Paul Catanese, Hybrid Media Artist

CENTURY OF PROGRESS / SLEEP
2017 - Present | Cross-Disciplinary Opera
Century of Progress / Sleep is a cross-disciplinary opera for voice, electronics, musical saw, sea drum, ship's bell, tuning fork, and live-cinema scenography.
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VISIBLE FROM SPACE
2009 - Present | Open Series
Visible From Space is the name of a thought experiment. It is an open series that exists in multiple materials – video, relief prints, installation, projection, handmade paper, artist’s books, found objects, field notes, interviews, essays, and site specific events. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
OBSERVATORIES OF UNCHARTED VITREOUS
2011 | Installation
Observatories of Uncharted Vitreous was installed at the Robert & Elaine Stein Galleries at Wright State University from October 2011 through January 2012 within a retrospective of my work from the past ten years entitled Relics and Constellations: The Hybrid Work of Paul Catanese curated by Tess Cortés. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
OCEAN RODEO RODS CONES
2009 | Digital Print
Ocean Rodeo Rods Cones was created as part of a special commission by Pheobe – a journal of literature and art at George Mason University, which has been publishing original works since 1971
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FORGOTTEN CONSTELLATIONS
2008 | Installation
Forgotten Constellations was installed at the 1708 Gallery in Richmond, Virginia for a month-long exhibition in May 2008. Projection, silhouette and illumination transform the gallery; this installation functions as the site of excavation where viewers are invited to become historians, geologists and mapmakers. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
AQUIFERS
2008 | Digital Relief Printmaking Series
Aquifers is a digital relief printmaking series that emerged from initial studies for the Forgotten Constellations installation. The images were drawn with software derived from the Celestial Workshops codebase, the plates carved on a CNC mill and printed on a Vandercook Letterpress at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
TOWARDS A VAST RESERVOIR OF COMETS...
2008 | Installation
Towards a vast reservoir of comets... was installed for a month-long exhibition in the Jack Olson Gallery at the Northern Illinois University School of Art in January/February of 2008. A week-long artist's visit and gallery talk coincided with the installation. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
CELESTIAL WORKSHOPS 001-004
2007 | Digital Relief Printmaking Series
Celestial Workshops is a major, expanding series of images that describe imaginary constellations initially inspired by translucent objects suspended in the fluid within my eyes. These first four prints in the series were completed during a residency in Peoria, Illinois at the Prairie Center of the Arts in collaboration with Master Etcher and Printer Oscar J. Gillespie at the Cradle Oak Press of Bradley University. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
HUNTING PRAYERS
2006 | Installation
The Hunting Prayers installation was first exhibited during a week-long residency at Washington State University in March of 2006. Objects and images from my existing collections (such as teeth, eyes & hooks) along with items found during searching and hunting expiditions in the local vicinity, were incorporated into this installation that makes use of projection and illumination, silhouette and translucency. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
NEW PRAYER FOR ST. ANTHONY
2006 | Edition Variée of 10
New Prayer for St. Anthony was created in collaboration with Barbara Foster's Advanced Printmaking Class at SFSU in the Spring of 2006. This 16 x 21" Edition Variée combines several processes including lithography, woodblock, gold stenciling and wet-in-wet watercolor. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
MISPLACED RELIQUARY
2005 | Online, Browser-Based Artwork. Also exists as Physical Installation with Gameboy Advance (GBA), Handmade Book.
Commissioned in 2004 by Rhizome.org, Misplaced Reliquary is a handheld curiosity cabinet containing relics collected by an eccentric curator. The relics are contained within a virtual repository taking the form of a GBA ROM that can be "played" online and/or downloaded to any GBA (with the correct transfer hardware). An artist's edition of five game cartridges has also been created. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
COLLECTIVE GEOLOGY OF THE ERASED SPACE
2004 | Online, Browser-Based Artwork
Collective Geology of the Erased Space is a 2004 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
MEDICINAL CRAFT OF CEPHALOPODS
RECOLLECTIONS OF A SOMNAMBULIST
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BEZOAR STONE
2004 | Digital Cornell Boxes for Gameboy Advance
In completion of a residency awarded through the 2004 artist fellowship program at the Kala Art Institute, I created three digital Cornell boxes for the Gameboy Advance: Medicinal Craft of Cephalopods, Recollections of a Somnambulist and A Short History of the Bezoar Stone. Each of these pieces exist separately although they are often installed together as they are formally and conceptually complimentary to one another. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
SUPER ICHTHYOLOGIST ADVANCE
2003 | Three-Channel Gameboy Advance Installation
Super Ichthyologist Advance is inspired by the "gotta catch them all!" mantra which fuels the fanaticism of capturing Pokemon. In this installation of flexible dimensions, I have converted Nintendo's Gameboy Advance handheld system into a virtual repository for show quality Koi. The fish are trapped within the devices: a much smaller tank, but more effective method for distributing ownership of these regal animals. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
INVISIBLE MAPS
2001 | Online, Browser-Based Artwork
Invisible Maps is a web-based interactive work which explores threads of narrative: how the choices we make when traveling are akin to letters, words and sentences. With every gesture we write novels; every stroll fills volumes of encyclopedia. Invisible Maps examines those unknowable relationships; invisible realities that linger in the atmosphere with the smell of electricity. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
COME HITHER
2000 | Single-Channel Video Installation with Cibachrome
Come Hither is a multimedia installation which utilizes video, proximity sensors and "blurred" voices to lure viewers closer to a small 3" screen. The work is coupled with a large 56x48" Cibachrome close up of an octopus tentacle that illustrates the flesh of the creature in repulsive detail. The overall effect is one which attracts the viewer to the video but which requires them to move closer toward the portrait of the looming cephalopod. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
FISH HISTORIES
2000 | Online, Browser-Based Artwork
Fish Histories explores the space of the browser as a form of book narrative. Its photography and text are bound and glued with programming and experienced via the internet. Viewing is intended as an intimate moment, similar to the immediacy of interaction with a Chinese scroll painting. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }
TWO MINUTES ON A SUBWAY TRAIN
1999 | Animation: Hand-Drawn, 3D and Video
Two Minutes on a Subway Train was created by combining hand-drawn animation, video and 3D animation in order to create a visual field that was unlike the signature of any of the three individually. Viewers watch as the journey of a man unfolds, but they watch this journey through the projection of his psychology onto the physical realm. { VIEW THIS PROJECT }