Dennis Hlynsky: Murmurations

May 28 - September 8, 2016
Dennis Hlynsky: Murmurations

Reception: Thursday, AHA! Night July 14, 6-8 pm,
Artist Talk: 7 pm

The University Art Gallery at UMass Dartmouth Star Store Campus in Downtown New Bedford presents a video exhibition by Dennis Hlynsky titled, Murmurations, from May 28 through September 8, 2016. The reception will be held on Thursday, July 14 (AHA! Night) from 6 - 8 pm with an artist talk at 7 pm. Visitors are invited to experience the magic of multiple formations of starlings, filmed by Rhode Island School of Design professor, Dennis Hlynsky, in seven screens running simultaneously. This extensive selection has been recorded over the past five years by Hlynsky along Route 6 in Swansea, MA. These recordings of massive flocks in strip mall settings feature starlings pictured in multiple instances along their flight paths. Hlynsky's simple digital processing technique allowing the display of the flight paths has a calligraphic quality, with the birds sitting on and then flying from the electrical wires, filling the screen with the impressive geometric patterns of their flight.
Murmurations' meditative environment offers both visual and sound and invites visitors to get lost in the ebb and flow of the patterns and continuing lines of flight. Visitors can walk from screen to screen or sit and watch these areal trajectories. The starlings only congregate during the moments around sunset, hence the dim gallery lights offer a similar visual environment along with the sounds of chirping birds and original traffic as well.
Hlynsky's videos, available online, have been viewed or embedded more than 7 million times on his Vimeo page as well as within blogs and online media, such as Colossal, Huffington Post, The Guardian, Mashable, Wired Magazine, and more than 200 others in almost every country on the world. This UMass Dartmouth exhibition marks the first time these works have been as extensively shown in a solo exhibition.

Dennis Hlynsky is an American artist residing in Providence, Rhode Island. With an insatiable desire to consider technology and its place in the arts, he came early to video and has more than 30 years of experience in the medium. He was among the first students in the RISD video program and is now a devoted teacher. Since 1983 he has committed himself to the study of digital imaging processes.
Hlynsky was a co-founder of Electron Movers, a regional media center and performance space, and a principal in the Video Analysis Project for 10 years, using video as an intervention for people with life-threatening problems. The project garnered the attention of international media. His interest in celebration as an art form resulted in his designing the fireworks celebration for Providence for five years and has been central to several longstanding community arts events. He has received international recognition for his processed video of small animals moving en masse. These and other video works can be viewed vimeo.com/dennishlynsky.
Dennis Hlynsky is currently the Chair of the Film/Animation/Video Department of the Rhode Island School of Design. His videos from the series Small Brains en Masse have been shown, among others, at the RISD Museum, E32-NYC, UMass Amherst-Hampden Gallery Incubator Space, Danforth Museum, O.K Center for Contemporary Art in Linz, Austria; Susquehanna Art Museum; Exploratorium in San Francisco, or Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and festivals such as Toronto Urban Film Festival; Mobius-Cyberarts Festival in Boston, or Farr Festival, UK.

Contact: Viera Levitt, Exhibition Curator and Gallery Director, [email protected]
www.umassd.edu/UniversityArtGallery
www.facebook.com/UMassDartmouthGalleries
Open Mon-Sat 9 am - 6 pm, Sun 9 am - 5 pm
All events are free and open to public.

University Art Gallery
College of Visual and Performing Arts
UMass Dartmouth, Star Store Campus
715 Purchase Street
New Bedford, MA 02740

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