Natures of Reality
Natures of Reality is a mixed media exhibition by Lisa Birke initially presented at the Art Gallery of Regina (2021). The project has been adapted for the Shared Spaces app and can be found on the app on the Spaces page.
Paper Avatars
Birke worked with community members through Common Weal Community Arts to create paper avatars that were animated using motion capture technology. Click on the avatar’s faces in the Shared Spaces app to listen to different perspectives on finding meaning.
3D Sculptures
The three “Reflecting Pools” allow viewers to peer into a circular video projection that spawns on the floor after clicking the glowing blue ring. Like an ever-moving timepiece, these videos invite visitors to experience small and extraordinary moments: falling snow, feet in melting ice, ladybugs on a branch in the wind, a dead deer.
“Billboard” recreates an abridged version of the exhibition’s main projection. A blond spokes model carries digitally composited 3D signs calling out empty life affirmations and platitudes. The signs trouble entitlement, and call into question who determines and owns the messaging in a tightly controlled media (and the physical) landscape.
Lastly, an animated 3D AR piece points to the slippery quality of language as the show’s namesake: “Natures of Reality” is endlessly reconfigured.
Natures of Reality at the Art Gallery of Regina
For more information and documentation on this exhibition, please visit: Natures of Reality, Art Gallery of Regina Archive
About the Artist
Lisa Birke is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is a result of the collision of video, performance art, and installation. She is interested in the stories that we re-cite and re-brand and how these inform our conception of the world and the tragi-comic perception of ourselves. Recently, Birke has been exploring immersive multi-media approaches using special effects, AR, and 360 video. Her award-winning video work has seen more than100 screenings and installations at film festivals, media centers and in galleries and museums internationally, including Vancouver International Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival, Florida Film Festival, International Short Film Week Regensburg, TIME is Love and New Media Fest International touring Video Art Programs, and at the Remai Modern, Saskatoon. Birke is Assistant Professor of Digital and Extended Media and is currently serving as graduate chair in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Saskatchewan.
The artist recognizes the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Art Gallery of Regina and Common Weal Community Arts and wishes to thank Michael Fleig, Qihang Liang, and Leanne Read for production assistance and the community members for their participation. Natures of Reality includes animations created in collaboration with the following community members: Angel Hayden, Brita Lind, Claire Yacishyn, Damian Thomas, Dawn Thomas-Cameron, Deborah A. Stevens, Hani Rukh E Qamar, Joely BigEagle-Kequahtooway, Julie Gobeil, Kamilla Wolk-Lind, Karishma Joshi, Keshia Katie Hanson, Nicole Gaddie, Precious Tushabe-Torr, shimby, and Yvonne Niegas. Natures of Reality is sponsored by SaskTel.
