Stand By Your Guns

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 5, 2004
Turbulence Commission: "Stand By Your Guns" by Jillian Mcdonald
http://turbulence.org/Works/mcdonald/

From movies/television and computer/video games to political posturing and gangster rap, weapons have become as "embedded" in our everyday lives as US journalists were in the military during the "major combat" phase of the 2003 Iraq war. "Stand By Your Guns" confronts us with the ubiquity of guns and how violent simulations translate into real life shootings. It is an absurdist piece that both glorifies the weapon and masquerades as an entertainment arcade.

BIOGRAPHY

Jillian Mcdonald is a Canadian performance and media artist who lives and works in New York City. Her web projects include "Things are Okay" and "Home Like No Place" which were produced in residency at Trinity Square Video in Toronto, and La Chambre Blanche Gallery in Quebec City. "Home Like No Place" was featured at La Biennale de Montreal 2002. "Me and Billy Bob" was launched in May 2003 and "Ivy League" is part of StudioXX's Virtual Garden project. "Advice Lounge," created in residency at Videographe and featured at FCMM in Montreal, will be performed live at Saskatoon's Spasm New Media Festival in Spring 2004. Mcdonald received a Canada Council for the Arts Grant for the creation of four new media projects in 2003. Her projects have been featured at Kanonmedia (Vienna), Emmedia (Calgary), Hive Projects (Toronto), Rhizome (New York), Javamuseum, CIAC (Canada), DIAN (Germany), the Web Biennial in Istanbul 2003, and the Centre d'Art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie.
Mcdonald teaches computer art at Pace University where she co-directs the Pace Digital Gallery.

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