A/S/L (age / sex / location]
part of the AVATAR series
3m 32
Audio | video | performance: Freya Bjorg Olafson
Duration: 4mins (above is an excerpt)
format available: Beta, Mini DV, DVD (NTSC or PAL)
2010
“Using a palette of gestures gleaned from online fetish videos, media artist/dancer Freya Olafson addresses the dual nature of sexual performance — both alluring and repellent. The seductive quality of Olafson’s stroking, gyrating and posing is undone by her use of a distorting fish-eye lens of her web cam.... her performance mimics not genuine seduction but the dried-out ritual that unfolds in strip clubs and the like on a nightly basis.”
text by: Sandee Moore (Uptown Magazine)
A/S/L (age/sex/location) is part of Freya’s AVATAR SERIES exploring methods of creating, validating and disseminating one’s identity through the use of technology and the Internet. The series is inspired by the mantra “I post therefore I am”, whereby Internet users legitimize their existence by documenting their lives and uploading this media to personal webpages and blogs. The work in this series facilitates an inquiry into our desire to share and publicize our lives. This video is currently distributed by Video Pool Media Arts Center and can be exhibited as a single channel video in many different contexts.
The development of this series is generously supported by the Canada Council for The Arts, Manitoba Arts Council, The Winnipeg Arts Council and Video Pool Media Arts Center. In February 2010 A/S/L was featured in a special 'performance on video' DVD to be circulated with the canadian arts magazine Border Crossings.
bordercrossingsmag.com/issue113
Screening History:
2013 Gallery 1C03 ‘Female Impersonators’ - curators Shawna Dempsey & Lorri Millan - Winnipeg, Mb
2013 Open City Cinema ‘Smutty Winnipeg Shorts’ screening - Frame Warehouse - Winnipeg. Mb
2010 Border Crossings Magazine limited edition DVD 'Risk' International Distribution
2010 Antimatter Film Festival 'Body Parlour' - screening in Victoria, B.C.
2010 SOHO IN OTTAKRING 2010 - exhibition in Vienna, Austria
2010 Sistahood Celebration - screening in Vancouver, B.C.
2010 Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art 'IntermixMania' - screening in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Distributed by: VIDEO POOL MEDIA ARTS CENTER
Available on BLU RAY or digital file
The development of this work was generously supported by the Canada Council for The Arts, Manitoba Arts Council, The Winnipeg Arts Council and Video Pool Media Arts Center.