artedeaccion's Channel

16 subscribers

6,937 video views

Play All

Uploaded videos

1-10 of 10

The Other Room / El Otro Quarto artedeaccion 107 views THE OTHER ROOM / EL OTRO OUARTO 2001 El FARO, Centro Cultural, Mexico DF, Mexico Materials:Bread, coffee, flags, sugar, video, water, si...
Zapatista Women's Mural Project artedeaccion 321 views
Zocolo Action artedeaccion 5 views
Adult Female Human - who controls the body? artedeaccion 1,793 views ADULT FEMALE HUMAN 1994 Alternativas-Alternatives, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, X-TeReSa, Arte Alternitivo. Mexico City, Mexico Material...
Agua Mayan, (Mayan Water) artedeaccion 36 views This film documents the progress of the Mayan village of Santo Tomas, a member
El Otro Quarto, (The Other Room) artedeaccion 48 views 2001 - In Mexico City, an ex-patriot mourns 9/11 on El Dia de Los Muertos. This Video Installation and Performance piece was created a few weeks after the fall of the Worl...
Crying Earth Rise Up artedeaccion 1,637 views This short inter-tribal educational piece was created with longtime activist and Lakota elder, Debra White Plume, of www.bringbacktheway.com. The piece is used to inform tr...
Nuestras Casas de Carton artedeaccion 2,073 views This work is a visual poem and sound piece inspired by the bitter words of the song Casas de Carton ( Houses of Cardboard), written by Ali Primera, and sung by social activ...
Tibetan Nuns Dharma Debate artedeaccion 508 views Camera work sample - Northern India, 2006 In this clip, Tibetan Nuns engage in the scholarly activity of Dharma Debate. Once a practiced only by men, these young women, en...
The Body Politic artedeaccion 381 views THE BODY POLITIC by Shelley Cook-Contreras http://www.youtube.com/artedeaccion 7min - Engish/Spanish bilingual. This piece is an entertaining and disturbing video artw...

About Arte de Accion Film

Arte De Accion is a portfolio of Documentary Film, Experimental Film, and Time-Based Art, created by interdiciplinary artist/activist Shelley Cook-Contreras. Videos include documents of live performance and installation artworks, as well as video artworks and documentary film works.

less

forthenext7generations.com

Created by

artedeaccion

Latest Activity

Sep 1, 2008

Date Joined

Sep 1, 2008

About this user

Shelley Cook-Contreras is an internationally exhibited artist whose transmedia works encompass installation sculpture, drawings, digital media, and conceptual performance. Recently shown at El Chopo Museum; Mexico City, she has also exhibited at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum, SOMARTS, Photoworks Gallery, and The Lab. Cook was a featured artist in the 2005 10th International Performance Festival held in Mexico City, at Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, exhibiting a work about the people and power structures of Chiapas entitled Observations: Seeing In-Between. In 2000, she exhibited her work, entitled The Red Thread, at SF Museum of Modern Art. Her video works have been seen in the World Wide Video Festival; den Haag, Holland, and the Espace Lyonnais D'Art Contemporain; Lyon, France.

Ms. Cook --Contreras' projects have been funded by the California Arts Council, the National Endowments for the Arts, Arizona State University's Institute for Studies in the Arts, and The National Institute of Fine Arts, INBA in Mexico. In 1994, and she took part in bi-national cultural exchange between the United States and Mexico funded jointly by the Mexican Cultural Association of the Bank of Commerce, BANCOMER; the National Fund for the Arts and Culture, FONCA; and the Rockefeller Foundation. Cook-Contreras is presently a Bay Area Video Coalition Fellow: a recent recipient of the Digital Directions Teacher Training Institute Grant, emphasizing digital tools for developing arts curriculum and educational excellence.

She earned her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute's New Genres Department. Cook-Contreras has taught Installation Art, Sculpture, and Time-Based Art as a member of the Spatial Arts Faculty of San Jose State University, and in the Women and Spirituality Program at New College of California.

The artworks of Cook-Contreras range from complex, large-scale installations, to simple conceptual based performances. In her installation sculptures, she utilizes everyday objects, and simple materials, such as earth, wax, and pigments, with elements of sound, projected image and performance. Her conceptual approach to performance closely blends life and art, interacting with people in particular sites, or very directly with nature. These works, which she refers to as Social Sculptures, reflect the psychosomatics of our society and investigate the relationship between the viewer and their experience of the history and essence imbedded within a place. Frequently, video and sound form a conceptual architecture, utilizing layered images and text created from documentary footage. .Site is often a catalyst in the work. The actions of performance complete the installation, which remains on view.

The content and form in Cook-Contreras' work often evolves from collaborative interaction with community. Through video she gathers visual and textual information from individuals and their environment. Their everyday language of common expressions is translated into the physical structure and actions, investigating the issues of gender, class, and personal/political/spiritual evolution. In this way, Cook-Contreras a social artist, and offers up these works as "activators" of awareness and communication.

Working professionally as an artist and educator for over 20 years, Cook-Contreras has presented workshops and lectures in the US, Mexico, and abroad at such venues as Mexico's El Chopo Museum, The San Francisco Art Institute; the World Wide Video Festival, Holland; the Institute for Studies in Technology and the Arts, Mexico; and NYU's Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Mexico. She has developed bilingual art pieces, which have been exhibited both in Mexico and the United States. As a cultural worker she encourages students to develop a global and cross-cultural awareness in relationship to art, utilizing a keen observation of the self and the systems in which we live. In keeping with this approach, she is currently developing course materials on Art for Social Change, utilizing video documentation recorded as part of a California State University Research Grant. The long-term project, entitled Arte de Accion, investigates artists working in response to political and social issues.

Beyond her academic and art making activities, she has 18 years experience as a professional videographer, editor and producer, working primarily on educational documentaries. During 2006 and 2007 she helped to create feature length film regarding a group of indigenous activists called The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. documenting their work over the two years, in India, Mexico, and the United States.

Hometown

Atlanta

Country

United States

Occupation

Artist, Filmaker, Educator, Ceremonialist

Interests

Human Rights Work, Spirtual Path

less

Featured Playlists

10 videos Play all(10) Uploaded videos by Arte de Accion Film