Electric Theatre by Philippe Blanchard is a fabric immersive installation where patterns of coloured light “animate” dyes in knit and tufted yarn. With this project, the artist explores how animation and moving images can be experienced beyond a two-dimensional screen, as something spatial and tactile, where the material itself appears animated. The title of the piece refers to an original name for moving pictures, in the late 19th century, at a time when films would be shown as a novelty in travelling tents at fairgrounds and exhibitions.
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Ages: All ages
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Years on EI
About Philippe Blanchard
Philippe Blanchard is a Toronto-based artist, animator and teacher. His diverse creative background (film production, digital visual effects, studio arts) has informed an interdisciplinary practice combining animation, installation, light shows, drawing, painting and printmaking. Recent projects include a residency and solo exhibition at Proyecto 'ace (Buenos Aires) and an exhibition at Open Studio (Toronto). His recent projects include the production of textiles for installation at the TextielLab (NL) and expanded animation installations at the following venues: Atelier Circulaire and L'Avenue Mont-Royal (Montreal); ReformerArt (Shanghai); Toronto Animated Image Society, Open Studio and in/Future (Toronto); National Museum of Print (MUNAE, Mexico City), Chromatic Festival Paris, the Power Plant and solo shows at Arprim (Montreal), Glendon Gallery, Cambridge Galleries and InterAccess (Toronto), all featuring screen-printed imagery animated by coloured light. Philippe Blanchard's animation work has been shown at Rencontres Internationales Paris-Berlin, Festival du Nouveau Cinema (Montreal), Pop Montreal Festival, Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh), The Kitchen (New York), RISD (Providence RI), Hirshhorn Museum (Washington DC), National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington DC), LACMA (Los Angeles), San Francisco Art Institute, Cal Arts (Valencia, CA), Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), Impakt Festival (Utrecht NL), Center for Contemporary Arts (Glasgow), the Ottawa Art Gallery, InterAccess, Angell Gallery and AGYU. Philippe Blanchard has also worked as a commercial animation director, principally for Toronto-based studio Head Gear Animation. He has directed/animated spots for MTV, Oreo, Milk, Blistex, Sesame Street, and PBS.