A curatorial Project by David Sanchez Burr
Multiplexer started as an art space Downtown in the City of Las Vegas. The exhibits focused on the potential of video as a medium, and away from the over explored, web-based sensationalism, corporate media and hollywood film industry. The space exhibits work that crosses the threshold from visual language to relevant and poignant explorations in a wide variety of subjects and motifs.
Go To Website: http://multiplexerspace.wordpress.com
I have been keeping a watchful eye on the evolution of video as a contemporary art medium. I have noticed its effect on commercialized media and entertainment industries and vice-versa. Some critics argue that there is a blurred boundary between an art product and a design/commercial product in video, as is the trend in the two dimensional world. I believe that a real creative (art) approach to video making necessitates a different vision where the language and the intent, far differs from commercial and entertainment practices or purposes. A discussion about blurred boundaries is not as interesting as proving artist still strive to use the medium to push their concepts and ideas further. Video by shear reach is dominated by media industries but a small element of it, the interesting part (at least for me) leaves open a wide range of possibilities in creative practices and continues to be a great incubator of ideas.
Going forward multiplexer will shift its location outside of the gallery space, it will be calling on artists to collaborate on the situational experience, and to attempt to solve “Chance” in reverse. I want the audience to have abandoned any notion of where art is supposed to exist, the moment they set eyes on the first few frames. I do not know precisely where these efforts will lead, but I think that is the point, a world with art that is less predictable and more interesting.
Multiplexer also focuses on the detritus and artifacts of video technology and its relationships to changes and shifts in history, from analog to digital, broadcasts, video art and home videos. From the anthropological and scientific, to the exploratory and experimental; all genres and categories of video work are considered for exhibition.
The art space was located in downtown Las Vegas two blocks from the 12 million LED screen Viva Vision, on Fremont Street, both a technological inspiration and an unsettling reminder of the power media wields.
Multiplexer is owned and curated by David Sanchez Burr. David has been curating exhibits sporadically since 1993. He received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and his MFA from The University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His experience includes Graduate Programs Manager at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1999 to 2006 and has worked in the professional video software industry at Softron Media Services for the past two years. David has also exhibited internationally and has resided in Las Vegas since 2006.
RECENT EXHIBIT
Life in the End Times: Thoughts on Sustainability by Yasmina Chavez, Javier Sánchez, and David Sanchez Burr
Part of Greetings from Las Vegas
Gateway Motel 928 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, NV, 89101
Thursday December 5th 6:00pm to 11:00pm
https://www.facebook.com/events/535309106555579/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming&source=1
It is said that if everyone pitches in a grain of sand we will one day fill the bucket. the questions we have on sustainability is what if that bucket is so large it would take millennia to fill? Who do we hold responsible? Regardless of the current and future damage to our planet ecosystem, the time will always be now to change the current course of damage, and it is not as simple as changing the packaging to green. To go forward without a full socio-political and economical investigation and analysis is to steer the ship into the melting glacier.
To help us understand why we find ourselves always at the border of the apocalypse we must dig into history. If we thought that the cause was simply CO2 then we could move forward, unfortunately this is only a partial explanation, this is a soft explanation that masks larger questions about capitalism and consumerism, questions purposely left behind the curtain. Environmental problems come from economic and social system who’s roots are found in wealthy nations and their corporations, systems that historically have been engaged in exploitation. Global industrialization strategies and plans circumvented the globe in less than a century exhausting or depleting our finite resources. Under the guise of bringing wealth and stability to resource rich undeveloped regions in the globe, the conspirators sack the poor and hand weapons and power to murderous heads of state. Regions with no exploitable resources are left to their own problems of despair, starvation and illness. The strategy is playing itself out in different stages in different regions with few new spaces to exploit. Plans are already being made to divvy up the polar region, this will be the new war zone. The question is who wants all of the wealth and who is left out. The answer to this question is intentionally left orphaned on the doorstep of “purchased democratic nations” who lack any interest in challenging their patrons. Any motion towards forward change is considered radical, leftist and marxist only backwards change is acceptable. Our message is to be aware of “sustainability” masked as a new wave of consumerism. Be aware of “sustainable, green and ecological” as marketing ploys of diffused meaning. The meaning of sustainability is to put these apocalyptic notions behind us, to re-engage democratically, to find out the true cause of earths exhaustion and eliminate it.
Yasmina Chavez
Yasmina Chavez is a long time Nevada resident. She was raised in Elko, NV and has lived and worked in Las Vegas, NV for the past nine years. She graduated from UNLV in 2011 with a BFA in photography and is currently working for Greenspun Media Group as a photo coordinator for the Las Vegas Sun, Las Vegas Weekly and Vegas Inc. As an artist, Chavez primarily works in photography, video and performance. Together with three other local artist she co-founded of 5th Wall Gallery in the Fall of 2011, but has since left to focus on her own work. While at 5th Wall Gallery, Chavez curated “Deserting Las Vegas,” a road opera by Geneva based performance group Eternal Tour and “China in Box” a musical art performance by the local Las Vegas band China. She also co-curated shows like “Sonic Trichromacy,” a sound installation by Daniel Steffey, “I&I” an interactive installation by Luis Brennan and “Tangents”, a sculptural photography show by Fred Mitchell. She’s had two solo shows at Counterspace Gallery: “They Used To Be Animals” in 2013 and “Stranger Bond” in 2012. In the summer of 2012, she participated in a collaboration performance piece, “Okonomiyaki,” with Brent Holmes for the Las Vegas satellite show of the “London Biennale” held at VAST Gallery. Her first short film “Patty Cake” premiered at the 2012 Spring Flicks festival and her video, “Shut Your Mouth” was selected for the Claes Oldenburg 30th Anniversary juried exhibition show of his “Flashlight” sculpture at Donna Beam Gallery in 2011.
Javier Sánchez
Born in the suburbs of Mexico City, Javier Sanchez has now been a resident of Las Vegas Nevada for the last ten years. He received his Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts from the University Of Nevada Las Vegas in 2012. For the last five years he has exhibited his work in various galleries and venues within the Las Vegas area including his first solo exhibition in 2010 “El Salon De Dibujo” at CSN College Of Southern Nevada, and “Relative Perspectives” at the Clark County Government Center (Rotunda Gallery) in downtown Las Vegas. His most recent collaborative exhibition with Yasmina Chavez “ERISTIC” was a large scale video and sound installation at Alios Gallery in Las Vegas. Javier Sanchez is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Las Vegas NV. He incorporates video, photography, sound, nature, and the community as parts of his art practice.
Projects
Past (web development in progress)
Beauty is on the Inside too.
2007
Metasonic Series 2008-2010
ansurbana 1991-2001