Terry Chatkupt: A Year on View at the Armory Center 

Artist Terry Chatkupt (Film/Video MFA 04) explores the intersection of nature, family, and home in his current exhibition Terry Chatkupt: A Year, running through March 31 at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, California.

Referring to the year spent under lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, A Year features video, photography, and installation works inspired by the terrain of the San Gabriel Mountains neighboring his home in Pasadena. The show explores the dualities of the outdoors and indoors from the perspectives of both Chatkupt and his children.

The exhibition derives its title from Chatkupt’s short video portrait, “A Year” (2021). Through a blend of interview footage, animation, and scenes capturing moments of joy and play, the video conveys how the artist’s son experienced the COVID lockdown.

A Year also marks the first public presentation of Chatkupt’s most recent work, Sometimes I Don’t Even Know It’s Nighttime (2023). The eight-part experimental video series follows a loose narrative of dreamy and nightmarish sequences that form a visual tapestry of still lives, landscapes, and portraits. Accompanying the videos is an experimental ambient and instrumental soundtrack.

Chatkupt is a multidisciplinary artist and co-founder of Dogū Studios, as well as a professor of digital media art at Irvine Valley College. He performs his solo music project under the name Terrain, and is also one-half of the LA-based experimental music duo Psychoplasmics. Screenings of Chatkupt’s film/video work have been included in programs at numerous venues including the Museum of Modern Art, the Seattle Art Museum, and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions.