Artist

Colleen Kerr

My visual work is rooted in literary and verbal forms. In the past, I have explore visual narrative using a template of poetry, storytelling, mythology, and the vernacular. When I describe the visual aspect, I use words like metaphor and pun; themselves literary and verbal devices.

I have worked extensively with images and ideas from Western Mythology, nature-based religion, Christianity, Tarot and Astrology. These are all systems of both belief and knowledge. The dual aspect of these forms serves to give great insight into the face of human existence. My strategy has been to show the commonality of our existence, focusing on life, death, madness, (re)birth. I have been interested in those aspects that may be buried in our unconscious (or may be floating beneath our consciousness' surface, ready and waiting).

My time based works are often first developed as performances, then into videos. The performance remains within the work to varying degrees, depending on the individual work. I also work in other media, especially assemblage. Often my ideas are begun or completed in this highly tactile, object oriented form. These works are usually meant to be handled by the viewer, thus physically engaging them in the "reading" of my ideas. Whether performance or object making, I have found the intensity of physical activity is very important to the development of my ideas.

I have begun to explore the concept of focused physical energy to a greater degree in my work. This includes a performance that is physically demanding (ie: "Chrysalis" from the tape "Book of Shadows" in which I am hanging by one foot from a tree), or work this is physically difficult for the viewer to touch (current assemblages using pins and other sharp objects). This interest includes exploration of contemporary knowledge, technology and memory systems (through primarily but not exclusively video and audio technology); structural images and energy as represented through the "natural" world; anomalies of the human mind and body's technology and memory systems: amnesia, sleepwalking, dreams, psychic abilities, etc.

Artist Code: 436

Videography

Hesiod's Mistake

1995, 16:00 minutes, colour, English

Book Of Shadows

1994, 20:00 minutes, colour

Niagara

1991, 20:00 minutes, colour, English & French

Teabell Tolls

1988, 17:00 minutes, colour, English

Critical Writing

In the Orbit of Nelson Henricks
by Robert Milthorp. Expanded Standard Timeline: Artists and Electronic Media in Calgary, EMMEDIA 1980 Through 2005, 2009. Calgary, Alberta: EMMEDIA, 2009.
Abundant Harvest: The Recordings of Calgary Video Artists and...
by Karen Knights. Expanded Standard Timeline: Artists and Electronic Media in Calgary, EMMEDIA 1980 Through 2005, 2009. Calgary, Alberta: EMMEDIA, 2009.
Cold Snaps: Images 88, Northern Visions showcase of new film and video
by Andrew J. Patterson. Cinema Canada, Sept. 1988, no. 155.
Elemental Instincts: a matter of course
by Donna McAlear. Elemental Instincts : a matter of course, 1988. Clagary, Alberta: The Nickle Arts Museum, 1988.
Colleen Kerr
by Donna McAlear. Elemental Instincts : a matter of course, 1988. Clagary, Alberta: The Nickle Arts Museum, 1988.
Re:Placing the Lost Memory or Re:Presenting Ourselves: The...
by Leila Sujir. Parallelogramme, Dec. 1987, v. 12, no. 2.