Nicolas Feldmeyer, Even After All 1, 2014, Resin coated silver gelatin print mounted on Dibond, 100 cm x 67 cm, 39 in x 26.4 in, Edition of 5+2AP
PRESS RELEASE
OPENART is pleased to present:
Perfectionism IV: A Trick of the Eye
Online Group Exhibition
Curated by Becca Pelly-Fry
16 July – Sept 16, 2020
Artists:
Olly Fathers | Nicolas Feldmeyer | Alastair Gordon | Jonny Green | Selma Parlour | Charley Peters
”With the proliferation of content and its complex web of sources, it is becoming ever harder to identify what is real in our technology-driven existence.”
Now, more than ever, as our usual cultural and social activities have been closed off by a global pandemic, our contemporary lives and experiences are largely mediated through small screens. Confined to our homes, our communication and consumption of culture and information have been limited to a rectangular screen, where we have no choice but to interact with the outside world through technology. Since the invention of television in 1927, digital screens have become ubiquitous and hand-held, adding ever more complex layers of information to our daily activities. With the proliferation of content and its complex web of sources, it is becoming ever harder to identify what is real in our technology-driven existence.
In this group exhibition, OPENART features the work of six artists whose artistic practice entails meticulous, highly skilled, and almost monastic approach to making; a ‘perfectionism’ of process. These artists use their finely honed technical skills to create visual trickery or present an illusion. Following on from Jean Baudrillard’s concept of the ‘hyperreal’, a term coined in his 1981 treatise Simulacra and Simulation, this collection of artists present fabricated imagery that slips between real and simulated. We cannot be sure what is ‘real’ and what is not, especially when viewing these works in a virtual, digital space. Flat surfaces appear three-dimensional; digital renderings appear to be photographs; and re-purposed imagery is obscured with layers of graphic symbols. We begin to wonder, where and what is the original?
In these times of iterative reproduction and distribution, is there such a thing as an ‘original’? Baudrillard painted a picture of contemporary life whereby individuals are no longer rooted in the real, but hypnotised by an ‘ecstasy of communication’, oversaturated and bombarded by external influences. Objects and events within this picture are continually expanding and superseding themselves, becoming more beautiful than the most beautiful, shinier than the most shiny, more real than reality.
Paradoxically, in a time of automation, acceleration and expansion, the artists in this exhibition take their time, work methodically and fastidiously to create artworks that not only engage the audience with its visual finesse, but also captivate through the irreplaceable human investment of time and dedication to their artistic vision.
“One could of course argue that this is not the real thing, but then—please, anybody—show me this real thing.” –Hito Steyerl, In Defence of the Poor Image, e-flux journal #10 (Nov 2009)
For enquires & additional information, please contact:
Christine Lee
christine@openartadvisory.com
+917.224.0680
www.openartadvisory.com
Image courtesy of the artist.