TROY Gronsdahl
video+visual art | music | cv+contact


SELECTED WORKS IN VIDEO

2010 back and gone
2008 the generosity of mechanics (is not ...
2005 hungover for three days straight (don't matter)
2002 We always knew she'd be the first to go
2002 Big girls need lots of tender lovin care
2002 Losing Elsie June
2001 Joe
2001 pick
2000 13 days for Ruby

 

SELECTED WORKS IN OTHER MEDIA

2006 The Secret to Looking Back
2006 Leak
2004 Sears Portraits

 

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ARTIST STATEMENT

I am an emerging multidisciplinary artist and cultural worker based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I have been active in the Saskatoon arts community as a volunteer, board member and contract worker. I have maintained an interdisciplinary art practice, producing music for national and international release and exhibiting my visual art productions at the local and national levels.

Over the past few years, I have developed a body of video-based work that explores notions of vulnerability. My motivation is to complicate or subvert the prevalent western entertainment media narrative through the production and presentation of intimate video portraits.

Working in close proximity with my subjects -- frequently family members or close acquaintances -- I record private moments and simple, unscripted performances. I attempt to mitigate the often clumsy, intrusive presence of the camera by working in an environment of trust. The process requires sensitivity as I negotiate delicate social boundaries. The videos are frank and sincere, at times complicated by underlying tones of personal transgression.

I am interested in memory and the popular western cultural modes of remembering and memorializing. I am intrigued by photographic practices that have developed to this end, particularly the ongoing developments in portrait photography.  My interest also extends to cultural by-products that exploit sentiment and nostalgia ranging from country songs to greeting cards to officially designated public monuments.