A Common Collective: Controlled Burn

Rodman Art Institute of Niagara

A Common Collective, Controlled Burn (video still), 2022

Controlled Burn
A Common Collective – Simon Brothers, Jeremy Cox, Nick Kuepfer and Luke Mistruzzi

January 29 – March 31, 2026
Artist Talk & Opening Reception: Thursday, January 29, 2026, 7 – 9pm
Rodman Art Institute of Niagara, St. Catharines

Urban development and the changing nature of farming in Canda has resulted in small-scale farms closing or being absorbed by larger more commercial farms. These large scale operations demand larger areas of land and less need for traditional barn structures. While many long standing barns are destroyed using heavy machinery, there is also a practice of demolishing these buildings through the method of burning. Today, these barn burnings are also conducted for research purposes.

In Canada with much of our agricultural land nestled within massive tracts of boreal forest, the pressure of wildfires adds additional meaning and relevance to this work.

A Common Collective, Controlled Burn (video still), 2022

Controlled Burn is a site-adaptive video and sound installation that documents a barn burning that took place in Listowel, Ontario in 2018. A 3-channel video is projection mapped onto a model of the barn suspended from the ceiling. A single-channel video is projected through the barn and onto a netted screen creating a multi-dimensional layered experience. Using video and sound captured during the barn burning, Common Collective has created an immersive space that documents a specific event, but touches on larger agricultural discussions of the changing rural landscape, and the challenges and stories of rural agricultural communities across Canada and the world.

A Common Collective, Controlled Burn (video still), 2022

A Common Collective is a network of audio/visual artists residing in Stratford, Hamilton, and Montreal. Collective members Simon Brothers, Jeremy Cox, Nick Kuepfer and Luke Mistruzzi work collaboratively to design and build multimedia, multi-sensory environments combining analog and digital technologies. With a passion for visual story-telling they share a particular interest in documenting and commenting on human interaction with the local and natural environment. Multidisciplinary in their approach, completed installations employ a variety of animation, original film and photography, prop-building and set design, as well as integrated and interactive sound and video. A Common Collective has exhibited extensively in public galleries across Canada and as invited participants in select film and media festivals in Europe. Controlled Burn was first exhibited at the Woodstock Art Gallery during the spring of 2022.

Rodman Art Institute of Niagara (RAiN) is a public art gallery dedicated to the public’s appreciation and understanding of the visual arts.

For information and media inquiries, contact:
Angela Brayham, Director / Curator
abrayham@rodmanart.ca

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