Myfanwy Ashmore

Myfanwy Ashmore
Born
North York, Ontario, Canada
Alma materEmily Carr University of Art and Design Ontario College of Art & Design York University
Notable workSoma/Somo Project, Mario Battle No.1

Myfanwy Ashmore is a Canadian artist known for her game-related art. She works across digital and new media formats.

Education

Ashmore studied at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1990, moving to the Ontario College of Art & Design's Sculpture/Installation where she graduated in 1996. She received her MFA from York University in 1998.

Career

Ashmore is primarily known for her software-related art.[1] She has exhibited alongside Yoko Ono, Sol LeWitt, Liam Gillick, Robert Gober, George Brecht, lo-bat, COVOX, Mark Hosler of negativland, Norman White and others.[2]

Her 2000 soma/somo project, a series of networked decaying grapefruits, was publicly criticized in the Canadian Parliament by Inky Mark, heritage critic of the Reform Party. Mark argued that the public money spent by the Canada Council for the Arts on this and other artistic projects was misspent.[3]

Her 2000 software art work entitled Mario Battle no.1 has been one of her most recognized and widely exhibited works. This program and two subsequent works Mario Doing Time and Mario is Drowning (both 2004), are based on Super Mario Bros..[4] The series plays on typical "rescue the princess" themes,[5] Mario Battle no.1 was distributed by Year01.com and runme.org, initially by ROM and emulator on floppies across North America, and later online.[2] It has been compared with Cory Arcangel's Super Mario Clouds as an example of games as art object,[6] and "reduction and abstraction of the source material".[7] The series, appeared in a 2006 exhibition at InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, as well as in public screenings of a one-minute video of Mario Battle no.1 in Dundas Square as part of Year Zero One's TRANSMEDIA :29:59 festival.[8] It was later exhibited in 2012 at the Platform Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts in Winnipeg.[1]

In 2004, Ashmore was part of the exhibition 0.001 Percent Volume, curated by Dave Dyment at Mercer Union in Toronto.[9]

Her work was included in Episode 4 of Lorna Mills' Ways of Something (2014-2015).[10]

Teaching

Ashmore has taught New Media in the Image Arts Program at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) in Toronto.

Awards

Ashmore has received numerous grants as well as awards from various councils and artist-run centres.[citation needed] She was nominated and short listed for the prestigious 2003 K.M. Hunter award through the Ontario Arts Council.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Hansen, Leah (21 June 2012). "Reset: post-consumer gamer culture". The Manitoban. Archived from the original on 24 March 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Alistair Wallis (April 2, 2006). "Myfanwy Ashmore Interview". Little Mathletics. Archived from the original on April 25, 2006.
  3. ^ Ljunggren, David (24 February 2000). "AN ART APART". chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  4. ^ Sharp, John (2015-03-06). Works of Game: On the Aesthetics of Games and Art. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-02907-0.
  5. ^ Nora Young (February 22, 2006). "Myfanwy Ashmore interview". CBC Radio One / The Arts Tonight.
  6. ^ Bogost, Ian (2011). How to Do Things with Videogames. U of Minnesota Press. p. 42. ISBN 9781452933122. ashmore.
  7. ^ Fuchs, Michael; Thoss, Jeff (2019). Intermedia Games—Games Inter Media: Video Games and Intermediality. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9781501330506.
  8. ^ Micallef, Shaun (12 March 2006). "A reason to linger in Dundas Square again..." Spacing Toronto. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  9. ^ Dave Dyment. "Mercer Union | 0.001 PERCENT VOLUME". Archived from the original on 30 April 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  10. ^ Iles, Chrissie (2016). Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300221879.