Compressionism | implicit art

Compressionism WorldWide

Brenton Maart chatting with Stern about the show,
for a review in Art South Africa magazine

I was at Outlet yesterday, discussing my Time and Seeing exhibition of Compressionist prints with Brenton Maart. Maart normally does the Gauteng art listings for the Mail & Guardian, but we met about this show for a small review he’s doing in the next Art South Africa magazine. I never get over how happy it makes me when people respond very positively to my work… Also look out for Franci Cronje’s review of the show in Die Beeld next week.

This chat, and Cronje’s review, are timed really well, given that South Africa finally has the May issue of MacFormat magazine in stock, which has a full-color back page feature on me and the Compressionist series – click here, or on the thumbnail below, to read their take, see the images.

Don’t miss the Time and Seeing closing party at Outlet on 10 June (next Saturday), 16h00 – 24 du Toit Street, Building 10, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria.

Time and Seeing exhibits selections from nathaniel stern’s Compressionism – a "digital performance and analog archive.” Stern traverses bodies, spaces and objects with his scanner face, while the 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. Compressionism is an exploration of media and perception, a transfiguration in Time and Seeing.

Archives

01 May 2006 by nathaniel

Time and Seeing @ Outlet gallery, Pretoria

Time and Seeing
an exhibition of Compressionist prints
outlet gallery, 1 May – 12 June
closing reception on Saturday 10 June, 16:00

^{earth (2006), metallic lambda print, 50 x 25 cm}

Time and Seeing exhibits selections from nathaniel stern’s Compressionism – a "digital performance and analog archive.” Stern traverses bodies, spaces and objects with his scanner face, while the 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. Compressionism is an exploration of media and perception, a transfiguration in Time and Seeing.

^{*The 11 pieces on show at Outlet are a preview for a large-scale exhibition of Compressionist works – ranging from photographic to traditional prints – in negotiation for early next year @ Art on Paper gallery, Johannesburg.}

outlet
24 du Toit Street, Building 10, Projector Room, Arts Faculty, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa
Hours by appointment, +27 82 440 5406, outlet [at] mweb [dot] co [dot] za

more information @ http://compressionism.net and http://nathanielstern.com

Archives

20 April 2006 by nathaniel

Live from Stellenbosch U

physical computing @ Stellenbosch

Ralph Borland and I are giving a two-week workshop in interactive art at Stellenbosch University! Shown here is Ralph working with the Basic Stamp microcontroller (BS2), building some circuits just before we go ahead and try some input/output from and to the “real world”. I’ve been showing them how to interpret that data into sound and video on their eMacs, and they’ll plug the two together on Friday.

w00+!

Aside, check out the cool post about the work me and Jill are doing over at the David Krut site.

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14 April 2006 by nathaniel

satin bed

Double plate aquatint from yesterday at David Krut Workshop with Jill and Niall. Niall printed our screen (used to lay the hard ground) upside down, so it looks weird to me – as compared to my intended design – but we’re very happy with it (and I’m sure I’ll get used to it). We’re still proofing for a darker green…. The detail is from this image, of the same title (originally printed as lambda on metallic paper). Great day in the studio!

Archives

12 April 2006 by nathaniel

Compressionist printmaking: a 500 year old digital performance and analog archive

final engraving with japanese paper process

Here’s one of the printmaking experiments I’ve been working on over at the David Krut Workshop (fun space; and cool to brag to my overseas friends that it’s who William Kentridge has always worked with for most of his prints). It’s a detail from this image (the Emmarentia Lilies triptych, originally printed on metallic paper), which I’ve then engraved by hand, and Jill (the awesome printer I am working with) went ahead and, after inking it up, added two layers of thin glued paper before pressing it. That process is called Chine-collé, and is what resulted in the varying colors behind the black ink. For more images, see Compressionism on my flickr. There’s also a lithograph / spit bite combo test I’ve been working on ("nude descension") posted to my kagablog page.

Compressionism is a digital performance and analog archive. In the current studies, I compress bodies, spaces and objects by traversing their surfaces with an image scanner, along varying 3-dimensional paths – literally, I glide, run, hover and swoop across windows, trees, or lilies while the scanner head is in motion. The resulting digital images, which are transfigured down to the size of a small piece of paper, are then re-stretched to their original size, sometimes cropped or colorized. The final prints ask us to ‘look again’ at the relations between subjects, objects, actions and perceptions. At present, I’m taking selections from a series of about 25 Compressionist lambda prints, and iteratively producing traditional (old’s cool!) prints in the form of lithographs, engravings, etchings, silk screens, spit bites, aquatints, and possibly more.

Archives

03 April 2006 by nathaniel

The Daily Chronicles

OK, so it’s about day 6 of no phone or internet (re: telkom sucks… Given my lifestyle, I feel like my legs have been cut off), and the Gods of Good Fortune have decided that to make up for those losses, they should also cut off my electricity.

I sh!t you not.

Sigh.

The life of a mediocre blogger can sometimes be Oh So Difficult. I’m taking an hour (or so) out of my morning now to do a bit of blog n’ surf catch-up from Colleen Alborough’s house (she’s away, but I can steal her wireless bandwidth). Thanks, Coll.

^{Jeff Koons and The New Jeff Koons}

Like most of the Joburg art scene, I hit up the Jeff Koons talk last Thursday (tho I had to leave early to see the OBGYN about the B-A-B-Y – 7 more weeks til my life changes forever!). A very inspired talk, with its high and low points and tidbits that made us all laugh or feel uncomfortable or just want to pick the artist’s brain. I think the most amazing part was just how calculated everything he said and did was. Here’s this super sweet ex-pornstar-art King of Kitsch wavering between being about acceptance and tolerance and asking the world for change, and talking about Golden Showers and Ass Pimples. His presentation was more like subversive performance art on a platter for a jaded art world that thinks it "knows him." Very clever chap, that Jeff.

^{Me and Jill Ross working on a Compressionist engraving and lithograph, respectively, at David Krut}

I spent most of Saturday morning, afternoon and night at David Krut, working with Richard Kilpert and Jill Ross on the next iteration of Compressionism. We’re taking some of the works I had printed as lambdas from the series, and turning them into more traditional prints. We started with a polyester plate to make line drawing versions of one of the works (Wet Calla Leaves, drawing here), and ‘that’s me in the corner’ working on a hand engraving of a detail from Emmarentia Lilies (part of a triptych). I’ll be sure to post some stuff to flickr and Rhizome when I have more than one edition done…

^{Bronwyn Lace in front of about 4000 origami for her Outlet exhibition in Pretoria}

Took a break from Krut in the late afternoon / early evening and head out to Pretoria to see Bronwyn Lace’s work at Outlet. A simple and beautiful exhibition that makes you feel small, I recommend hitting up that link there for some info on her work; we still await a guest blog from Bron on her show at KZNSA last month. Hint, Bron.

^{James Webb, Marcus Neustetter, Mikhael Subotzky}

I took most of Sunday off (worked on a proposal for Rhizome for a bit), but did hang out with Marcus Neustetter for an ice cream at Zoo Lake (plus ran a few art errands with him), so got to see James Webb and meet Mikhael Subotzky briefly, while they’re here. It made me feel like a super cool uber artist for about a minute. Mikhael agreed that his prints need frames.