Multimedia Exhibition "Usering" Opens in February

The Fairmont State University Department of Art will host the solo multimedia exhibition “Usering” by artist Jason Robinson in February and March.

The JD Brooks Gallery is open Mondays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the exhibition will run from Monday, Feb. 13, through Friday, March 10. There will be a reception and remote digital gallery talk and question and answer session in Wallman Hall Room 411 at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16. Admission to the exhibit and to the gallery talk is free and open to the public.

Robinson received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2001 from Penn State University and a Master of Fine Arts in Kinetic Imaging in 2011 from Virginia Commonwealth University. His work is exhibited internationally, and he has been the recipient of numerous awards, including honorable mention at the West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival and the New Media Award, eMerge, at the Media Space at James Cook University in Australia.

Following is the artist’s statement about the exhibition: “ ‘Usering’ was born from a desire to develop a daily practice of moving image making. My approach to creating gifs is similar to drawing in a sketchbook, an exercise in meditative mindfulness and a chance to make without thinking. The technical constraints of the format encourage experimentation, divorced from the weight of conceptual concerns and the pressure to create work that felt complete. These gifs are the product of distraction, a kind of productive procrastination. This work was disposable, immediate and nearly anonymous, not always developed or resolved, just made, released and forgotten.

“As this informal project continued into its second year, my attitude shifted and I began cataloging the constantly expanding body of work and exploring the possibilities for pulling the images from an endless digital scroll and translating them into a physical space. The work in this gallery represents two and a half years of (almost) daily gifs. Animation sketches, text pieces, found footage mashups, VHS home movie transfers, vintage video synthesizer jams, expanded cinema performances, short films and videos I shot on my phone were translated into gifs and posted to robinsoncobras.tumblr.com. For ‘Usering,’ I revisited some of my favorite gifs, reimagining them as lenticular prints, tapestries, videos and metal prints.”

School of Fine ArtsDepartment of ArtJason Robinson