Joseph Nechvatal
bOdy
pandemOnium
Immersion
into Noise
25 April Ð 21 June 2015
at
Opening hours: Fri-Sun, 2-6PM and by appointment
***
Press preview: 24 April 2015, 6PM
Opening: 24 April 2015, 8PM
Artist Talk & Noise music concert: 25 April, 2PM
rear windOw curiOsitŽs (2012) 2x2m computer-robotic assisted painting
Joseph Nechvatal (born in 1951 in Chicago) is a
post-conceptual artist working in digital art. He is one of the most important
pioneers of new media art, but at the same time makes use of 'old media' (such
as painting and drawing). What is phenomenal, and in our opinion relevant to
the 21st century, is that his paintings are created through a use of custom artificial
life software and computer robotics.
The exhibition, with the subtitle Immersion into
Noise, will present Nechvatal's recent work to a Berlin
audience alongside his eponymous book from 2011: Immersion into Noise. In that text, Nechvatal provides visual analogies to audio noise within
the powerful effects of the act of immersion.
He does so by discussing visual and conceptual noise
within the history of art and architecture; from Lascaux cave through Baroque
art and Rococo architecture to modern and
contemporary art. This publication was also the basis for the exhibition Noise
at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013) which explored
visual noise in contemporary art through an aesthetic of excess and immersion.
In the bOdy pandemOnium
exhibition, and in Nechvatal's work in general, the term viractualism, meaning the interface between the biological and the technological,
plays an essential role: "The basis of the viractual conception is that
virtual producing computer technology has become a noteworthy means for making
and understanding contemporary art. This brings art to a place where one finds
the merging of the computed (the virtual) with the uncomputed corporeal (the
actual)."
Parallel to his theoretical research, Nechvatal has
created a series of paintings and projections that show a C++ custom virus
program (created with the programmer Stephane Sikora) invading, destroying and
transforming his painterly art images based on intimate parts of the human
body. In the exhibition at Art Laboratory Berlin, two large computer-robotic
assisted paintings will be on display: frOnt windOw retinal autOmata (2012) and rear windOw curiOsites (2012).
As the artist says of his work: ÒMy digital paintings conjure up an enigmatic world that signals the dynamic critical intricacy of a contemporary practice engaged in the fragile wedding of image production and image resistance. Through my use of intimate human body parts under pressure from software, I hope to bring a subversive reading to computational media by presenting an artistic consciousness of the body that articulates concerns regarding surveillance, encryption, safety, privacy, identity and objectivity.Ó
Also on view will be one of his famous viral computer
software de-generative works: Viral Venture (2011).
It is accompanied by a musical score for two hundred
electric guitars by the composer Rhys Chatham.
In addition, for his first his solo exhibition in
Berlin, we will add documentation of Nechvatal audio works: including his viral
symphOny, a computer de-generating composition.
An artist talk with noise music concert of his piece 3
pOstmOrtems will take place 25 April at
2pm.
Curators: Regine Rapp & Christian de Lutz
This exhibition is made
possible in part by a generous gift from Michael Schršder.
***
frOnt
windOw retinal autOmata (2012) 2x2m computer-robotic
assisted painting
Joseph Nechvatal
bOdy
pandemOnium
Immersion into Noise
Vernissage: 24. April
2015, 20 Uhr
Artist Talk & Noise
Music Concert: 25. April, 14 Uhr
Ausstellungslaufzeit:
25. April - 21. Juni 2015
Fr-So,
14-18 Uhr u. n. Vereinbarung
***
Joseph Nechvatal, geb.
1951 in Chicago, ist ein postkonzeptueller Kuenstler der digitalen Kunst Ð einer
der wichtigsten Pioniere der sogenannten Neuen Medien-Kunst, der aber
gleichzeitig auch auf die âalten MedienÕ (Malerei, Zeichnung und Grafik)
zuruckgreift. Das phanomenale und unserer Meinung nach zeitgenossische ist,
dass seine âGemaeldeÕ durch Computer-Robotik und Software Animation entstehen.
Die Ausstellung mit dem
Untertitel Immersion into Noise ist Nechvatals erste Soloausstellung in Berlin
und wird dem Publikum juengere Arbeiten vorstellen, die mit seiner Publikation Immerison
into Noise
(2011) zusammenhaengen. Darin stellt er eine visuelle Analogie zu âNoiseÕ her
(im folgenden âRauschenÕ) und betont die starke Wirkung durch den Akt der
Immersion.
Im Ausstellungsprojekt, sowie generell in Nechvatals Arbeit, ist der Begriff Viractualism wesentlich, damit meint Nechvatal die Schnittstelle zwischen dem Biologischen und dem Technologi-schen: ãThe basis of the viractual conception is that virtual producing computer technology has be-come a noteworthy means for making and understanding contemporary art. This brings art to a place where one finds the emerging of the computed (the virtual) with the uncomputed corporeal (the actual).Ò
Neben seinen theoretischen Untersuchungen hat Nechvatal eine Serie von Gemaelden und Projek-tionen entwickelt, bei
denen seine Gemaelde mit
intimen Stellen des menschlichen Korpers durch ein a C++ Virusprogramm
uberfallen,
zerstort und veraendert
werden (das Virusprogramm hat Nechvatal zusammen mit dem Programmierer Stephane
Sikora entwickelt). In
der Ausstellung bei Art Laboratory Berlin werden zwei Computer basierte Gemaelde
zu sehen
sein: frOnt windOw retinal autOmata (2012) und rear windOw curiOsites (2012).
Daruuber hinaus wird bei
Art Laboratory Berlin eines seiner bekannten Arbeiten mit
Computer-Virus-Software zu sehen sein: Viral Venture (2011). Die Projektion
wird erweitert durch ein Stueck fur 200 E-Gitarren des Komponisten Rhys Chatham.
Das Kuenstlergespraech mit
einem Noise-Concert seines Stuecks 3 pOstmOrtems wird am
Eroeffnungswochenende
stattfinden Ð am
Samstag, den 25. April um 14 Uhr.
Kuratoren:
Regine Rapp & Christian de Lutz
