🔗 EXC-19 PROJECT WEBSITE 🔗
Artist Biography + Statement:
Midi Onodera is an award-winning filmmaker and media artist who has been making films and videos for 35+ years. In 2018, Midi received the Governor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts. Her work is laced with markers of her experiences as a feminist, lesbian, Japanese-Canadian woman.
Midi has produced over 25 independent shorts, ranging from 16mm film to digital video to toy camera formats. Her film The Displaced View (1988) was nominated for Best Documentary at the Gemini Awards. Skin Deep (1995), her theatrical feature, screened internationally at festivals including the Rotterdam International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Since 2006 she has made over 500 Vidoodles (defined as bite-sized 30 second to 2 minute video doodles). Each year since 2009 she presents an annual video project addressing themes of language, media, politics and everyday life.
Find more of her work online at midionodera.com or vidoodles.com.
“TOO MUCH TIME ON MY HANDS is a reflection of our dual nature: the outward public flaunting of who we project to the world and the concealed part of who we are – a complex, contradictory self.
As social creatures we explore the world through our relationships with others. PLAYTIME is the result of this collaborative play through the moving image. The website, EXC-19.com showcases 68 short videos created through the concept of the Surrealist parlour game, “The Exquisite Corpse”. From mid-April to early August, I invited various artists, cultural workers, students and friends to participate in making collaborative videos. Like the original drawing game, each person was responsible for one task, resulting in a final artwork. Each video was initiated by one person who wrote the text (19 words). This was then given to the next person to shoot photographs, video, or source found footage. These images were then sent to another person to edit and finally the last person would create the soundtrack. All participants remained anonymous until the video was completed. Although we could not physically work with each other, this framework inspired creativity, encouraged exploration and experimentation. I was curious to find common ground, the connecting force, shared themes and stories that united us during the period of the COVID-19 lockdown. As the public, outward face, it is fitting that PLAYTIME has found its’ home online in the public sphere.
The gallery component draws on a contemplative solo introspection. I began this project in 2016 and I view it as a work-in-progress. Inspired by daguerreotype photographs and our frantic obsession with our mobile phones, INSIDE MY HEAD is a series of miniature video works encased in cloud-filled sky vessels. Each of these containers house brief moments of history, memory, popular culture references and intimate reflections. These collected images draw on childhood experiences and youthful impressions that have culminated in forming implicit biases about the people around me. These unconscious biases can sow the seeds of discrimination, perpetuate racism, sexism and homophobia and can act as a barrier to equality. But until we are prepared to uncover and microscopically examine our own biases how can we be truly a part of any positive movement inspiring change? Anything less is lip service, a trendy slogan on a t-shirt.” – Midi Onodera
Curator Biography + Statement:
Lesley Loksi Chan holds a BA in Anthropology and Women’s Studies from McMaster University and a BFA and MFA in Film Production from York University. She has screened her work in national and international film festivals including Vancouver International Film Festival, Reel Asian International Film Festival, Inside Out LGBT Film Festival, Die Beginen in Rostock, Germany, Open Cinema in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Monterey Bay Film Festival and has participated in exhibitions at Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Centre, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Centre[4]Arts, Rotunda Gallery and Harbourfront Centre. She has received awards from the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, United Nations Summit on the Information Society, Canadian New Media Awards and Images Festival.
