Zoe Beloff and Zets Brothers art opening October 17, 2003

Pittsburgh Filmmakers will exhibit interactive media installations by New York artist Zoe Beloff and photo collages by local artists The Zets Brothers. They are on view from October 17 through November 30. A reception will be held on Friday, October 17. It is free and open to the public.

The New Gallery highlights three interactive works by Beloff. The Influencing Machine of Natalija A. is an interactive digital installation based on a famous psychoanalytic case study. A young woman in Vienna (circa1919) thought an electrical apparatus had been implanted in her brain and was manipulating her mind. ?My interactive video installation attempts to materialize Natalija?s hallucinations for the participant,? Beloff explains. ?I wish to reveal how the fantastic machine imagined by a schizophrenic is not nearly as bizarre as it appears.? The installation consists of a large diagram on the floor with small projected video images within it. The viewer can don 3-D glasses and (with a pointer) move the images around, re-creating a virtual world much like Natalija?s hallucinations.

Where Where There There Where is a CD-ROM, inspired by Gertrude Stein?s play, Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, that examines issues of language, logic, and ?thinking machines.? Beyond is also a CD-ROM that explores the paradoxes of technology, desire and the paranormal posed since the birth of mechanical reproduction. Viewers are invited to sit at a computer to interact with these exhibits.

Beloff grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she studied painting and art history. She earned her MFA in film from Columbia University. She has worked with several artists from other disciplines, such as composer John Cale, the renowned theatre troupe The Wooster Group, and sound artist Ken Montgomery. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including the following venues: the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Film Festival, the Pacific Film Archives and the Pompidou Center. Currently, Beloff teaches film and digital media and is a 2003 Guggenheim Fellow.

Running concurrently in the Outer Gallery is, The Marilyn Show, by Pittsburgh-based artists, the Zets Brothers. The color mixed-media collages explore Marilyn Monroe as a metaphor.