Jack Straw New Media Gallery

Renko Ishida Dempster. a.k.a. Suiren (Water Lily), artist name given to her by her father, was born and brought up in San Francisco, California. She inherited Japanese aesthetics and Buddhist philosophy from her parents. Upon moving from San Francisco to Seattle, Renko engaged in formal art studies at the (now defunct) Factory of Visual Art and then the University of Washington School of Art, where she maintains an affiliation with Lambda Rho. Renko’s prior work includes costume design/construction for theatre pieces, a performance of drawings with the sound and movement artists ROOM in December 1999, a first solo exhibition at the Northwest Asian American Theatre’s RAW Gallery in February 2000, and a selection of her work at Tacoma’s Commencement Art Gallery during this early Spring. Her work typically explores aspects of spontaneity, interplay of yin/yang, light/dark, negative/positive, dry/wet, and rough/smooth along with a primary sense of joyous freedom and openness to expression.

Stuart Dempster, a.k.a. Fusei (Voice of the Wind), artist name given to him by Renko’s father, was born and brought up in Berkeley, CA. He is a Sound Gatherer, composer, trombonist, didjeriduist, et al; Guggenheim Fellow; and Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington. He has recorded for numerous labels including Columbia, Nonesuch, and New Albion. Dempster, a leading figure – indeed, a pioneer – in the development of trombone technique and performance, published his landmark book The Modern Trombone: A Definition of Its Idioms in 1979. As a founding member of Deep Listening Band, he has toured extensively and produced the first three DLB recordings including award winning Deep Listening CD on New Albion, the first CD made in the now infamous Fort Worden (Port Townsend, WA) cistern with its 45” reverberation. His New Albion recordings “In the Great Abbey of Clement VI” at Avignon (in the words of one reviewer, “a cult classic”) and “Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel” (consisting of music sources for a 1995 Merce Cunningham Dance Company commission) have achieved wide critical acclaim. Dempster also soothes aches, pains, and psychic sores with his meditative and playful Sound Massage Parlor.

New Media Gallery 2000-01: Dream-Time-Pieces

Bret Battey (b. 1967) creates electronic, acoustic, and multimedia concert works and installations, synthesizing diverse experience in music composition, computer programming and graphic design. A major focus in his work has been the crafting of integrated sound and image compositions.

He has been a Fulbright Fellow to India and a MacDowell Colony Fellow and has received recognitions and prizes from Austria’s Prix Ars Electronica, France’s Bourges Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique, Spain’s Punto y Raya Festival, MADATAC and MuVi4, Abstracta Cinema of Rome, Amsterdam Film eXperience, the Fresh Minds Festival and the Red Stick International Animation Festival for his sound and image compositions.

Battey completed his masters and doctoral studies in Music Composition at the University of Washington and his Bachelors of Music in Electronic and Computer Music at Oberlin Conservatory. His primary composition teachers have been Richard Karpen, Diane Thome, Conrad Cummings and Gary Nelson. He also served as a Research Associate for the University of Washington’s Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media. He is a Professor of Audiovisual Composition with the MTI Institute for Sonic Creativity at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.

New Media Gallery 2000-01: Uroborous – Light and Sound

Stuart Keeler is a sculptor whose work explores the territory between the public realm and the role of the artist in the built environment. His frequent work in other media, including curation, installation, sound, drawing and performance often explore the multiple histories, private functions, public mythologies while simultaneously questioning human landscapes. From the outskirts of Toronto, to urban Chicago, Paris and Munich – Keeler explores the evolving role of how art and the public can be united in subversive ways. Recently he has completed a series of works that challenge and offer multiple concepts of sustainability, “green,” and the power of information systems presented in social art contexts.

Artist Support Program 1999

Seattle artist Jim Pridgeon has over 25 solo shows to his credit. His artwork has been displayed in museums, galleries as well as public spaces across the nation. Jim has received both private commissions and commissions to work on design teams to develop Percent-for-Art public art projects. He has been awarded many national and local awards and fellowships including the National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellow award and the Seattle Arts Commission “Seattle Artists” Fellowship award. Jim is a graduate of Stanford University (B.A. English) and is now on the faculty of the UW School of Medicine as a Teaching Associate in Neurological Surgery where he also holds the title Artist-in-Residence.

Jim’s art involves the suspension and placement of objects in temporary room environments. This enables the viewer to be surrounded by the work and to have access to various points of view. The metaphorical quality of the work comes from the use of situations and objects that are familiar.

Artist Support Program 2001-02: Perfect Pitch