september 2017 - august 2018
curated by dateagleart and Bob-Bicknell Knight
dateagleart and isthisit? presents "Spread The Virus", an online exhibition that spans over 12 months and brings together 12 commissioned artworks by 12 contemporary artists exploring the possibilities provided by digital technologies in the production of their works.
Featuring a vast array of mediums including film, photography, audio, passing through iPhone drawings to digital paintings, this virtual exhibition includes works by James Irwin, Merle Luhaäär, Josie Tucker and Ade Adekola amongst others.
The title 'Spread The Virus’ is taken from Cabaret Voltaire's 80's song under the same name, which pioneered the birth of a new sound by integrating experimental sensibilities- and a very direct message: "60 Second Wipe Out. The Virus Has Been Spread".
‘Spread The Virus’ begins with James Irwin’s “(Slow Down) The Blame Game” (2017), attempting to capture the energy of isolation and feverish anxiety that can result from being hyperconnected. Josie Tucker’s “Gamboyage” (2017) tells the story of gamboge paint without ever depicting it, but only by providing a fleeting glimpse through an optical illusion. Further highlights include a colourfield from conceptual artist Ade Adekola, who explores aspects of Nigerian Culture by combining elements of gestural action and fields of colours, altering the viewers perception of the photographic frame.
This online exhibition intends to encourage a community of artists to explore digital-based art.
British artist James Irwin presents "(slow down) The Blame Game" (2017), a piece made from 3D rendered animation, ripped YouTube clips, real video camera footage and sampled audio. This work attempts to capture the energy of isolation and feverish anxiety that can result from being hyperconnected, "a human node seeking a sense of calm within a complex network of ubiquitous technologies". - James Irwin
Merle Luhaäär's bizarre depictions deal with the past and confront both public and private beliefs the artist is interested in. Her surrealist pieces become realist due to the nature of transmitting life as it is, "endless, surreal, and yet so fulfilling" and questions the viewer on their beliefs of what is real and what is not. "Nightlight" reflects on the dual nature of light and humanity. "Matrix is real and things don't only appear but are different in nightlight". - Merle Luhaäär
Josie Tucker's "Gamboyage" digital animatic video, she aims to tell the story of gamboge paint without ever depicting it, but only by "providing a fleeting glimpse through an optical illusion created by the inversion of the blue scarf tone. The illusion leaves a mark on the eyes in the pattern of the scarves worn by the victims, that fades quickly with light, just as the paint does." - Josie Tucker
Ade Adekola's vibrant "Footballers" forms part of his colourfields series exploring different aspects of Nigerian contemporary Culture. This abstract photograph is a fragmented snippet of a football match in Lagos converted into geometric shapes and infinite planes. "Superimposing these shapes and geometric forms, on top of, beside, or inside each other the final piece is revealed" - Ade Adekola
In this work, Agnes Momirski takes inspiration from "the flood of mindfulness interfaces, and revisits the transcendental and spiritual context of our digitally mediated reality. The omnipresent movement towards a mind-spirit-technology symbiosis, teases the connection with the non-physical in us. The screen becomes a place of experiencing the intertwining of spiritual, dream, digital and virtual realms. It's iridescent nature serves as a mirror to the organic and sentient world, showing a reflection of the inner self and the unraveling of the mind over our digital time-lines."
camila gonzalez corea | february 2018
In this video, Gonzalez continues with her project "The Nipple Act" a piece which started as a protest within Instagram and has evolved through external submissions. "It consisted of an Instagram account which turned photographs of females breasts into images consisting purely of emojis, aiming to promote the normalisation and de-fetishisation of the female nipple. This work, IRL aims to act as a bridge which will hopefully lead me into an even more in depth research which, through a feminist lens, will study how we act when on the internet and how much of it reflects our IRL selves."
In this short video piece, Moore presents the final part the a trilogy of works from "Dreams in Ultraviolet and Beyond the Water’s Edge."In the words of the artist, "The cleansing waters rise against his flesh as he quests onward through the dark currents. He is met with the glacial heads of familiar mountains, the ruins of his construction in which he now seeks solace. Scattered are the tools of his mass-production; automated, robotic arms that stand rusted yet resilient to time. The phallic monuments are vast in number and rupture the untouched snowfall. Although relics of a bygone era, they continue to haunt him — a reminder of his inability to perform correctly in a heteronormative world."
In this new series of physical and digital artworks Stern continues to be interested in the relationship between the real and the virtual, the tangible and intangible. Three works are presented, all evolving and responding to a recent painting titled LUXX which continues her fascination with predominantly female 3D avatars, downloaded for free from the internet. These models, arguably resurrected by Stern, are then distorted and re-modelled, becoming paintings and 3D renders.
Bob Bicknell-Knight | may 2018
In this new video work Bicknell-Knight utilises footage from Dahir Insaat, a corporation and creative company that produces speculative animations as visual proposals to various governments and corporations around the world. The videos usually employ gravity and logic defying creations, from gyroscopic transportation devices to air dropped, drone activated, weaponry. The footage is foregrounded by an animated breaking news bar, supplying a continuous flow of ambiguous anti-capital texts, quoting various philosophers and writers.
