Past Residents
Past Resident2012: Kunststiftung des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt
Bettina John
Bettina John’s work explores her fascination with the ever-growing importance of the world’s largest cities and what they mean to the individual experience. She looks at how people manifest their identity in their appearance as well as what is behind that surface and investigates the insecurities a global life brings about, as well as displacement, isolation, anonymity and the construction of one’s image.
Bettina John (born 1981) lives and works between London and Halle, Germany. After graduating from Burg Giebichenstein, she expanded her practice into the field of performing arts. During her master studies at Goldsmiths University in 2009 she met two artists whom she continues to collaborate. Together they showed at live – and performance – art events such as the Stockholm Theatre Festival Stoff and the Accidental Festival in London and participated in several group exhibitions across the UK.
Bettina John, City-People-Media, 2007, Photo collage. Courtesy of the artist.
Bettina John, City-People-Media, 2007, Photo collage. Courtesy of the artist.
Bettina John, Shopping in Higienopolis, 2012, Pencil on paper, 111/2 × 81/4 in. (29.21 × 20.95 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Bettina John, Play Fashion, 2010, Photo collage. Courtesy of the artist.
Bettina John, Virtual City, 2012, Aquarelle and pencil on paper, 40 × 28 in. (101.6 × 71.12 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Residents from Germany
Past Resident2012: KdFS Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen
Mario Pfeifer
Mario Pfeifer’s work explores representational structures and conventions in the medium of film, in locations ranging from Mumbai to California to the Western Sahara. Conceiving each project out of a specific cultural situation, he researches social-political backgrounds and weaves further cross-cultural art historical, filmic and political references into a richly layered practice, ranging from film and video installations to photographs and text installations. Often, Pfeifer collaborates on publications that reconsider these projects, offering research materials and critical investigations by writers and thinkers of related fields, concerning issues suggested in his projects for a wider social-political discussion.
Mario Pfeifer (born 1981, Dresden) studied in Leipzig (HGB), Berlin (UDK) and graduated from Willem de Rooij’s class at Städelschule Frankfurt am Main in 2008. Pfeifer was a Fulbright fellow at the California Institute of the Arts from 2008 – 2009. Further grants from Goethe-Institut and DAAD lead him to Bangkok, Mumbai and New York. Awards include the Video Art Award, Bremen and the Salon Video Art Prize, London. A first monograph was published by Sternberg Press in 2011 followed by publications with Fotohof edition / KOW and Spector Books in 2012. Pfeifer’s works have been exhibited at MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Cultural Centre, Brugge; KW – Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Frankfurter Kunstverein; Circa Projects, Sunderland, UK; Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden; Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen and Landesgalerie Linz, Austria. His films have been screened at Anthology Film Archives, New York; London International Documentary Film Festival; World Film Festival, Bangkok; Images Festival, Toronto; Museum of Art and Design, New York; Moca Detroit; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Folkwang Museum, Essen; Sprengel Museum, Hannover; Arsenal, Berlin and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Mario Pfeifer is represented by KOW BERLIN.
Mario Pfeifer, Code Unknown [Re_Sync], 2010, Wall prints, inkjet prints, and video projection.
Mario Pfeifer, A Formal Film in Nine Episodesm Prologogue & Epilogue, 2010, 35mm film in HD projection, 52 min.
Mario Pfeifer, Reconsidering The New Industrial Parks near Irvine, California by Lewis Baltz, 1974, 2009, Synchronized dual 16mm film installation with sound.
Mario Pfeifer, Yet Untitled ("Pieces of Nature"), 2008, S16mm transferred to HD, 11 min. 30 sec.
Mario Pfeifer, Untitled (Two Guys), 2008, HD video installation, 7 min. 30 sec.
Residents from Germany
Past Resident2016: ArtsNSW, Creative Australia2012: Creative Australia, Dame Joan Sutherland Fund
Astra Howard
Astra Howard’s evolving series of interactive Machine-Vehicles (M-Vs) disrupt conventional means of communication to heighten engagement with the public. The M-Vs reduce certain sensory capacities and enhance others. This altered means of communication encourages direct, honest, sometimes unexpected, and often quite intimate responses. The M-Vs are means by which individuals tell their stories of the city; they optimize the fiction to realism ratio to achieve maximum communication in popular, nondescript, and even hostile locations.
Astra Howard is an Action Researcher/Performer working predominantly within public spaces in cities. Since 1998, she has designed and produced site-specific works in cities across Australia and internationally, including Beijing, Paris, New York, Delhi and London. After completing a PhD in 2005 titled Orchestrating the Public: To Reveal and Activate through Design the Experience of the City, Howard has continued to test urban and social theories in the city spaces they critique. Commissioned by cultural institutions and local and state governments, these iterative projects generate dialogue and debate about issues affecting the city. Howard has worked professionally as a designer in commercial agencies, a lecturer in higher education and a community development worker, predominantly in crisis homeless services.
Events & Exhibitions
Salon: Astra Howard and Constanza Levine
November 13, 2012
Astra Howard, Moving Story-Telling Vehicle, 2015, Action Research/Performance, 61 × 63 × 16 in. (154.94 × 160.02 × 40.64 cm).
Astra Howard, Scene Capture Integration Vehicle, 2016, Action Research/Performance, 76 × 75 × 25 in. (193.04 × 190.5 × 63.5 cm).
Astra Howard, Heightened Drawing Platform, 2011, Action Research/Performance, 20 × 79 × 20 in. (50.8 × 200.66 × 50.8 cm).
Astra Howard, Surveillance with Public Intent Vehicle, 2007, Action Research/Performance, 24 × 87 × 24 in. (60.96 × 220.98 × 60.96 cm).
Astra Howard, Feeling Cities - Public Contact Vehicle, 2009, Action Research/Performance, 65 x 24 x 24 in. each.
