Pool
Ed Spence
April 12th - May 5th, 2018
As the digital platform enters all aspects of our daily life, we approach engagement with the body. Ed Spence is drawn to the figure and the dissolution of flesh as it becomes known within a numeric matrix. Spence considers the disintegration of the human form conforming to digital parameters and the blurring of ontological boundaries encountered when carefully examining the subject.
Not unlike cadaver studies of the Renaissance that described the human figure for the next five hundred years, Spence dissects and fixes the physical remnants of this journey for objective analysis. The resultant, haunting imagery illuminates the physical challenges of transhumanist aspirations and possibilities for a new era.
Ed Spence (b. 1981) grew up in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Canada. In 2005, he received his BFA from UBC Okanagan where he was awarded the President’s Purchase Award for a multichannel video installation. His work has been exhibited across Canada, the United States, Poland, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
In the spring of 2012, he was awarded a two-month research residency in Italy where he developed video accompaniment to a contemporary dance performance that was later shown in Berlin’s Nah Dran performance series. His work spans many disciplines and utilizes text, sculpture, photography, and public installation and can be found in private and public collections internationally. Residing in Vancouver, BC, Spence and choreographer Julianne Chapple recently received Canada Council funding to collaboratively explore the theme of Transhumanist Futurism via the creation of wearable sculptural elements and choreographed movement.
Not unlike cadaver studies of the Renaissance that described the human figure for the next five hundred years, Spence dissects and fixes the physical remnants of this journey for objective analysis. The resultant, haunting imagery illuminates the physical challenges of transhumanist aspirations and possibilities for a new era.
Ed Spence (b. 1981) grew up in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Canada. In 2005, he received his BFA from UBC Okanagan where he was awarded the President’s Purchase Award for a multichannel video installation. His work has been exhibited across Canada, the United States, Poland, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
In the spring of 2012, he was awarded a two-month research residency in Italy where he developed video accompaniment to a contemporary dance performance that was later shown in Berlin’s Nah Dran performance series. His work spans many disciplines and utilizes text, sculpture, photography, and public installation and can be found in private and public collections internationally. Residing in Vancouver, BC, Spence and choreographer Julianne Chapple recently received Canada Council funding to collaboratively explore the theme of Transhumanist Futurism via the creation of wearable sculptural elements and choreographed movement.