[-empyre-] hello

["Juan delGado" <juan.d@virgin.net>]

Hello/Hola !!

My name is Juan delGado; I'm a Visual Artist/Filmmaker based in London.
Following is a [limited] description of my interests and myself  :o)
"Working in photography and video installation, Juan delGado's work refers
to social and cultural representations of sexuality, gender, and disability
in the Western society. Born in Spain, in 1965, delGado studied art in
Valencia (Spain) and a MA in Contemporary Media at the University of
Westminster.

In his work delGado uses photography to explore how our [Western] culture
has
historically established a binary system of categorisation of gender, male
and female. In "Transformers", 1995, he photographed people who 'transgress
norms of appearance and behaviour' in order to challenge our perceptions of
gender representation.

In 1997, delGado began to experiment with film. Artists such as Isaac
Julien, Shirin Neshat, and Jean Genet are of great influence in his work.
He directed the experimental film "The Passion of Teresa" in which develops
his own style in a clear homage to the surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel
focusing the tradition of representation of religious images in Spain. The
film was selected at the 3rd Disability Film Festival,London, and Portobello
Film Festival 2001.

He also worked on "The Wounded Image", a photographic project in which he
explores the tension between representation of reality and fictional
narrative in contemporary photographic practice. By addressing one of what
he thinks it has become a myth of our era, the fascination with violence, he
attempts to raise questions of how we relate to issues such as trauma,
homophobia, misogyny, and child abuse. This work was selected at the John
Kobal Photographic Portraiture Awards in 1997 and has been exhibited at the
Galeria Luis Adelantado, Spain, and Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland.

In 2001, Juan directed an experimental film/video installation entitled
"Don't Look Under the Bed" exploring the subject of queer desire and social
control. The film will be broadcasted in Channel 4 and was screened at the
Lux Cinema, London on September 2001. He's planning a new project "From Void
to the Body" focusing on suicide and a film installation on the so-called
'illegal' immigration."  Joe McConnell

Good to know about you ;o) and keen to see how it develops.

Juan