EVENT:
UC Irvine's Beall Center for Art and Technology presents "Nicking the Never," an animated video exhibition depicting a girl caught in a cycle of human struggles. Created by artist Marina Zurkow, the exhibition features seven large video screens, each playing a colorful animated clip of the girl experiencing a powerful emotion associated with the Tibetan Buddhist Wheel of Life -- aggression, jealousy, need, ego, complacence and desire. Forever in the grip of these emotions, the girl -- who shifts in age from 4 to 10 -- flies, falls, boxes with herself and is forced to dance. Music accompanying each video clip draws visitors through the exhibition. "Nicking the Never" explores the darker side of the female adolescent psyche, a subject rarely depicted in popular culture. The exhibition continues the Beall Center's ongoing exploration of technology and its use in artistic production.

WHEN:
Press briefing: 10 a.m.-noon Tuesday, March 28
Opening reception: 6-9 p.m. March 28
Exhibition runs March 29-May 6

WHERE:
Beall Center for Art and Technology, UCI's Claire Trevor School of the Arts
Map: www.uci.edu/campusmap

INFORMATION:
Admission is free and open to the public. Beall Center hours are noon-5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday and noon-8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. For more information, call (949) 824-4339 or visit beallcenter.uci.edu

BACKGROUND:
"Nicking the Never," based on the Tibetan Buddhist Wheel of Life, divides the notion of human struggle into six main categories. Depictions of the Wheel of Life can be found throughout Tibet and elsewhere in the Buddhist world, on temple walls and in Thangka paintings. The exhibition makes reference to the vivid Tibetan Buddhist iconography, which has a distinct and sometimes violent cartoonish quality. Zurkow's piece takes from Western pop and Asian manga culture, and it looks at the historical precedents for cartooning in early religious representations.

Zurkow lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and teaches at New York University's Interactive Technology Program. She has exhibited work at Sundance, the Rotterdam Film Festival, The Kitchen and the Brooklyn Museum. Recent projects include "The Space Invaders," an animation for PBS in New York, and "Karaoke Ice," a mobile karaoke recording ice cream truck that will debut at the International Symposium of Electronic Art in San Jose in August. "Nicking the Never" premiered at the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology in the United Kingdom in 2004.