Bodhi Life: A Transgender New Media Artist's Digital Memoir

    FORT COLLINS, CO, August 06, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Bodhi Life: A Transgender New Media Artist's Digital Memoir is a world premiere exhibition by Ethan Bach, who has identified as Transgender for almost twenty years. Bach began documenting his life as young as eight years old through writings, photographs, film/video, and art. The Bodhi Life premieres August 12th worldwide at http://www.bodhi-life.gallery and will be performed live August 12th and 13th, 11am to 9pm at RedLine Gallery located at 2350 Arapahoe St, Denver, CO as part of the show entitled, 48 Hours: An Exhibition of Socially Engaged Art.

The artist's goal is to create worldwide trending topics that can have a last lasting effect on the visibility and empowerment of Transgender people. This exhibitions challenges the artist, other Transgender people, and society to accept the Transgender experience in it's entirety. Bodhi Life features live streaming video of the performance, artwork about gender, and live posting of the artist's life documentation. Ethan Bach will use and promote the hashtags #HelloMyNameWas and #NoShame to publically and proudly release his own birth name and release photos, writing, and video from over forty years of his life. The hashtag campaign and streaming video of the exhibition will be available for view at http://www.bodhi-life.gallery.

"As a Transgender person, I was taught that I should have shame about my history; I shouldn't tell anyone my birth name and I should appear as though I have had the same gender experience my entire life. I had gone so far in upholding these ideas, in perpetuating my feeling of shame, as to digitally alter past photos of myself to flatten my chest and shorten my hair. Half of my life I have been out as Transgender and living in a way where I feel more comfortable in my own skin, but this expression does not negate the first half of my life. I have a right to be proud of my entire existence. Bodhi Life is about having ownership over my whole life and all of my experiences and to encourage others to do the same.", Ethan Bach.

Bach will engage with the gallery visitors in open dialogue about the exhibition while he scans photos, transcribes writings, captures video, and posts online from his digital workstation. Visitors will be encouraged to post their experience of the exhibition online using the hashtag #BodhiLife.

Bodhi Life: A Transgender New Media Artist's Digital Memoir where Ethan Bach shares forty years of his writings, photographs, film/video, and art. Bach conceived of this digital memoir project in 1998 and is inspired by the current position of the Transgender movement to release the work in progress project as performance and with an online hashtag campaign. The Bodhi Life premieres August 12th worldwide at http://www.bodhi-life.gallery and will be performed live August 12 and 13th, 11am to 9pm at the RedLine Gallery located at 2350 Arapahoe St, Denver, CO as part of the show entitled, 48 Hours: An Exhibition of Socially Engaged Art.

media kit: http://ethanbach.com/bodhi-life-press-kit/

ARTIST STATEMENT.
Ethan Bach is an artist living and working in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Denver, Colorado. He works on solo and collaborative media projects, including documentary video, interactive video installations, and the immersive digital dome. He has been called a visionary and "an artistic meteorologist of sorts who observes the surrounding human climate and forecasts what is to come" by The Santa Fe Reporter. His work has shown internationally from Budapest and Romania to New York and Los Angeles.

Bach's artwork has been informed by his experience with personal transformation. His connection and understanding of human experience is a theme throughout his work. He was a first generation college student raised in a small town with a family struggling both financially and emotionally. He spent the 1990's in Olympia, Washington where he was motivated by the DIY culture, third wave feminism, and Buddhism. Bach is also Transgender, having lived in his current incarnation for 15 years, his gender identity is a recurring theme in his work. He uses these experiences to foster ideas of expansion and to find ulterior solutions to problems in life and his work.

Ethan Bach uses his insights, unique experiences and emerging technology art to challenge the audience on preconceived notions about the world, their communities, and oneself. He achieves this through interactivity and engagement in both individual and collective experiences. His current work includes expanding immersive digital dome spaces for art through curating and producing shows, managing artist in residencies, consulting, blogging, and public speaking. He is currently investigating digital dome gaming environments, working on his digital memoir, and touring his collaborative artwork, The Royal Road Project.

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