Pakasaar, and Jonah Gray, Isabelle Pauwels, 2013 (North Vancouver, Presentation House Gallery, 2013), 20.
  5. Web site: Isabelle Pauwels LIKE…/AND, LIKE/YOU KNOW/TOTALLY/ RIGHT. - Western Front. front.bc.ca. en-US. 2017-03-19.
  6. Scott Watson, Special Collection, Acquisition and Archives, 2013 (Vancouver: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 2008), 22.
  7. Helga Pakasaar, and Jonah Gray, Isabelle Pauwels, 2013 (North Vancouver, Presentation House Gallery, 2013), 21.
  8. "Isabelle Pauwels LIKE…/AND, LIKE/YOU KNOW/TOTALLY/ RIGHT," Western Front, accessed March 11, 2017, http://front.bc.ca/events/isabelle-pauwels-likeand-likeyou-knowtotally-right/
  9. "Isabelle Pauwels," Canadian Art, accessed March 11, 2017, http://canadianart.ca/artists/isabelle-pauwels/
  10. "Photography by the Principal Agronomist, Mwenga Territory, circa 1958. Pencil Edits by his Wife. Scanned and Re-arranged by his Granddaughter, Vancouver, 2009, 2009," National Gallery of Canada, accessed March 11, 2017, http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artwork.php?mkey=216731
  11. Web site: Isabelle Pauwels live-narrates material figuring into her UFC-inspired film-in-progress. Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). en. 2017-03-19.
  12. Web site: Or Gallery: Isabelle Pauwels: ,000,. www.orgallery.org. en. 2017-03-19.
  13. Web site: Special Collection: Acquisitions and Archives. 2013. Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery.
  14. News: White Noise. 2005-09-08. Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. 2019-05-06. en.

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