Dr Verina Gfaderv.m.gfader@hud.ac.uk | 01484 473532
Verina Gfader is an artist and researcher whose work is organized around questions of what strategies and interventions one takes in relation to everyday systems, subsumed in narratives of agency and activism. Her practice involves models, drawing, animation, fictional institutions, and text material with a focus on printed matter in between unregulated and sophisticated presentation.
Postdoctoral research, after studies in visual media, photography and fine arts (PhD Central Saint Martins), includes a research residency at Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) to explore the structural coherence between non-commercial Japanese animation and geographical, institutional and social ideas. Her current fellowship at the School of Art, Design and Architecture, develops from a publishing practice, which is connected to the political in art—text and alliance, the immediate architecture of text, and the modalities and nature of knowledge in art.
My artistic research (practice/theory) takes account of two subjects: the first is the incorporation of animation within fine arts; more particularly, my actual postdoctoral studies concern the structural coherence between a single cultural expression, in this case Japanese animation, and geographical, institutional and social ideas. By exploring the ways animation maintains its ambiguous status (of film, drawing, concept, vocabulary) and how it suggests a peculiar relation to the ‘minor,’ the studies attempt to trace its multiple image and reveal the potential of animation theory to contribute to new forms of knowledge that grasp current art movements and discourse, locally and globally.
The second develops from a publishing practice, which is tightly connected to the following interests: a) the political in art (possibilities for collective imagination but also, as Peter Osborne (2007) declares, that collectivity itself is fictional); b) the immediate architecture of text (corrections, editorial practice, design, marginalia); c) the question of in what way knowledge in art is by necessity accumulative and a plural voice (status of “not-knowing”). These three interrelated fields of exploration highlight a relationship to current production machines, understood as dispersed structures, not easily to be grasped in a totality, impossible to categorize and historisize. As such there appears an implicit complex relationship to histories and the historical. In turn, this dynamic leads back to a previous and longterm investigation of “minor histories” which can here be traced precisely in the very heart of economical power/capacity/potential.
The current fellowship involves a series of exilic writings. One could argue that the fellowship is grounded in assuming a position in exile, exile meaning both being detached, excluded, and simultaneously privileged (a place to be creative). This is bound with the question for the artist in exile: How to work with this position—make work—in order to break established structures. T.J. Demos (2009): “Far more radical is to universalize exile as the condition of being human, and to determine a politics of equality on that basis. It may currently be unlikely to conceive of this eventuality in today’s political environment. But perhaps this is exactly where artistic practice may assume its most radical role: to imagine alternatives otherwise impossible to contemplate, unleashing an imagination that maybe produce effects in turn.”
The hypothesis of All Practice is Text underlies my investigation.
Gfader, V (2012) ‘Afterword: on the questions’ Radar , 1 (3), p. 30. ISSN 2049-4327
Gfader, V (2012) ‘radar3 asks invited contributors:’ Radar , 1 (3), p. 3. ISSN 2049-4327
Gfader, V. and Chapman, N. (2012) "Strategies of Delegation: THE SURFACE | THE PROJECT" . London, UK: scenesadventures . ISBN 0-9544901-3-4
Gfader, V. and Garcia, M. (2011) ‘OrNamenTTokYo’. In: OrNamenTTokYo, 6, 11, 12 November 2011, Tokyo, Japan
Gfader, V (2011) ‘The Age of the Antimodern ’. In: Group Affinity Summer school, Exhibition, Publication, 01-August-2011 to 14-August-2011, Munich, Germany and Casco, Utrecht
Gfader, V (2011) ‘Tranquil hills fragile apparatus: Landscape film, migrational subjects, and diagrams of power’. In: The Art Theatre Guild of Japan: Spaces for Intercultural and Intermedial Cinema Symposium, 30th-31st July 2011, Birkbeck College, University of London
Tanaka, A., Eiblmayr, S. and Gfader, V. (2011) ‘Hommage à Atsuko Tanaka ’. In: Hommage à Atsuko Tanaka talk and discussion, Thursday 14 April 2011, E:ventGallery, 96 Teesdale Street, London E2 6PU
Gfader, V (2011) ‘Subanimation: Verina Gfader in Conversation with Takehito Deguchi and Koji Yamamura’ Animation , 6 (1), pp. 55-71. ISSN 1746-8477
Gfader, V (2011) ‘Imaginary Agents—Flowers and the Common: essay on BCL Shiho Fukuhara and Georg Tremmel’. In: Coded Cultures. New York, USA: Springer. . ISBN 978-3-7091-0457-6
Gfader, V (2011) ADVENTURE-LANDING a compendium of animation . Berlin, Germany: Revolver . ISBN 978-3-86895-034-2
Gfader, V (2010) ‘Garden lecture ’. In: Visual Thinking 01:Kate Davis and the Subjectivity and Feminisms research group, 11 January 2009 - 07 March 2010, Camden, UK
Gfader, V (2010) ‘DIY and more, interview with Christiane Erharter, Vienna 2008’. In: A Brief History of Working with New Media Art: Conversations with Artists. Berlin, Germany: The Green Box. pp. 155-162. ISBN 9783941644212
Cook, S., Gfader, V., Graham , B. and Lapp, A. (2010) A Brief History of Curating New Media Art: Conversations with Curators . Berlin, Germany: The Green Box . ISBN 9783941644205
Cook, S., Gfader, V., Graham , B. and Lapp, A. (2010) A Brief History of Working with New Media Art: Conversations with Artists . Berlin, Germany: The Green Box . ISBN 9783941644212
Gfader, V (2010) ‘Locating East Tokyo, interview with Miki Fukuda, Tokyo 2009’. In: A Brief History of Working with New Media Art: Conversations with Artists. Berlin, Germany: The Green Box. pp. 207-212. ISBN 9783941644212
Gfader, V (2010) ‘White Columns, interview with Matthew Higgs, New York 2008’. In: A Brief History of Curating New Media Art: Conversations with Curators. Berlin, Germany: The Green Box. pp. 155-167. ISBN 9783941644205
Gfader, V (2010) ‘Residency Modes, Nathalie Anglès & Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria, New York 2008’. In: A Brief History of Curating New Media Art: Conversations with Curators. Berlin, Germany: The Green Box. pp. 139-153. ISBN 9783941644205
Oppenheim, D., Reynolds , L., Tait, M., Lewis, M. and Gfader, V. (2009) ‘film< >juxtapositions ’. In: film< >juxtapositions screening event, Saturday 12th December 2009, The Gate, 87 Notting Hill Gate, London
Plender, O., Orn, U. and Gfader, V. (2009) ‘DREAM READINGS between OLIVIA PLENDER and UNNAR ORN ’. In: DREAM READINGS between OLIVIA PLENDER and UNNAR ORN, Wednesday 4th November 2009, E:ventGallery, 96 Teesdale Street, London E2 6PU
Kerbel, J., Maclennan, R. and Gfader, V. (2009) ‘RESIDUAL versus EXCESS ’. In: RESIDUAL versus EXCESS is a discussion/exchange of thoughts/conversation with artists Janice Kerbel and Ruth Maclennan, Friday 27th November 2009, E:ventGallery, 96 Teesdale Street, London E2 6PU
Gfader, V. and Garcia, M. (2009) ‘an InviTe For mAking OrnAmentS ’. In: an InviTe For mAking OrnAmentS is a workshop, an intervention, a picnic, and a video, Friday 9th October 2009, Serpentine Pavilion (2009), Hyde Park, LONDON
Gfader, V (2009) Jon Garlick's The Imagined Archive [Artefact]
Donlon, C. and Gfader, V. (2009) ‘In Conjunction with ’. In: In Conjunction with is a book-project in collaboration with Conor Donlon, Friday 1st May 2009, Bookshelf, (temporary installation), E:ventGallery 96 Teesdale Street, London E2 6PU
Gfader, V (2009) ‘Micro projects and by-products’. In: Portraits of Transculturalism Symposium, 4th-7th May 2009, Kasa Galeri Sabanc? University Istanbul, Turkey
Gfader, V (2009) ‘I prefer not to use predictable paths ’. In: Coded Cultures - Exploring Creative Emergencies Symposium, 27th-31st May 2009, Vienna, Austria
Billing, J. and Gfader, V. (2009) ‘Another Album’. In: Another Album – a one-evening video installation, Friday 20th March 2009, E:ventGallery, 96 Teesdale Street, London E2 6PU
Graham, B. and Gfader, V. (2008) ‘Curator as editor, translator or god? Edited CRUMB discussion list ’ Vague Terrain .
Gfader, V (2008) ‘Nervous Light Planes ’ Animation , 3 (2), pp. 147-167. ISSN 1746-8477
Gfader, V. and Grizzar, P. (2008) ‘Interactivos?: Better Than the Real Thing ’. In: .Interactivos?@Eyebeam: Double Take Workshop and Exhibition, 12th July-9th August 2008, Eyebeam Art & Technology Center, New York, USA
Lally, C. and Gfader, V. (2008) ‘Condensation revisited - A Lecture on Pigments:3 ’. In: Proceedings of ISEA 2008: The 14th International Symposium on Electronic Art. Singapore: International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA). pp. 285-287.
Lally, C., Burrows, D., Weinmayr, E., Chapman, N. and Gfader, V. (2008) ‘Surprise’. In: Surprise: film screening, Saturday 21st June 2008, E:ventGallery, 96 Teesdale Street, London E2 6PU
Gfader, V. and Lally, C. (2008) ‘CØDEshop’. In: CØDEshop, a series of workshops and interventions, 2008, E:ventGallery London, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, V2_Institute for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam
Gfader, V. and Lally, C. (2008) ‘4 East End Occupations’. In: 4 East End Occupations project, 2008,
Gfader, V () ‘The Real Radical? Antonio Negri interviewed by Verina Gfader’. In: EP: The Italian Avant-Garde: 1968–1976 . Berlin: Sternberg Press. pp. 200-219. ISBN 978-3-943365-49-8
Associate Member, Research group Subjectivity and Feminisms, Chelsea College of Art & Design, London
2013: Residency at Sternberg Press, Berlin
2009: Grant by The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation for postdoctoral research, residency at Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo and Yokohama
2007: ‘Reference Check’ co-production lab, artist residency with Colm Lally, Banff New Media Institute, Canada. Advisors: Andreas Broeckman, Anne Galloway, Sarat Maharaj
2001–03: AHRC award for PhD Studies, Central Saint Martins, London
1996: Photography Residency London, Federal Ministry for the Arts, Vienna
1996: Research Grant, Federal Ministry for Science and Culture, Vienna
