The Christie-CAFKA Artist in Residence program took place between 2012 and 2014. The CAFKA Program Committee set a high standard, inviting artists from around the world to apply. As a result, the AIR program introduced CAFKA to new artists from Canada and abroad. It helped CAFKA to make contact with artists working in new media, introducing our organization to new production values and issues. For CAFKA, the ability to work with artists using public display technology helped us to imagine fresh new possibilities for the future of the biennial exhibition.
CAFKA presented the artists within the biennial and in special events. Laura De Decker presented her work with the Hub Interactive Virtual Environment to a keenly interested group in March 2013, and exhibited her work “Composition in Red, Green and Blue” on Christie MicroTiles at the Walper Hotel in May of the same year. Pascal Dufaux presented his work “The Cosmos In Which We Live, Chapter II” to the public at the Kitchener Studio Project in March 2014. Ruth Gibson and Bruno Martelli’s “In Search of Abandoned” was a highlight of the 2014 CAFKA biennial. Dylan Reibling developed a video entitled “City Hall” for projection on the Kitchener City Hall cube during the CAFKA biennial. Krzyszytof Wodiczko and Gary Kirkham produced a program of thought-provoking surface mapping video projections on the statue of Queen Victoria in Kitchener during the biennial exhibition.
The Christie/CAFKA Artist-in-Residence program provided artists with a unique opportunity to work with Christie's world famous projection systems and Christie's technicians and engineers. Christie staff have the opportunity to work with artists, to see how they use Christie's equipment and to respond to the challenges and the questions they present. Resident artists exhibit their completed and in-progress projects.
