Two exhibitions
dal 28/4/2005 al 27/5/2005
Segnalato da
28/4/2005
Two exhibitions
AA Gallery, London
Stephen Gil. His work captures moments that most people miss but everyone recognises, resulting in an understated and detailed commentary on contemporary life, an empathetic and humorous scrutiny of the everyday. Face Breeder by Theodore Spyropoulos and Vasili Stroumpakos is an interactive exhibition invites visitors to have their portrait taken by a 'digital breeding lab of monstrous hybrid portraits'.
Stephen Gil
Front Members’ Room
The Architectural Association is pleased to present an exhibition of works by the British photographer Stephen Gill, including photographs from the series Day Return, Trolley Portraits, Lost, Billboards, Road Works, Gallery Warders, Cash Points and Invisible. Gill’s work captures moments that most people miss but everyone recognises, resulting in an understated and detailed commentary on contemporary life. Is it series of portraits or landscape photography – the British cultural landscape? It is Gill’s repeated return to the same idea – an empathetic and humorous scrutiny of the everyday – which makes his series of work so fascinating and revealing.
This approach to his work can be tracked back to an early interest in the minutiae of life. At the age of 15 Gill received the Kodak Pet portrait award, his career then began as an intern at Magnum Photos in London. He has worked as a freelance photographer since 1993, his work appearing in many international journals and group and solo shows, and included in public and private collections.
Stephen Gill’s monograph Field Studies (2004) won the John Kobal book award. The book’s title, as well as his creative practice, recalls the Observer Pocketbooks series, published by Frederick Warne from the late 1930s to the early 1980s, straight-faced and now collectible taxonomies of cacti, buildings, horses, heraldry, grasses, military vehicles and so on.
‘With work that’s a hybrid between the documentary and the conceptual, Gill is emerging as a major force in British photography.’ Martin Parr
Stephen Gill In Conversation with Jon Ronson (aaschool.ac.uk/lectures).
Stephen's work will also be exhibited at the forthcoming Photo-London exhibition which will be held at The Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington Gardens, 19–22 May (photo-london.org).
http://www.stephengill.co.uk
Image: Gallery Warder
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Face Breeder
Theodore Spyropoulos and Vasili Stroumpakos
Back Members’ Room
An interactive exhibition on show at the AA from 29 April invites visitors to have their portrait taken by the Face Breeder, a ‘digital breeding lab of monstrous hybrid portraits’. The Face Breeder is a machine that archives face images in a database and then displays them as part of a composite image on a 3 x 3 grid of nine discarded computer monitors. The installation is intended to provoke thought about the issue of personal identity in our electronic age. With its redeployment of obsolete computer equipment, it is also a commentary on our disposable culture.
Face Breeder is a collaboration between Minimaforms and 00110.org, the design practices founded by Theodore Spyropoulos and Vasili Stroumpakos. Spyropoulos and Stroumpakos are graduates of the AA DRL programme on which they now teach; both were also research fellows at the AA from 2002 to 2004 (one investigating sensorial environments, the other supermedial human communication). Spyropoulos is also a tutor on the AA/UPENN exhange program. To find out more about their work visit minimaforms.com (‘an experimental practice that explores design that produces and facilitates new means of communication’) and 00110.org (‘a palimpsest of experimentations and commissions on coding, reactive and web appplications’).
Face Breeder was commissioned within the framework of the London Architecture Biennale 2004 and was first shown in the display windows of Selfridges department store.
Architectural Association School of Architecture
36 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3ES
Opening Times Monday to Friday 10.00–7.00, Saturday 10.00–3.00