Sheila Bernard
Biography
Sheila Bernard (born 1981) is a French contemporary video artist whose artistic expression depends upon electronics, sound engineering, technology and mass media
Her works focus on the ideas behind human experiences such as love, birth, death and psychological aspects like consciousness or mind control.
Sheila grew up in the Paris suburbs. Her interest in video art began when her parents took her to see films and her first experiments with analog and digital cameras began in 1997.
In 2003 S. Bernard graduated from the Paris University with a BFA in experimental studies.
She also studied in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, including the Mind Reset experimental program, which evolved into Mind TV.
Bernard’s art deals largely with the central themes of consciousness, experience, emotion, and a kind of humanist spirituality. Throughout her career she has drawn meaning and inspiration from his deep interest in mystical traditions, often evident in the transcendental quality of some of her works.
An ongoing theme that she also constantly explores is mind control and media vampirism, For example, a lot of her work has themes such as light and dark, brain washing and media murders.
Her work has both conceptual and visual elements. According to art critic Jules Rom of the National Review, Bernard’s visual work such as “TV Vamp” (see below), is impressive and memorable.
Bernard’s work often exhibits a Cronenberg influence, her use of ultra-slow motion video encouraging the viewer to sink into the image and connect deeply to the meanings contained within it. This quality makes hes work perhaps unusually accessible within a contemporary art context.
Bernard’s work has received critical accolades. Critic Alice Duhamel singles her out for praise. Writing at length about the necessity of poetic works responding to and taking advantage of contemporary computer technologies, Duhamel sees Sheila as an example of how the video camera can create entirely new aesthetic criteria and possibilities that did not exist before.
