Erik Martinson

Erik Martinson (Canada/Latvia) is an independent curator and writer. Current research threads include: Speculative fiction(ing), genre conventions (and their subversion) as productive restraints (with focus on Science-Fiction, New Weird, Horror, and Folk-Horror), example: screening ‘Not really now not any more’, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, 2019; plant sentience, empathy, interspecies relations, examples: ‘All Flesh is Grass’ exhibition project/online LARP-RPG with public programme, Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, 2020, online/mail art project ‘Suggested for You’ with Sandra Kosorotova, part of History of Joy, Part 4, 2021; Stone Tape Theory – ghosts as recordings/traces in physical objects, forensic as well as supernatural approaches, examples: screening ‘Like slow breathing, it seemed to emanate from inside the walls’ at LUX, London, 2016, ‘Stone Tapes’ exhibition/publication project in development; Remote Viewing/Astral Projection as metaphor for exploring diasporic experiences, examples: screening ‘Tell me about the ones who sleep through storms: Films and Videos from the Baltics’ at Toronto International Film Festival’s Wavelengths Series, 2017, exhibition ‘The Surface of the Sun’ at Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM), Tallinn, 2018, screening/live-reading ‘There was a Forest in the Ceiling’ at Rupert, Vilnius, 2019; and Language-as-a-virus, examples: screening series ‘Its origins are indeterminate’ at Whitechapel Gallery/Close-Up, London, 2018, screening/performance/live-reading ‘Self Does Not Understand’ at Cubitt, London, 2019.

www.erik-martinson.com