Robert Ladislas Derr · Area Coordinator · Assistant Professor
Photography
- (614) 292-9685
- Haskett Hall 403 B
Robert Ladislas Derr uses photography, video, performance, and installation as he puts himself literally in the center of a barrage of questions about life and making art. He has exhibited and performed worldwide at such venues as the Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt, Germany), LIVE Performance Art Biennale (Vancouver, BC, Canada), Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH), Athens Video Art Festival (Athens, Greece), Photographic Resource Center (Boston, MA), American Academy in Rome (Rome, Italy), Independent Museum of Contemporary Art (Limassol, Cyprus), Irish Film Institute (Dublin, Ireland), Art Interactive (Cambridge, MA), DiVA Festival (New York, NY), and Jack the Pelican Presents (Brooklyn, NY).
Derr's work has been featured in ASPECT: The Chronicle of New Media Art, with commentary by Bill Arning, who finds Derr's Chance suggestive of those who studied with John Cage stating, "that sort of chance based response seems very much at play in Derr's work," appeared in the New York Times in which William Zimmer stated, his "piece is reminiscent of the performance artist Chris Burden," Art Papers, and for trAce, Susan Sakash wrote his, "video/performance pieces often echo the preoccupations of conceptual artists such as Vito Acconci and Lucas Samaras." Lectures on his work and allied topics range from the Victoria Independent Film & Video Festival, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has received awards for his work from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Ohio Arts Council, among others, and for his pedagogical research, two grants from Battelle Endowment for Technology and Human Affairs. Derr holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and while studying at RISD, he interned for the Rhode Island Senate and Museum of Modern Art.
Visit Robert Ladislas Derr's webpage
Robert Ladislas Derr's Gallery
Union | Void | Concrete | Self | Intellect | Discipline |
This Union Must and Shall be Preserved
This Union Must and Shall be Preserved is a two-channel video and photographic installation of my tracing of Jackson Square in New Orleans's French Quarter. Walking through the frenzy of tourism as I keep the statue of Andrew Jackson within sight, I think about his poignant statement carved on the base of his statue, "this union must and shall be preserved" and wonder: Are Americans preserving or consuming the union? The physical structure of the square combined with the pedestrians and tourists, who are my observers and alternatively being observed make for an interesting document. The arrhythmia created by my footsteps animates the lifeless statue as it dances around on the screen. Usually lost in a sea of tourism, the banal artifact of history finds a voice in my video. Expressively, the large pixilated photograph of Andrew Jackson hangs between the two videos as a static reminder that it is the symbol of focus. Pixilating the photograph highlights tourism's deprivation of historical truth.