Both wallpaper and the video are set in a utopian Tahitian landscape, yet while Dufour’s work models Enlightenment beliefs in harmony among mankind, in Pursuit of Venus includes encounters between Europeans and Polynesians which acknowledge the complexities of cultural identities and intercultural contact in the age of Empire. I challenge the stereotypes that developed in those times and since, and the gaze of imperialism is turned back on itself with a speculative twist that disrupts notions of beauty, authenticity, and history and uncovers myth-making. – Lisa Reihana

For more information visit: https://bell.brown.edu/exhibition/lisa-reihana-pursuit-venus-infected

White Noise refers to a steady droning tones used to mask or obliterate unwanted sounds, an active dissociation occurring when a signal is gone or lost. Titled for the sources of American political power and media who produce constant noise in support of xenophobia. The work points to whiteness as a construct used throughout the world to obliterate voices and rights of cultures regardless of complexion. Calling attention to white noise as a source of increasing intolerance and hate in the United States as politicians, media, and citizens attempt to mask and obliterate the reality of America’s genocidal past and racist present. The white noise referenced is produced by a kind of whiteness based on more than complexion. This White noise is based on capital, blind belief and faith in itself, and fear of everything outside the lines it uses to enforce inclusion or exclusion. The American Prayer rug is hung on a wall in place of flat screen televisions, as the image accompanying the droning sound we use to distract us from our own suffering, from love, from land, from water, from connection; there is no space for prayer, only noise. – Nicholas Galanin

For more information visit:
https://www.quintgallery.com/exhibitions/167-nicholas-galanin-white-noise/

…Along the way I spoke with people for whom the Danube is a central influence on their lives, an integral part of their identity, asking them “What does the river mean to you” Could you live without it?” They responded in their native languages and dialects, their voices woven into the river’s sounds, placed as close to the location where I met them as possible. “What is a river?” was the question underlying the whole project for me. Many people helped with every aspect of the project at every stage, and I am deeply grateful for their generosity and interest. The installation, “A Sound Map of the Danube”, was completed in 2005 and first presented during the Donau Festival in Krems, Austria. It was mixed in 5.1 surround sound with audio engineer Paul Geluso at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts in New York, and this version was re-mixed in stereo in 2008. – Annea Lockwood

For more information visit: https://www.annealockwood.com/compositions/a-sound-map-of-the-danube/