Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Pittsburgh Artist Ben Hernstrom, Ambulantic Videoworks Residency in Iceland

Be a part of supporting Pittsburgh artist Ben Hernstrom (Ambulantic Videoworks) and his artist residency in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Direct link to donate here.

Video here.


from Ambulantic Videoworks

This July I am heading to Reykjavik to the SIMRES artist residency, then spending August at the Nes Artist Residency in Skagaströnd, where I will make videos and take photos.

The SIMRES (Icelandic Association of Artists residency) in Reykjavik only accepts 10 foreigners at a time, so I am flattered and excited about being accepted into the program.

Skagaströnd is an amazing seaside fishing village with a population of only 520 people. I am incredibly excited about the opportunity to spend a month there creating new work.

Having 60 days to work on new creative projects, without the constant distractions of running my small video production company (reading/sending a bazillion emails a day, researching jobs, begging people to hire me to make a video for them for like half of what everyone else charges, recutting the same *$^%&$ video for the 10th time because the client has no idea what they want, et cetera et cetera et cetera) would be unfathomably wondrous. (Well, OK, I actually really like my job mostly, but I still really want to go to Iceland to make new work and take 2 months away from the normal jobs.

While there, I'm hoping to shoot a short documentary on the Country Days festival. Skagaströnd is a very small fishing village, north of the Arctic Circle. It is famous throughout Iceland for being the home of Hallbjörn Helgason, “The Icelandic Cowboy” and “Country King", who pretty much single-handedly introduced American country music to Iceland. Every August they have a huge festival, with live music and other festivities.
You can see a good example of the kind of film I'm looking to produce here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ambulantic...

I am also planning on making a short experimental narrative. For reference please see my 2006 short:
I am like cities
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587167/

And I'm going to take some photos. W.H. Auden described the light in Iceland by saying it was "the most magical light of anywhere on earth." The summer days have as many as 18 hours of sunlight, resulting in spectacular opportunities for creating images.

Project location: Reykjavík


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pittsburgh galleries is reborn anew as The Pittsburgh Art Blog. the blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20, 2007.pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.the blog and website are volunteer projects from fine art photographer and pittsburgh art advocate rick byerly, www.RickByerly.com.

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