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5/10/2007

Cory Arcangel

Max Wigram Gallery - Temporary Exhibition Space, London

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Max Wigram Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by New York-based artist Cory Arcangel. Creative "hacking" is what Arcangel is, perhaps, most renowned for. From Mario Brothers to Pope John Paul II, and the Beatles to the pop Indie film Dazed and Confused - Arcangel co-opts popular media and culture, manipulating these "new" platforms and media to subvert his subjects to the expectant whims of a growing audience of (often irreverent) Internet and media-savvy consumers.

Arcangel’s work represents a shift in how artists and consumers alike are interacting with the world around them. By utilizing the Internet as a vehicle for the proliferation of his mutations, Arcangel’s ideas can make the rounds in a fraction of the time as would have been possible years ago. Arcangel brings the viewer into this (now) familiar world and exposes the ease to which that world can be compromised. Though this is not to say Arcangel has a utopian view of technology, but rather, quite the opposite. His work often points out that technology-based artwork never achieves it goals.

Permanent Vacation, the centrepiece of the exhibition, is a new multi-channel work featuring two large-scale projections of computers running Microsoft Outlook in an unending exchange of ’out of office replies.’ In a play on video installation, and video minimalism, Permanent Vacation is emblematic of Arcangel’s work: it is both frustrating and humorous.

Photoshop Gradient and Smudge Tool Demonstrations is a new series of glossy prints made from the default backgrounds that come with the ubiquitous graphics software Photoshop. Essentially digital ready-mades, the prints make no attempt to escape the aesthetic of the tool that was used to create them.

In a more compositional piece, Sweet 16, Arcangel has appropriated the intro guitar line from Guns n’ Roses song Sweet Child O’ Mine and has applied the 1960’s avant-garde compositional concept of phasing to the clip by shortening one video by a note. As the videos loop, the two intros grow farther apart until they are back in sync 17 minutes later. Another video work, features vintage footage of the Beatles from their first US press conference, although in Arcangel’s version there is a laser pointer focused between Paul’s eyes.

Arcangel also plays with notions of display and installation in works such as Plasma Burn. Plasma Burn is just that, an image – in this case, the description of the work, which in time burns itself into the screen. As the monitor burns it becomes a sculptural object.

Artist, Musician, DJ, and Computer geek, Arcangel is a frequent collaborator of like-minded people: the Beige Programming Ensemble, which Arcangel co-founded in 1998, and the Paper Rad Art Collective. Coinciding with his exhibition at Max Wigram, Tha Click is a group show at E:vent Space featuring various works and collaborations by members of both groups (opening 5th October, 7pm).

Max Wigram Gallery - Temporary Exhibition Space
51-63 Ridley Road - London
Free admission

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