In 1972, John Berger co-produced Ways of Seeing as a four part documentary airing on Channel 1. Here he argued that the medium through which we view art is inseparable from the art itself. Eg, if you’re seeing a Ming dynasty vase being cooed over by Fiona Bruce on antiques roadshow, not only does ur tv become a fundamental part of that viewing experience, but so does the BBC 1 production team, and the adverts either side of the programme.
I wonder if Berger ever imagined a time where screens would be our only way of consuming culture. Corona Virus has changed the arts; everyone and their uncle has an online exhibition. Who could have anticipated our current situation, where the internet is our only possible means of seeing art? What does this mean? Is there a difference between seeing art irl and online?
Our project, Remote Reviews, is dedicated to looking at these new online spaces, and trying to work out whether materiality has any impact on how meaningful art is today, or whether digital platforms, with the benefits of accessibility, have superseded the need for galleries & museums. We’re also going to try & explore how the online shift has impacted artists & non-profit spaces, as Covid-19 highlights the gulf in funding between public & private arts venues.
I wonder if Berger ever imagined a time where screens would be our only way of consuming culture. Corona Virus has changed the arts; everyone and their uncle has an online exhibition. Who could have anticipated our current situation, where the internet is our only possible means of seeing art? What does this mean? Is there a difference between seeing art irl and online?
Our project, Remote Reviews, is dedicated to looking at these new online spaces, and trying to work out whether materiality has any impact on how meaningful art is today, or whether digital platforms, with the benefits of accessibility, have superseded the need for galleries & museums. We’re also going to try & explore how the online shift has impacted artists & non-profit spaces, as Covid-19 highlights the gulf in funding between public & private arts venues.
014
13.05.22
Seth Price
📍️ Sadie Coles
Seth Price @ Sadie Coles
Art is Not Human
In her essay, ‘Too Much World: Is the Internet Dead?’, Hito Steyerl talks about how ideas of post-production have usurped reality as our primary mode of existence. No longer can images be understood without first understanding internet economies, and the hierarchy of images we encounter on a day to day basis.
Art is Not Human thematises this disrupted, circular image economy. The Press Release at Sadie Coles describes, diligently, Price’s process: he combines composite painting, post-production techniques, three dimensional printing, and more post-production to create large scale works that mean his “gestural marks are confronted with their own computer-generated reflections”. Here, the art is not human due to its heavy processing, creating an artificial mise en abyme. Price’s paintings (?) outwit their viewers - what exactly are we looking at?
In one work, Wrekfeld, 2022 - viewers are confronted with what is undoubtedly an easy image. Smooth, familiar surfaces encourage easy looking - the eye glides over the image as they might over an instagram feed, as easily as light appears to gleam off the rendered work before us. Upon closer inspection, however, there is a tension between this smooth, quasi-photographic realism of the painting, and it’s content - weird, metallic pencil-worms which populate the piece, like maggots.
Although the press released describes the work as ‘acrylic polymer on wood’, we can’t be sure if we’re looking at wood, or a high resolution print of wood itself. In short, what initially promises ease of visual digestion in fact raises questions about a broader image economy, as viewers unpack the layers of real and rendered in the space before them.
Price’s writing about his work does little to help extract meaning. In a catalogue I find alongside the exhibition, he delights in nonsense, fracture, and particularly - spelling mistakes. His stream of consciousness - covering the decline of French fashion post the revolution, techno, and a brief discussion of the paedophilic leanings of three dimensional renderings - give a Bret Easton Ellis-esque mixture of high and low culture. Here, depth and surface coalesce, explosively.
Lydia Earthy
013
17-03-2021
Maggie Hazen
📍️ Online
Night Moth: A Mythology of Escape
Maggie Hazen, D.W., and 𝗝𝘂𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁.
Artist Maggie Hazen and D.W, a resident at the Columbia correctional faculty for girls, have digitised their ongoing sketchbook exchange and have together created something really beautiful. Their multimedia web piece is part of a larger project called JJ-DAP, a media mentorship project for incarcerated girls.
Entering a cell, we are invited to unlock videos by tapping the various objects within. We explore the world of a green fantastical figure, Luna, whom we follow through a series of dreamlike clips.
The dancing fairy imposed on the moon was one of my favourites- encapsulating the internal desire for movement and freedom, as a 60s soul track plays- it’s a perfect portrayal of escapism.
I also enjoyed the bed clip which showed a restless night moth dreaming of an underwater scene with her seven-legged octopus friend.
The written piece, ‘Mythology of Escape’ is particularly special- big Ed Ruscha vibes with clever depth.
By clicking on the digital notebook you can see their musings, their discussions, and their sketches. This meeting of the physical with the digital allows the viewer to piece together how such a clever online show was born from their epistolary correspondence.
This collaboratory project is a powerful and novel depiction of different types of isolation which has an especially significant resonance today.
I urge you to check out the exhibition here along with @jj_dap
Geo Merchant
012
15-02-2021
James Webb
📍️ Konig Gallery/ Online
EXERCISE IN HOPELESS NOSTALGIA: WORLD WIDE WEBB
Thomas Webb @ Konig Gallery
I downloaded König’s app today + was keen to explore and review all three shows on the platform, but one work really absorbed my attention.
Thomas Webb’s 'EXERCISE IN HOPELESS NOSTALGIA: WORLD WIDE WEBB’ is seriously good. A seemingly light hearted game effortlessly evokes reflection and encourages the player to think into the present and close future.
The 80s style pixels brought comfort + I was immediately amused by the satirical caricature of Berlin; picking herbs for points and waiting 60 seconds in the queue for digi-Berghain only to get rejected by the gate keeper: “n o t t o n i g h t”.
Spending time in a pixelated Berlin, this mobile browser game got deeper as new realms opened up, as my avatar travelled through the city to reach König gallery.
I don’t want to give too many ~spoilers~ but unlocking the exhibition’s description by a virtual Johann König after finding the curator, Anika Meier’s, face mask was an amusing highlight.
I became more and more impressed as the game went on, leading intelligently to a thoughtful critique of data, AI, and tech; in the artworks shown in the virtual space, as well as the video game itself.
Thomas Webb is an artist, hacker and coder, and while I can’t get myself out to Berlin to see the IRL show, his digital art space is really cool.
Geo Merchant
011
10-02-2021
Vairous
📍️ Online
We=Link: Sideways
Chronus Art Centre
On opening up this platform, you are met with a 90s desktop background + a basic text box displaying the Press Release. It perfectly initiates the exploration of early Chinese internet culture that follows in this net-based show.
I had so much fun exploring this virtual space - the works are so original + genuinely entertaining.
I loved Jonah Brucker-Cohen’s + Mike Bennett’s ‘BumpList: An Email Community for the Determined’- an interactive conceptual piece that allows the visitor to subscribe to a mailing list, only to be removed once it reaches capacity. A flux of curious enrolment and involuntary removal.
‘Default filename tv’ by Everest Pipkin devoured my attention- think of it as the noughties’ answer to Tik Tok. The work finds and plays Youtube videos that were uploaded from the camera without edits to the filename. The result is addictively mundane - ranging from a clip of a regional ballroom dancing competition to a film of a tortoise mounting another. The randomness of the proceeding video is discomforting- but also very funny. Its playful nostalgia makes this work really special.
There’s a wealth of incredible online art pieces on this platform - go go go check them out! Link here.
Geo Merchant
