implicit art

I went and updated the Compressionism documentation video a bit, and put it up on YouTube. These are performative prints made by strapping on a scanner, computer and battery pack, then traversing the landscape - sometimes printing digitally, other times transforming the images with hand-made / traditional techniques. The video shows some work, and how it was made, from my Call and Response solo show earlier this year; new digital work is now showing at Haydn Shaughnessy, and here are some new prints (both digital and traditional) I just finished producing for Art on Paper Gallery (Johannesburg).

in, and around
lambda print on metallic paper, 380 x 1080 mm (with small white border)

Just finishing up at the Frans Masereel, having completed 5 new digital and 6 new hand-made Compressionist prints (the latter inspired by the former, made by performances with scanners) for Art on Paper Gallery in Johannesburg (their site is finally up, content forthcoming). Check out the prints and some process pics here.

litho stone in progress, piece will be 1080 x 380 mm

Am on residence at the Frans Masereel Centre in Belgium at the moment, working on a new series that is being printed by printmaker and artist Zhane Warren, and published by Art on Paper Gallery (Johannesburg). It’s an extension of my Compressionist works, and my last solo show at AOP, Call and Response.

Compressionism is a “digital performance and analog archive.” I traverse bodies, spaces and objects with my scanner face, while its head is in motion. After being Compressed into digital images the size of a small sheet of paper, the files are then stretched, cropped and colored by hand, then printed as editioned, archival works. Later pieces in the series further transform details of these prints into hand-made art objects: etchings, engravings, aquatints, planographs, carborundum, monotype and more.

Compressionism is an exploration of media and perception, a transfiguration in time and seeing.

I’ve done some new performative scans since my show with Haydn Shaughnessy (these will be printed on metallic paper through photographic processes), and am amidst working in stone litho, silk screen, wood cut and dry point. We’re playing up the bands of light and color that Brenton Maart remarked on in Art South Africa, a relic of the digital scanning performances, by creating manufactured spaces on our stones and screens. Will post links to images of the finished works in a little over a week!

LINK: the flickr set in progress :)

Yo.

Brussels was fun. I saw good art and Zhane Warren and Simon Gush, among others (my new friends Ivan Durt and Jean Hoffman, for example). Currently working my ass off in Kasterlee, at the Frans Masereel Centre, a printmaking residency: Compressionist images as silk screen, litho, wood cut, engraving and dry point…. Pix soon (my camera broke).

Been Kasterlee? The weather is even worse than Dublin, apparently….

For those if you still unfamiliar with Paddy Johnson and her fabulous blog, artfagcity - “As relevant as Eric Fischl. New York art news, reviews and gossip” - WAKE UP. She’s clever, plugged in, and a great, honest critic with a sometimes snarky and sometimes generous attitude: as a writer should be.

And today, as part of her “Art Intercom” series for iCommons, a 2-part interview I did with Paddy features through her blog to (well, it’s all a little confusing, this whole my re-blogging a cross-blog/re-blog thing, so here’s what she says…):

I was travelling for most of yesterday so I didn’t have a chance to mention that my two part interview with new media artist Nathaniel Stern went up on the icommons blog yesterday. You can read the full discussion here and here, but I’ve included teasers from both interviews below since each part deals with different subject matter. In the first post Stern and I talk about his art work, and in the second, we touch upon how the concerns of the Creative Commons effect artists. Stern speaks with great eloquence on the subject, so our conversation is not to be missed!

Thanks Paddy! See the teasers on Paddy’s blog here (and put her site in your reader), or get the full length interview between here and here (and go ahead and grab the iCommons feed, too).

blossom on the dodder, 220 x 300mm (2007), nathaniel stern & angel shoreditch, 780 x 100 mm (2007) Paul La Rocque

My first Irish exhibition, a duo show entitled Landscapes and Icons, opened at the new Haydn Shaughnessy Gallery for Innovative Contemporary Artists in West Cork on Thursday evening, and it was a great party - drinks, food, 70 or so peops… I even convinced Ralph and a few others to drive out and join, which made for some friendly faces amidst a foreign crowd. I produced a dozen new Compressionist digital prints, which will likely travel to a bit of Europe with Haydn after the summer ends — will post some pics of the opening and more info when my life slows down a bit (may be a while), but click the link above for images, info, etc. Haydn is a rad guy and I hope to be working with him more in the future:

Haydn Shaughnessy Gallery, based in rural Cork, Ireland, specialises in contemporary art created through computing and allied technologies. The gallery’s artists share a common philosophy of using digital technology to encourage us to look again at the world around us.

This week, I’m prepping some new work for the iCommons Summit, residency and exhibition in Croatia and Second Life - which will be a video diptych (a new language lapse) as well as the first in a new site-specific series I’m tentatively calling ’sentimental constructions.’ Watch this space for more on both of those… Oh, and there will also be reciprocal interviews between me and Paddy Johnson (artfagcity) on the iCommons blog in the coming week or two :) Other Commons artists-in-res include Cao Fei (China), Joy Garnett (USA), Ana Husman (Croatia), Kathryn Smith (South Africa), Tim Whidden (representing MTAA, USA) and Jaka Železnikar (Slovenia).

Let’s see, I’m also presenting at a conference this Friday at UCD - ‘perpectives on the body and embodiment’ - in the philosophy department, so things are a bit crazed (can only go to one day of the proceedings, then I leave for Dubrovnik!)… Other exhibitions and residencies go on for the rest of the summer, both exciting and exhausting - plus visits back to both homes in SA and the USA (tho the latter is very brief, on route to a workshop/residency in Colorado) - before I buckle down again and start writing the PhD in Dublin in October. Check out the front page of the site for links to some of my planned hot spots.

More soon, likely from Croatia!

This past weekend, Haydn Shaughnessy (blogger and regular columnist for the Irish Times) invited me out to the beautiful countryside of West Cork to make some of my site-specific Compressionist prints; we hit the local pubs, beaches, foliage and his garden in order to produce new images. This new series, which also includes some scans from Dublin excursions, will be exhibited at his new Cork-based gallery, opening at the end of next month (along with a few images from my last show in Johannesburg), as part of a duo show with Cork-based, Canadian printmaker Paul LaRocque — my first exhibition in Ireland. Plans are that it’ll travel to Dublin, Amsterdam, maybe elsewhere, too, so I’ll post more images and info as the details pan out over the next while.

sirens’ dillisk, 2007, 610 x 1200 mm lambda print on metallic paper, edition 5

scanning the cliffs and beaches at garrettstown strand, west cork
photo by Haydn Shaughnessy

Oh, and how serendipitous, my little documentary on Compressionist prints was featured on DVblog yesterday! Rock.

Compressionism is a “digital performance and analog archive,” where I traverse bodies, spaces and objects with my scanner face, while its head is in motion. After being Compressed into digital images the size of a small sheet of paper, the files are stretched, cropped and colored by hand, then printed as editioned, archival works. Compressionism is an exploration of media and perception, a transfiguration in time and seeing.

Sorry for the lack of postings lately, but as promised before the move to Dublin, that’s just how it’s gonna be (until such time as Bronwyn and Rat do the regular blogging they tentatively offered here; like most Joburgers, they’re busy with more than a handful of things, so…).

OK, catch-up spanning (and doing little justice to) about 4 weeks of "stuff," beginning with a talk I gave at Ireland’s National College of Art and Design on 18 Jan. A bit of an enlightening experience for me in terms of crowd response — I guess I’m used to the very animated audience that Joburg and greater South Africa offer, so when people listened without expression, I ended about 30 minutes into the presentation, thinking I had completely bombed (all the more disappointing, since it was a crowd of about 70 - 100 people, a good turnout, IMNSHO - In My Not So Humble Opinion). But alas! A great discussion persisted for another 45 minutes beyond my early end! Mostly very generous questions which led to great dialogue, a few compliments, and one very provocative accusation; I have to say I’m excited to be starting off with a discussion in this community, and hope my leaving the country a few days after the talk didn’t put a potential speed bump on what began there…. NCADers - let’s hang?

I won’t cover my own exhibition since both Bronwyn and I already mentioned it, but there was a nice piece in beeld that was more like a profile of me just before leaving, and I think Robyn Sassen may be writing a short text in the Jewish Report. I did manage to go see GordArt’s new space, with several good shows (am new to Zach’s work - nice), lots of red stickers and the usual enthusiasm and support every art scene needs. Gordon Froud should be thanked over and over again by emerging and established artists alike, for his ongoing contributions.

Also caught the last of the Parking Gallery (at least in its initial Joburg incarnation) collaborations, this one between Simon Gush and Dorothee Kreutzfeldt at the Drill Hall. It was a very funny performance piece called 3-point turn, where they hired Sam Metentji to go, the wrong way, down a one-way street in downtown Jozi during rush hour. Many debates ensued, but mostly laughs and good byes: Simon has since left for a 2-year residency at the prestigious HISK in Belgium; see you there in July, buddy.

 
^{all photos taken on my crappy cell phone}

Sad to say I missed most of all the other goings-on in the art world, catching up on my own crap, but I hear the Guy Tillim show at Goodman was divine, and there’ve been a few workshops at the Bag Factory worth checking out.

And finally, a few calls:
You have til Monday to nominate yourself or a friend for the iCommons Artist In Residence in Croatia (use the Wiki).
Rhizome has its annual call for net.art commissions.
Turbulence has, probably, the most interesting net.art call I’ve ever seen: a collaboration with Art Interactive and Ars Virtua.
Ars Electronica Prix has been launched, with a few new categories.
Not new media (tho my proposal will be, if I get into the second round) there’s the Sasol Wax Art Award for South African mid-career artists.

I’m sure there are others, too. These are just the ones I’m currently working on or thinking about working on ;)

Hmm, that wasn’t really catch up so much as a few little things I’d been meaning to mention, but there you are. TFN (Ta For Now).

Sorry for the lack of posts whilst in SA. Just been too hektik on this visit home. It’s been so great, and I miss this place immensely… Old friends and colleagues… great art and passionate community builders… yadda yadda.

Sitting in 44 Stanley making a quick post. Here’s a great photoset of images from the opening, with credited images by Christo Doherty and Franci Cronje. My favorite is of course the one of William Kentridge looking on to satin, a hand-made print (carborundum, etching and engraving) inspired by the image on the invite (see below post).