{{ Infobox artist | name = Emit Snake-Beings | image = Karen Karnak.jpg | imagesize = 250px | caption = Snake Beings | birthname = none | birthdate = 13 December 1967 | nationality = British, became a New Zealand citizen in 2001 | field = Sculpture, Film, Intermedia, Filmmaking, Visual arts, [[Sound art] | training = }}
Emit Snake-Beings (born 13 December 1967) is a New Zealand multi-media visual artist and Sound artist who works in Kinetic art Sacred art [1] sculpture, noise music,[2] and Underground filmand is currently residing in Auckland, New Zealand.
Biography
editEarly life
editBorn in the Royal Free hospital in Islington, London Emit was moved by his parents to the new town of Welwyn Garden City where he grew up under the combined influences of the cold war and social engineering, which was immanent in the excessive structures of town planning. At the age of 18, after studying at Hertfordshire school of art and design he moved to London to persue a career in art, where he Lived and worked in the ecconomically depressed Hackney, London between the years 1987 and 1998. During this time he encounted diverse influences, including underground film,[3] Santaria, Anarchism, squatting, outsider art, art collectives[4] installations using found material,[5] and site-specific installation art. All of which was going on in the relative obscurity of one of the poorest areas of london. In 1998 Emit moved to Hamilton, New Zealand, continuing to work with multi-media projects including street theatre and the organisation of a 13 piece Free improvisation orchestra called The Kaosphere orchestra. In 2006 he founded the Hamilton Underground Film Festival and created
Karen Karnak an invented multiple-use name nom-de-plumeunder which multiple filmmakers could participate.
Films
editElectrical Shrines
editBetween the years 1991 and 2001 Emit Snake-Beings created over 30 coin-operated electrical shrines, reflecting a combination of technology and religious deities within a polytheist system. The shrines were made as a series of free standing works and commissioned pieces and ranged from 4cm X 4cm to over 2 Meters in height.
The Shrine to Nikola Tesla, created in 1995 includes the folowing text:
"Nikola Tesla, the inventor of A.C. Electrickery, and early pioneer of Radio, is placed among the more traditional and pre-electronic saints who like Tesla had experienced a great flash of (electrical) light.
The selector switch allows the operator to tune the shrine to the most distant transmissions, the origin of which are in constant dispute between scientists, artists and theologists. Available now for the average person in the street to decide for themselves.
Patent # 76399873-150 Made in E8. '95" The piece was displayed in the tattooist shop 'Sacred Art'[6] London N16 for several years-
Titles included:
- Sacrificial Shrine #1 1991
- Nine Postal Shrines 1993
- Shrine to all Saints 1994
- Portable Sanctuary to San Jose 1995
- Nikola Tesla Shrine 1995
- Shrine to Santa Arson 1996
- Sacrificial Shrine #5 1997
- Basilica of the Tattooist 1998
- NTRA SNRA de las Bombillas 1998
- Electronic Reliquaries 1998
- Relics of the Saints 1993-1998
- Hand of Time 1998
- Random Divinity Selector 1998
- Mechanical Divination Machine 1998
- Eye of God Device 1998
- Alternating Current Altar 1998
- Personalised Shrine For Karlota 1998
- Tattooist's Spirit Box 1998
- Alchemical Kali Device 1999
- Shrine to the Dead Light Bulb 1999
- Shrine to Karl Jung, Dr Faustus and Kali 1999
- Spirit Box 1999
- Mechanism for the Transubstanciation of Light Bulbs 2000
- Relic Alter 2000
- Light Bulb Shrines 2000
- Electric Totem pole Two (Burnt Clock)2001
- Electric Totem pole One (Light Bulbs)2001
- Monolith One (Standing Clock)2001
- Monolith Two (Burnt Fish Bone)2001
- Monolith Three (Cabalistic Speaker Cab) 2001
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ see illustrated Log (New Zealand) volume 10 "http://www.physicsroom.org.nz/log/archive/10/"
- ^ Audio Foundation New Zealand "http://audiofoundation.org.nz/artist/snakebeings"
- ^ "http://www.explodingcinema.org/" Exploding Cinema Collective
- ^ in the form of the group work of Lennie Lee trevor knaggs and the ARC group
- ^ such as influenced by Kurt Schwitters
- ^ Sacred arts tatoo Stolenewinton London "http://www.sacredskulls.co.uk/sacredart/¨"