Mira Hunter's Curriculum Vitae

>>CV

Emine Mira Hunter (née Burke) is a visual artist and second-generation sufi mevlevi whirling dervish, she began her traditional training at the age of 16 with her father Raqib Burke and Sheikh Jelaladdin Loras. As a visual artist, she studied at NSCAD and Yale, graduating with a BFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and a minor in art history. For the past 10 years she has collaborated with Turkish born, Canadian producer/musician/DJ Mercan Dede, performing at such acclaimed international events as the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Vancouver Folk Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Paleo Festival. She has toured all over the world, from New York, to London, to, Dubai, to Japan. She was featured in David Michalek’s Slow Dance project that was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2008, and appeared in Fatih Akin's award winning documentary Crossing The Bridge: The Sounds of Istanbul. Mira continues to challenge the fundamental forms of whirling by incorporating innovative movements and concepts, coaxing the 13th century practice into a contemporary context. She recently returned from a tour in Switzerland with the avant-garde performance group Stimmhorn, and a series of events with Mercan Dede including the Dubai International Film Festival. She currently studies Sufism under Sherif Baba Catalkaya and lives and works in Istanbul, New York and Vancouver.

Mira’s 2008 piece Time Machine, which is the result of a collaboration with her husband, Derek Hunter, features 65 disposable cameras fixed to a 360 degree rail made from reclaimed lumber, activated by electromechanical solenoids. The photographs, which feature Mira, are animated in a sequence, giving the audience the visual experience of revolving around a whirling dervish, caught in a single moment. The images, often displaying unusual exposure anomalies, were scanned and made into two films, which played simultaneously within a wooden yurt. It was installed at the Bartlett Gallery in Vancouver, 2008, the film was also shown in Toronto at the 2008 MADance Screen Salon, and is currently being considered for installation in Newfoundland in 2010.

Mira's most recent installation Waterpod™ was a floating, sustainable, solar-powered living experiment and exhibition space, including 4 bedrooms, an efficient rocket wood stove, a shower room, extensive edible landscapes, grass roots hydroponics, a small flock of laying hens, composting toilet and urine separation, rain water collection and a grey water recycling system all secured to a rented deck barge, produced by a collective of artists, engineers and volunteers from mostly reclaimed and intelligently re-used materials. Waterpod™ was conceived as a showcase for grassroots attainable sustainable technology through a cross-disciplinary artistic lens. It was a floating sculptural structure constructed from repurposed materials, that travelled the New York waterways in the summer of 2009, and acted as a home for a small number of visual artists. As one of the resident artists and the first artist Mary Mattingly invited to join the project in 2006, l focused on the restriction and transformation of personal waste, the creation of collaborative innovative projects and ideas, the active caretaking of the nourishing onboard eco-system, and documenting my trials, successes and explorations to share with the public sphere. As tangible evidence of the ensuing global warming epoch becomes visible in our daily lives, it is up to us to examine our habits and look for innovative ways to creatively tackle tomorrow's pressing environmental challenges. Waterpod™ is an accessible self-reliant eco-habitat, exhibition and living space, constructed with the advancing sea levels in mind.

Mira is currently working with Derek on a companion piece to Time Machine, working title Time Bomb. Time Bomb is a different look at reparative/restorative potential in art. Inspired by Fischli/Weiss and Mary Mattingly's future human Navigators, it will playfully document a post apocalyptic/ apocalyptic moment when nature and the common animal will raise a Molotov cocktail in the name of environmental injustice, through bullet time photography, stop motion animation, super 16 film, video and a rotating tripod machine. The final work will be projected as if through a periscope from an underground bunker watching the world above, within an artificial cave-like viewing structure. The following work, working title Time Capsule, and last work of the Time Machine Trilogy will be the animated monologue of a microscopic, permanent, future robot. Originally created by humans to witness a single lifetime, it is now drifting introspectively, a century beyond it's own planned usefulness. It will be viewed projected on a screen in a large wicker nest structure, which will physically respond to points in the film by releasing scented mist or vibrating gently. Mira is currently designing the primary character and in consultation with a multi-linguist translator who will be designing the robot's language. It will primarily consist of a combination of Spanish and Asian languages.

Education
Vancouver Institute of Media Arts, Vancouver, British Columbia, 2007 (Diploma Stop Motion Animation)

Emily Carr University of Art + Design,Vancouver, British Columbia, 2006 (Diploma Web Design + Flash)

NSCAD University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2000-2002 (BFA)

Yale University Summer School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut, 2001

Capilano University, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1998-2000

Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, 1996-1997 (Diploma French Cooking)

Mevlevi Order of America, Fairfax, California, 1995-1997

Exhibitions
Waterpod™: Ecology and Autonomy, Exit Art, New York, NY, 2010

Waterpod™, Waterpod™, New York, NY, 2009

Time Machine, MADance Screen Salon, Toronto, ON, 2008

Time Machine (installation), Bartlett Gallery, SFU, Vancouver, BC, 2008

Experimental Empire, SFU Studios, 611 Alexander, Vancouver, BC, 2008

The Dark Between, Beaumont Studios, Vancouver, BC, 2008

Forecast: An Environmental Disaster Opera, Whitebox Gallery, New York, NY, 2006

We Go Round And Round In The Night, Feldman Gallery, Portland, OR, 2005

1005 McLean, 1005 Mclean, Vancouver, BC, 2005

The Life Boat, during Art Basel, Miami, FL, 2004

Art Under Foot, Roundhouse Community Centre, Vancouver, BC, 2004

Aviary, Salon Des Arts, San Francisco, CA, 2003

A Night At The Tigress, The Roundhouse, Vancouver, BC, 2003

Golden Double Happiness, Capilano University Gallery, Vancouver, BC, 2003

Graduation Exhibition, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, 2002

Batin Zahir, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, BC, 2002.

Qiwhole, Moreland Clearwater Gallery, Vancouver, BC, 2000

Graduation Exhibition, Capilano College, Vancouver, BC, 2000

Selected Performances
CanAsian Dance Festival, with Raqib Brian Burke and Eric Powell, Toronto, Canada, 7-9/5/2009

Dubai International Film Festival at the Jumeirah Al Shams Arena with Circo de Bakuza and Mercan Dede, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 18/12/2008

Forum Theater with Mercan Dede and Stimmhorn, Melbourne, Australia, 14/12/2008

Sudpol with Mercan Dede and Stimmhorn, Kriens/Luzern, Switzerland, 4/12/2008

Batiement des Forces Motrices with Mercan Dede and Stimmhorn, Geneva, Switzerland, 3/12/2008

Rotfabrike (Aktionshalle) with Mercan Dede and Stimmhorn, Zurich, Switzerland, 2/12/2008

Dampfzentrale with Mercan Dede and Stimmhorn, Bern, Switzerland, 30/11/2008

Cinema Teatro with Mercan Dede and Stimmhorn, Chiasso, Switzerland, 29/11/2008

Theater Performance with Mercan Dede and Stimmhorn, Chur, Switzerland, 28/11/2008

Kaserne (Reithalle) with Mercan Dede and Stimmhorn, Basel, Switzerland, 27/11/2008

Koç University with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Istanbul, Turkey, 19/11/2008

Istanbul Modern Museum with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Istanbul, Turkey, 14/11/2008

Vredenburg with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Utrecht, Holland, 26/10/2008

Trinity St. Paul's Breath with Mercan Dede, Toronto, Canada, 2/2/2007

Mary Mattingly’s Forecast: An Environmental Disaster Opera, Whitebox Gallery, USA, 19/12/2006

Barbican Hall Concert with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, London, England, 20/10/2006

Sinsaibashi Club Quatro with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Osaka, Japan, 5/10/2006

Worldbeat:Nights of Ramadan with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Tokyo, Japan, 4/10/2006

Saint-Denis Festival with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Paris, France, 16-18/6/2006

Simdi Now Stuttgart with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Stuttgart, Germany, 26/11/2005

MOVE Festival with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Prague, Czech, Republic, 15/9/2005

Arena with Mercan Dede feat. Natasha Atlas, Istanbul, Turkey, 20/8/2005

Le Parc De La Villette with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Paris, France, 14/8/2005

The London Forum with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, London, England, 04/6/2005

Seattle International Children’s Festival with Mercan Dede, Seattle, Washington, 15-20/5/2005

M15 with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, New York, USA, 06/05/2005

Yeni Melek Sinemasi with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Istanbul, Turkey, 22/12/2004

Simdi Now Berlin with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Berlin, Germany, 3/9/2004

Forum with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Barcelona, Spain, 30-31/8/2004

Stern Grove Festival with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, SF, USA , 1/8/2004

Grand Performances with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, LA, USA , 31/7/2004

Celebrate Brooklyn with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Brooklyn, USA, 23/7/2004

SummerDance with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Chicago, USA, 22/7/2004

Joe’s Pub with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, New York, USA, 19/7/2004

Vancouver Folk Fest with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Vancouver, Canada, 17/7/2004

Guldestan with Modern Dance Turkey, Istanbul, Turkey 21-28/6/2004

Don’t Go Back To Sleep with The Open Secret School of Whirling, Vancouver, Canada, 15/11/2003

Jazz A Vienne with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Lyon, France, 13/7/2003

Montreux Jazz with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Montreux, Switzerland, 12/7/2003

New Dance Festival, Halifax, Canada, 3/2/2002 Montreal Jazz Festival with Mercan Dede Secret Tribe, Montreal, Canada, 3/7/2001

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