JOYRIDE! is a collaborative new-media exhibition and performance event which centres queer artists and creatives who practice in unconventional and digitally/technologically focused media; ranging from; 3D-CGI (computer-generated) animation, sculpture, interactive installation, video, experimental sound, performance, virtual-realities, AI and game design. Situated at Portview Tradecentre in East Belfast, the exhibition features a selection of artists from across the island of Ireland, the UK and beyond.
JOYRIDE! is also a new body of work by Reuben Brown that aims to capture how queer contemporary artists operate technology and ‘machines’ as vehicles of encounter, generation and actualisation. By definition, a “JOYRIDE!” can be defined as “a ride for enjoyment in a vehicle or aircraft” and “a fast or dangerous ride in a stolen vehicle”. Aiming to capture the glamourised urgency and eroticised risk of a “JOYRIDE!” the exhibition hopes to be a ‘driving force’ behind digitally and technologically focused artwork from queer artists who are often underrepresented in the city.
Please find below; information about participating artists, as well as a feedback form.
“JOYRIDE!” is generously supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, through the National Lottery. #ACNISupported #NationalLottery #ThanksToYou
1. REUBEN BROWN
JOYRIDE! (2023)
Interactive Installation comprised of; 3D-CGI (computer-generated) animation and experimental sound “JOYRIDE!”, 3 x Quad HD 31.5 inch curved LED gaming monitors, 2 x Meta Quest 2 VR Headsets, Evolution ActiFit Gaming Racing-Chair, T80 Ferrari Racing steering-wheel and pedals, wood and metal support structure, racing helmet, atmospheric smoke machine and liquid, hardware & chain.
5 x 5 x 5m (dimensions vary)
Reuben Brown (he/him) is a sculptor and 3D-CGI artist currently based in Belfast, N.Ireland, specialising in 3D-CGI (computer-generated) filmography, interactive installation and performance. He is a member and studio-holder at QSS Artist Studios and Gallery in East Belfast, after graduating from Belfast School of Art in June 2022. Interested in the generation of ephemeral spaces, club-culture, and the representation of (primarily queer) digital artists in Belfast, Reuben is the founder and director of emerging Belfast-based scenography collective “club [construction]”. After receiving the Individual Artist Digital Evolution Award in November 2022, Reuben is supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland through the National Lottery.
reubenbrownartist.cargo.site reubenbrownart@gmail.com
@reubenbrownartist/Instagram
2. LAURIE LUNA ANGEL
OCEAN JEANS (2023)
Video, 3840x2160px
“Filmed in Grand Theft Auto’s solo session mode, my avatar explores the underwater terrain until she looses oxygen. While the space is lonely, I prefer it to GTA’s online server, this is an oasis from the abuse, giving space for existential thoughts and alternate game-play.”
Laurie is a multidisciplinary artist and editor of Raid.R magazine. Exploring feminist posthuman thoughts and ideas through installations, poetry, writing, film and curating. Embracing our endless consuming interactions with technology and our organic selves.
London, United Kingdom
lauriemartinartist.com
@lauriexangel/Instagram
3. CHLOE AUSTIN
COVER ME IN GLITTER (2023)
Video installation (2 min 30)
COVER ME IN GLITTER is a text-based video installation that attempts to blur and subvert ‘ideal’ legibility by utilising glittering surfaces and distorted typeface. The work mirrors the entanglement between glitter and its attachment to queer places and bodies. The text is responsive to queer archival material in Belfast (70s-80s) that documents queer nightlife during the height of the Troubles. When the city centre closed down at night, its empty streets unintentionally became a place of queer commute and offered a glimmer of freedom. COVER ME IN GLITTER creates a shimmer that escapes conventional notions of the ‘ideal’ and explores the material capacity of glitter to represent the meaning of visibility.
Chloe Austin (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist working with text and video installation. She is currently a PhD Researcher at Belfast School of Art, Ulster University. Chloe completed her MFA at BSOA in 2020, after receiving her BA in Fine Art and Design at Crawford College in Cork in 2017. She is a studio member of Flax Arts Studios.
Belfast, N.Ireland
chloeaustinart.com
@chloeaustinart/Instagram
4. ADAM COLE
KISS/CRASH (2023)
Digital Video (1 min 10)
In Kiss/Crash, a car crash is turned lovingly and repeatedly into a romantic kiss via AI, creating a provocative metaphor between two ubiquitous images from Western media: the car crash on one hand and the romantic kiss on the other. By appropriating its aesthetic from classic Hollywood, this piece relates AI-imagery to a history of image production technologies meant to arouse and homogenize our desires through artificial representations, and suggests the way generative AI might continue that tradition.
Adam Cole is a London-based media artist exploring the various ways identity and intimacy are mediated through technology. He employs a range of computational techniques such as microprocessors, 3D rendering engines, creative coding algorithms, and AI networks to create immersive and interactive experiences. With a keen interest in the history of images, Adam's work attempts to continue a queer tradition of twisting popular media conventions to reveal unspoken double meanings.
London, United Kingdom
kiss-crash.com
@adamcole.studio/Instagram
5. CLAUDIA ROSE
other strangers (2023)
Faux Leather, Velvet, Chain, Upholstery Foam, Wood, Chrome Fixtures, 80x25cm
of unrequited love.
of hazy tenderness.
of phantom body.
other strangers observes an absent lover. a lingering question, a fleeting hope, and a crushing epiphany.
a space for two, a dwelling for one and a vacant feeling.
Claudia Rose’s (b.1995) sculptural practice visualises a contemporary relationship between concerns of selfhood/other and selfhood/identity through phantasy. Through narratives of new flesh ideologies and mythologies of quesdo-desire/ nostalgia, Rose’s imagined realms are conceived of anthropomorphic sculptures that pertain material culture yet induce a dialogue of the unknown, unfamiliar, and uncomfortable.
Belfast, N.Ireland
claudrose.com
@claudroseart/Instagram
6. NINA WONG
AWAKENING: minimal traction (2023)
Graphite on paper, 60.5x40cm
Inspired by arcade games, the work investigates the instruction specific element in the digital world, aiming to disassemble iconic elements and transform it into a new habitat.
Nina Wong is a London based artist and curator. Having independently curated several shows, she aims to bring unconventional mediums and internet culture into public's sight.
London, United Kingdom
@k1scar1bur/Instagram
7. ROIBÍ O RUA
PUSSY IN PIXEL//TEKKEN (2023)
Animation, 3D Rendering, Collage, Video, Dance Music, Vocals
PUSSY IN PIXEL//TEKKEN explores the intersection of cyberspace with Gen-Z Trans* Identity- how cyberspace can act as a sandbox for radical self-metamorphosis for trans youth. Referring to internet subculture and queer nightlife as well as the artist’s own experiences as a self-proclaimed D1G1TR@N, the work aims to imagine a subculture and icon for this generation of cyborg trannies.
Roibí O Rua (She/They) is a multimedia artist working in 3D Rendering, Animation, Video, Music Production, Performance and Collage. Her work investigates concepts of queer and trans identity in relation to cyberspace and tech, referring to cyberfeminist, postmodern and intersectional theory, as well as pop-culture, queer nightlife, early-internet and gaming.
Waterford City, Ireland
d1g1tran.com
@roibiorua/Instagram
8. NINA OLTARZEWSKA
INFLUENCE (2023)
Digital and sound based performance
Influence explores how digital spaces distort all that is human. When consuming online content, a person is reduced to their symbolic value- their real selves in a permanent state of mild sedation. Influence will involve the projection of digitally distorted faces over mine, as I sing a looped melody reminiscent of the sedated state.
Nina Ołtarzewska (b.1998) is a French artist based in London. She briefly attended the Panthéon Sorbonne’s Fine Art course before moving to Northern Ireland where she graduated with a BFA in 2021 from the Belfast School of Art. She received graduate awards from Pollen Studios, PS², Platform Arts, the University of Atypical and Bbeyond. After being based in Flax Art Studios for a year, she moved to London to start an MAFA at the Chelsea College of Art. As well as practicing indivually in London, she is one fifth of SUCCESSFUL ARTISTS collective.
London, United Kingdom
oltarzewska.org
@oltarzewska/Instagram