Esther Bourdages aka EstherB.: January 2012

Composée de field recordings puisés dans le chinatown de New-York et trois différentes villes chinoises, ma pièce sonore Mapping China figure dans le numéro du magazine albertin DANDELION no 37.1 dédié à la notion de mapping. Par le biais d'échantillons très peu retouchés, de fines couches sonores développent différents paysages : d'abord un restaurant new-yorkais, ensuite une exploration de Pékin, Xian et Chengdu. Poursuivant ma recherche sur comment on voyage avec les sons, j'ai voulu introduire via une esthétique et un processus de composition très dépouillés deux segments qui reflètent différentes perspectives de la culture chinoise. Dans un contexte de grands changements sociaux et économiques, j'ai tenté de capturer de petits moments teintés d'héritage locale et d'autres, renvoyant aux effets de la globalisation.

DANDELION Magazine 37.1, Calgary, 2011.
Éditeurs : Kathleen Brown, Oana Avasilichioaei et Michael Nardone

BIO

Esther Bourdages works in the visual arts and technology art fields as a writer, independent curator and scholar. She holds a MA in Art History from Université de Montréal, where she wrote about the Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely and the relationship between sculpture within an expanded field, as multimedia and sound art. Her curatorial research explores art forms such as site-specific art, installation art and sculpture, often in conjunction with technology (media and digital art). She develops since couple years a research on curating sound art, that she had opportunities to present in some contexts, as Mutek and Eastern Bloc in Montreal.

Working as a long-term collaborator on contemporary art exhibitions with the Darling Foundry / Quartier Éphemère in Montréal has provided many opportunities to develop her work in these areas. Esther Bourdages is particularly interested in developing interdisciplinary projects that relate to contemporary ideas in the fields of architecture, anthropology, urbanism, and cultural studies. Recent work related to this has examined urban environments in relation to the social and historical fabric of cities. An especially important aspect of her curatorial practice is sound, which she endeavours to treat as an independent rather than supplementary medium. She has authored many articles and critical commentaries on contemporary art. In addition to her creative practice, she is also actively involved in artist-run-centres and independent structures - as Agence Topo and Perte de signal. She is currently the Secretary, after to be President (2012-2016), on the Board of Director at Eastern Bloc, a leading Digital Art Exhibition & Production Centre dedicated for emerging artists. She is involved since many years with Quartier Ephémère / Darling Foundry. During 2015, she was the editor in chief of .dpi, a Journal dedicated to digital and feminism culture, produced by the Studio XX in Montreal. She is co-host of CAFE on CKUT radio, FM 90.3 since 2011, where she talks about art and culture.

She works at OPTICA, centre d'art contemporain since 2017.

As a musician, she performs under the name of Esther B - she plays turntable, handles vinyl records, and records soundscapes. She has performed in Canada, the US and France ; additionally, her works have been presented in England, Germany, Palestine, Portugal, Belgium and Danemark. Improvisation allows to her to create raw, non-linear music peppered with altered sonic quotes and abstracted sounds, textures mostly produced by vinyls that have undergone specific alterations (grinding, cutting, etc.). She is a member of the turntable trio Vinyl Interventions with Carrie Gates (Saskatoon) and Marinko Jareb (St. Catherines, Ontario). This outfit has been presenting its eponymous workshop. Since 2002 She has organized A Microphone in a Noize Storm, a concert series dedicated to new music. She also do radio art pieces based on field recordings.

esther.bourdages [at] gmail.com

Esther Bourdages aka EstherB.

Blog Archive

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

LIENS divers, Other links

Mon mémoire de maîtrise publié en histoire de l'art / My master thesis in art history published