Brett Van Ort

Two Openings

brettvanort — Tue, 10 May 2011 09:51:10 +0000

May 13 will see my work opening in two different venues in two different cities on the same night. Hopefully it won’t be the last time this happens, but it will definitely be a first.

If you are in Liverpool from May 13 – June 26 you can see Minescape at LOOK Liverpool Festival. My work will be included in a group show entitled Collateral Damage and will be hanging alongside the likes of Simon Norfolk, Tim Hetherington, Zijah Gafic, Paul Lowe, Edmund Clark, Lisa Barnard, Ashley Gilbertson, Mishka Henner, Adam Broomberg and Olivier Chanarin.

May 13-June 26

That same night in London you can visit The Opportunity Area in the Shopping Center in Elephant and Castle to see a collection of work that looks at the regeneration of the area. My audio visual of time lapse of the area from mid-2009 will be on view as will be a collection of great projects from other artists I’ve been associated with for over two years now. This show will be on view from 13 May-22 May.

13 May-22 May

So there is something for those of you in the North and the South. Don’t say I’m not trying to spread the work and the word around!

Week 9+1

brettvanort — Mon, 09 May 2011 07:19:41 +0000

A little tardy this week…apologies…

Not much needs to be said about this photo really…

51º 30' 18" N 0º 05' 01" W

Anastasia Photo

brettvanort — Wed, 04 May 2011 07:25:50 +0000

Just a quick update. I wanted to give a shout and let everyone know that I’ve signed with a gallery in New York for representation. There is not a show planned as of yet but the more traffic to their site the better. It will hopefully give them impetus to have a show sooner more than later.

I’ll include a link to the gallery home page. And a link to my page on the artist roster.

My work on the site.

Thanks for your support so far. If you haven’t seen the work in person on the East Coast this is a great opportunity for you to try and sway the gallery to have a show there soon.

Week 8+1

brettvanort — Sun, 01 May 2011 19:35:57 +0000

Yes, I went hipstamatic this week. Was out and about during the royal wedding and heard the sound of fighter jets coming nearby. I managed to get the phone out quick enough to capture this one. At first I thought not much of it, but the more I looked at the photo I thought it strange that a military flyover coincided with the royal wedding. Then I realized that beyond the tree in the foreground this exact scene could have been played out over the skies of Libya at that very moment. With the plethora of imagery coming out of conflict zones on iPhones now that Damon Winter’s work has been validated by POYI awards, I felt this image blurred the lines even more.

So you choose: Sky over Central London or Sky over Libya.

51º 13' 34" N 0º 06' 45" W

Week 7 + 1

brettvanort — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 19:15:07 +0000

This week it’s a series of images. This is a slide show I originally put together for ASA collective. I managed to pass it on to Harry Hardie, who is curating the Look Liverpool show I am in. He liked the work enough to include it in the Perugia Journalism Festival going on right now in Perugia. If you’re in Italy right now, there are probably a lot better things you could be doing, drinking some wine comes to mind. But if you are really searching for something to do, the rest of the Collateral Damage show would be good to see at the festival. My work was tied up in Derby and London, so it wasn’t able to make it down. But at least I managed to contribute this piece, which includes some of the prosthetics I have been photographing recently.

Week 6 + 1

brettvanort — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 20:45:46 +0000

Worked the London Marathon today for Cancer Research UK. Among the great stories and crazy runners (Fred Flinstone and Teen Wolf) there was James Joy. He had run the Brighton Marathon before but was never given an opportunity to run the London Marathon. This year he got his opportunity but only a couple weeks before the marathon was to be run. Instead of dropping the Brighton Marathon, which is run 6 days prior to London, and the money he raised for the charity associated with that run, James opted to run both marathons. With only days to recover from the Brighton marathon, James finished in under four hours in London. Considering I can hardly run 2 miles without stopping, I found his achievement to be pretty amazing. Congrats James!

51º 50' 56" N 0º 13' 58" W

Up next…

brettvanort — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:21:19 +0000

As Minescape at 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning heads into its final week, I encourage you to go and see the work in Brixton. The next stop for the work will be in Liverpool from May 13-June 26. Minescape will be part of a group show at the LOOK Liverpool festival. The show will be at the Contemporary Urban Center (CUC) in Liverpool and will share wall space will am amazing lineup of photographers. Included in the group show “Collateral Damage”, my work will hang alongside the likes of Simon Norfolk, Edmund Clark, Tim Hetherington, Zijah Gafic, Paul Lowe, Lisa Barnard, Ashley Gilbertson, Adam Broomberg and Olivier Chanarin, and Mishka Henner. Harry Hardie and Paul Lowe have collaborated to curate the exhibition.

May 13-June 26

I’m truly honored to be able to exhibit my work alongside the likes of these artists. “Collateral Damage” will focus on images associated with atrocity that do not depict the actual act of violence or the victim itself, but rather depicts the circumstances around which such acts occurred.

In addition to this show at the CUC, Ed Burtynsky shows work from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico last year and Robert Polidori shows work from “New Orleans After the Flood”, also at the CUC.

Week 5+1

brettvanort — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 09:10:45 +0000

Another from the Imaginary Battlefield series. This field is called Missile Command.

51º 49' 35" N 0º 02' 76" E

Renhui Zhao

brettvanort — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:01:47 +0000

As FORMAT closed a few days ago, I just want to bring up a couple artists works I enjoyed looking at while I was visiting there. Renhui Zhao was one of those. His work at FORMAT looks at a cloaking device that he found being used by the Institute of Critical Zoologists. He stumbled upon this technology while going for a walk China while working on another project.

I was absolutely perplexed and couldn’t help doubting myself while I looked at this work. A cloaking device? Already? I’d heard that there have been a few scientists that have been able to bend the reaction of light and create a device that “works” as a cloak. But a device that actually works in the field and without a power generator or anything to make it somewhat bulky and obtrusive?

Well, that’s what Zhao wants us to think. He wants the disbelief to overpower the imagery in some respects. In many ways this cloak represents the idea of truth in today’s world. We are given information every day by friends, relatives, media, neighbors, co-workers and it is always on the pretense that it is correct and true. But in looking at this cloaking device, this realm of science fiction that Zhao has made real, we can either accept this notion of man being able to conceal his whereabouts in nature and disguise himself or question it. Thankfully I didn’t bite… at least too hard. I of course am writing about it now and did some investigating to assure myself that this technology was not readily available. In doing so, I stumbled upon Zhao’s creation of the Institute of Critical Zoologists, which is more brilliant than “The Blind” project itself.

Week 4+1

brettvanort — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 13:50:24 +0000

Last week I said I would show another prosthetic. Keeping to my word, here is one that you would more commonly find in Bosnia. Obviously the difference between last weeks device and this week’s is striking.

51º 40' 33" N 0º 29' 18" W

Many thanks again to Prothetist Abdo Haider and the staff at the London Prosthetic Center.