Andrew James Paterson is an interdisciplinary artist based in Toronto. Over a period of thirty years, he has worked with video, film, performance, writing, and music. He is best known for his video art. This body of work can be divided into three distinct strains.

The bulk of Paterson’s videotapes or media-works over the past decade have utilized original and manipulated still-images frequently resembling colour-field abstract paintings. Several of these tapes, including Damned and Forgiven (2007) and The Enigma of S.A.P. (2008), contain sections of single-frame or “flicker” editing.

A contrasting strain throughout Paterson’s work is that of black and white Super-8 film transferred to video, with minimal if any processing. These works, including The Walking Philosopher (1999-2001) and D.O.A/Remake/Remodel (2005), are shot by Paterson while walking behind the camera.

The third strain of Paterson’s body of work is concerned with language and structure. His tape 12 x 26 (2008) is blatantly structuralist it announces its formal intentions and then executes them . Language has shifted from voice to image. Similarly, A Typical Morning for Green and Blue (2009) contrasts abstract interiors with printed dialogue. These poems and/or dialogues are bordered by pictures. Also, music is central to all of Paterson’s media works it is implied even when inaudible.

Paterson’s work has tended to focus on schisms between private and public realms, and on tensions between bodies and technologies. Ambivalence concerning bureaucracy has also been a consistent trope. Some of Paterson’s work feature himself as performer while, particularly in recent work, his performative impulses have often been displaced into his editing.

Paterson’s tapes have been programmed widely in both festival and gallery venues throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. He has also written extensively on media-arts and cultural politics, and has edited publications for YYZ Books in Toronto. Paterson has also collaged segments of his media-works with live monologues as a performance-piece, titled Mono Logical.

Artist Code: 127