KW Production Series: Emily Wardill

The new installation by Emily Wardill shows parallels between the emerging interest in alternative forms of consciousness (in education and leisure) in the Western industrialized nations and the simultaneous economic growth in this region after World War II. This related yet disparate expansion of individual desires and accumulation proved antithetical: the imaginary aspect of expansion obscured and reinforced the conditions that made growth possible.

Wardill's project questions this "splitting" as both generative and disingenuous. By positioning the audience in the middle-between the lost and the found, comedy and tragedy, inside and outside, north and south, first and last-she searches for another space, a polyphonic experience that refuses to be assigned to either aspect.

By splitting, sampling, and duplicating sound and image, Wardill engages with the idea of expansion as found in "Expanded Cinema" - a multimedia form developed by artist:s in the 1960s and 1970s that also anticipated contemporary network culture.

The KW Production Series is an annual commissioned project that explores artistic moving image works. The project is inspired by KW's founding principles as a place of production, critical exchange, and intense collaboration. As part of this ongoing series, KW seeks to identify and support artist:s who are at a pivotal point in their work and careers - artist:s who can not only benefit from the financial support and institutional visibility that this opportunity provides, but also use the KW Production Series to deepen and expand their artistic practice.