Tuesday March 1st, 2011
Still from "Last Riot" Artists, AES+F
Last Saturday, the brave people of Vancouver and Richmond literally drove through a snow storm to make sure they didn’t miss the Vancouver Biennale’s latest presentation of artist talks taking place at the Richmond Art Gallery.
AES+F, an artist collective from Russia was represented by two of its members (A+E). The two founding members, Tatiana Arzamasova and Lev Evzovitch, gave a narration on some of the work their group has done in their 20 plus years together. They were celebrated by critics and audiences in the 2009 Venice Biennale and have since seen their already infamous reputation grow on an international scale.
With works ranging from large-scale sculptures to performance pieces they are able to engage their audience, play with reality and traditional roles and encourage looking at the world in a different way. The Vancouver Biennale and The Richmond Art Gallery are honoured to host the latest work by AES+F titled, “Last Riot.”
Often seen incorporating political themes in their emotionally stirring work, Last Riot is a disturbing look at violence, hyper sexualized imagery and how it impacts our youth. Utilizing digital media to convey their message, AES+F has created Last Riot to resemble the look and feel of a frightening video game.
One of the attendees of Saturday’s talk said, “I love that they confront the audience with issues we often try to ignore. The violence and shocking images we see every day in television, film and video games is highlighted in Last Riot and making it look like an eerily calm almost beautiful video game itself is both amazing and upsetting.”
After over an hour of discussing the body of work that AES+F has created the audience was still full of questions ranging from, how exactly four different artists manage to successfully work together to why they portray war and violence in such a beautiful way. Despite the fact that snow was falling even faster, and roads were getting worse, we loved seeing that the audience was excited to take a seat and watch the 35 minute video that is the Last Riot.
If you missed this talk on Saturday, you should make a point to come to their public talk this Thursday, March 3rd at 7pm in the A122a Lecture Hall at Langara College (100 West 49th Avenue).