Innovative Curatorial Projects – Paris / SingaporeNina Barnett
* 1983, Johannesburg, South Africa. Lives and works in Chicago, USA.
Nina Barnett is a video artist, an animator, a maker of objects. She received her BA from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 2006 and is currently pursuing her Masters degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has participated in several group show exhibitions (notably David Krut Gallery, New York; Harvestworks, New York; and the Johannesburg Art Gallery) and attended residencies in Paris, Belgrade and New York. Her work is included in the collections of the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the University of South Africa.
Nina’s practice addresses transition, translocation and exploration. Her current work is preoccupied with water and the way in which aquatic bodies intersect urban environments. This interest is bound to the biographical. The first hand experience at the water's edge brings personal response to her animation, video, sound and drawing.
River come back / South Africa / 2010 / 3’06 / 16:9
Inspired by the Chicago River’s famous current reversal in 1887 and the state of rivers in cities throughout the world, this animation serves as a psycho-geographical text, and an earnest request to a river to change it’s course. There is a pervading sense of longing and urgency in the narrative, and an admission of process in moments when the drawn meets the real, when image becomes live action.