Rankin Renwick

NEXT LEVEL FUCKED UP 2016 seven channel video installation, 13 monitors, video projector, carpet, pillows, police light, polyester window film synopsis: A multi-channel video and sound installation displaying the artist’s view of the crumbling world we live in is the central sculptural element of Vanessa Renwick’s piece Next Level Fucked Up. This primarily cacophonous, alternately soothing work combines images of global catastrophes with biting, guided-tour commentaries on Portlanders’ disgusted responses to recent regional development. Video bursts of typhoons, fires, melting glaciers, and images taken from metropolitan Portland are flanked by projections of Oregon’s Painted Hills. The artist embraces technology to make a statement focused upon the inevitability of cyclical environmental change through eons and eons of time. Renwick reminds us that oceans rise and fall, ice melts, palms replace firs—and that whatever the cause, change happens. From local to global and immediate to timeless, displaying both fear and hope, Renwick’s aptly titled installation blatantly addresses the artist’s reaction to our current state of affairs. credits for six of the channels: score: Sam Coomes, Michael Hurley and Marisa Anderson cinematography: Eric Edwards, Mark Eifert, Michael Palmieri and Vanessa Renwick edit: Vanessa Renwick, Michael Palmieri and Tim Scotten credit for one of the channels: cinematography and edit: Colleen Plumb premiere: APEX, Portland Art Museum 2016