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Genesis Trial: Johannesburg
2008

Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia
Working Artist Project Grant 2007 - 2008

As Genesis Trial extended in a series of global experiences, the artist focused on the larger, universal aspects of the multiplicity of "modern" centers and the how time, space and place reveal themselves in an infinite complexity of layers; later dissolved in the new mythologies of the migrant condition.

Genesis Trial: Johannesburg emphasized the journey to global citizenry and psychogeography in relationship to personal interactions in Johannesburg, South Africa. Considering the broader context of locational identity, the expressions of Italo Calvino's Invisibile Cities, Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle and architect Yona Freidman's Spatial City, framed a balance of direct and abstract interpretations of personal mobility and the postmodern social implications.

The exhibition presented a wide range of media installations in direct conversation with one another regarding the complexity of social conditions.

Roney was a recipient of the Working Artist Project Grant awarded by the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia made possible through funding by the Loridans Foundation.

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eGoli, 2008
Three channel digital video, 3 dimensional animation, soundtrack, custom screens
8'00" looped
dimensions variable

A journey through the mythical city of eGoli, City of Gold, as Johannesburg was once known as, with architectural references of fractal geometry intrinsic throughout African culture. eGoli presents an interpretation of urban and organic forms, providing an allegorical vision, as part of an infinite variety of virtual conclusions.
Urban Land Cruisers, 2008

1980 Toyota Land Cruiser, light
Soundtrack: South African radio channels in 7 indigenous tribal languages
15'22"

Contemporary migrations through the physical vehicle, as well as across the virtual airwaves, mask the history of invasions and coexistence as it cyclically decays and is reinvented.
Westcliff Hotel, Johannesburg: July 17, 2007

Digital video, hotel floorplan, tape,
4'20"
Dimensions variable

Focused on the temporality of migration, ownership of space and class structures associated with tourism. Spatial politics looked at the purchasing of time within an unfamiliar space versus the ownership associated with daily familiarity, which ultimately provided an uncomfortable intersection of shared intimacy and confinement.
Fluid Architecture: Johannesburg 02, 2008
Duratran print, lightbox
26"w x 46"h x 5"d