Wave Farm Artist-in-Residence: Jillian McDonald

Jun 02, 2023 - Jun 11, 2023
Wave Farm + WGXC Acra Studio

518-622-2598
http://wavefarm.org/

Jillian McDonald at the Wave Farm pond

Jillian McDonald at the Wave Farm pond. Photographed by Alon Koppel Photography. (Jun 11, 2023)

Jillian McDonald at the Wave Farm pond

Jillian McDonald at the Wave Farm pond. Photographed by Alon Koppel Photography. (Jun 11, 2023)

Jillian McDonald in residence at Wave Farm

Jillian McDonald in residence at Wave Farm. Photographed by Alon Koppel Photography. (Jun 11, 2023)

Jillian McDondald Portrait

Jillian McDondald Portrait.

Tunnel and the Radio Sky is a video and sound work of speculative fiction, filmed in Brooklyn, Newfoundland, Colorado, California, and Arizona, which begins with a hole dug in a Brooklyn backyard. This hole is a tunnel, connecting desert, rocky coast, and mountains; and a portal, connecting them by atmospheric radio signals. The skies are created by typing passages from a ham radio manual info an Artificial Intelligence bot and animating the resulting images. To accompany the video, McDonald will generate sound from intercepted ham radio broadcasts, EVP recordings, and field recording in the wilderness.

Jillian McDonald is a Canadian artist in Brooklyn and Troy, NY. Exhibitions and performances have taken place at Undercurrent and FiveMyles in Brooklyn, The Art Gallery of Regina in Saskatchewan, The Esker Foundation in Calgary, AxeNéo7 in Québec and Lilith Performance Studio in Malmö, Sweden. A CBC IDEAS documentary profiles her videos, which were also reviewed in The New York Times and Canadian Art. Critical discussion appears in The Transatlantic Zombie by Sarah Lauro and Deconstructing Brad Pitt, edited by Christopher Schaberg and Robert Bennett. Awards include grants from The New York Foundation for the Arts and The Canada Council for the Arts, and residencies include The Headlands Center for the Arts in California, the Glenfiddich Canadian Art Prize in Scotland, and The Arctic Circle Residency in Svalbard. Jillian McDonald acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.