January 12 – April 7, 2019
Project Room
Reception: Friday, March 1, 2019 | 5:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Sounds Like Dancing will feature two video works by South Bend-born artist, Mike Amato. Both works flow from his personal perspective into larger concepts of identity, appropriation, movement and memory.
Artist Statement
In general, the works on paper I create reference questions of appropriation, authenticity, authorship, and identity. These works function through the process of removing components of an “original” object from its original context, manipulating and reassembling them into something of my own making. The identical process is at work in my film and video work, including Malevich Memories, and to a lesser extent, Homage to Taylor Mead, the videos on view here. The mostly random events I have used to construct these films are what anyone might experience on a day-to-day basis. I am conscious of the art-historical context in which I operate; I know the boundaries that are set in place against which I exert my transgressive view of the world.
Mike Amato works in video, digital imaging and mixed media. He has exhibited in solo and group shows in numerous venues, including The Spurious Fugitive, Gallery 805, South Bend Regional Museum of Art (South Bend, IN); Midwest Museum of American Art (Elkhart, IN); Berkeley, California Art Center; Gallery 114 (Portland, OR); Leslie Lohman Gallery (New York, NY); and the Arts Council of Indianapolis Gallery 924 (Indianapolis, IN), among others. Critical issues involving authorship, appropriation, and authenticity; originality, meaning and identity inform the bulk of his work. He currently lives and works in Indianapolis, IN.
Image: Mike Amato, still image from Homage to Taylor Mead, 2005, Super-8 film (Kodachrome) digital transfer, 6 minutes 47 seconds
