EXHIBITION
17.07.20 – 24.10.20
OPEN WED – SUN
FROM 2PM – 6PM
AND ON APPOINTEMENT
As in the first iteration of Belief System of a Cannibal Soul , the viewer is confronted with an arrangement of different objects in association. Many of the formal, material and social components from the first iteration have now mutated and evolved, this time spread across the three rooms of Etablissement d’en Face, Brussels.
The profiles in the body of work titled People & Pets were initially photographed or captured as screenshots on the artist’s android smartphone device, which by default syncs all new photographs to Google Photos (Google’s free cloud storage service). A core feature of Google Photos is its use of facial recognition technology which automatically creates unique profiles of all “People & Pets” (the default name given to this folder by Google Photos). The artist used this archive as a resource to draw down profile images from the front index page of the private “People & Pets” folder. Screenshots of the folder record a particular stage in its growth and reproduce it in its current entirety, unedited and presented in minimal compositions using a photo-transfer technique. The “People & Pets” photographs taken by the artist and represented in these works show 300–400 of supposedly 4 trillion photos in the total Google archive. The majority of these works are finished in a thin layer of powdered graphite. In the vertical People & Pets works the top panels of the stacked pieces zooms in on 4 unique faces.
The Vitrines works show 2 vertical structures; at eye level the walls of these structures are composed of TV magnifying lenses salvaged from the 1980s. Displayed inside the first is a set of 3 artificial flickering candles and at the centre of the second work entitled Heel Concept (2020) stands a hyper real foot with numbered toe nails modelling a crushed glass bong.
The work Study Notes (2016 – ongoing) focuses here on 3 particular graphite drawings which accurately reproduce drawings originally made by the artist at the age of 3-4 years old.
The sculpture 100 Seconds to Midnight (2020) presents a merchandise stand for a band called 100 SECONDS TO MIDNIGHT. Phrases such as “GO AWAY”, “INEFFABLE MELANCHOLY”, “GO WITH YOUR IDEOLOGIES TO HELL”, “IT’S OK’, “RADIATE POSITIVITY” run in association across the merch in the sizes for 1 – 3 year olds. The predominant motif shown is the clock graphic of the ‘International Bulletin’s Science & Security Boards’ graphic illustration of humanity’s proximity to “the end”.
(The artist would like to thank all of the people & pets involved in this exhibition – special thank you to all those who gave their consent to have their image reproduced, and to Juliet, Sebastjian, Margot, Harald, Etienne, Michael and Margaux)
1) Mannequin (People & Pets 2020) photo-transfer, linen, graphite
2) Queen (People & Pets 2020) photo-transfer, linen, graphite
3) Girl (People & Pets 2020) photo-transfer, linen, graphite
4) Boy (People & Pets 2020) photo-transfer, linen, graphite
5) People & Pets 1 (2020) photo-transfer, linen, graphite
6) People & Pets 2 (2020) photo-transfer, linen, graphite
7) People & Pets 3 (2020) photo-transfer, linen, graphite
8) People & Pets 4 (2020) photo-transfer, linen, graphite
9) Flameless Candle Light (Vitrines 2020) 1980s TV magnifying lenses, lady bugs, flameless candles, acrylic glass, linoleum
10) Heel Concept (Vitrines 2020) 1980s TV magnifying lenses, glass bong, silicone, nail enamel, acrylic glass, linoleum
11) 3 Year Old Cave (study notes 1991 – 2020) graphite on paper
12) 3 Year Old Tree (study notes 1991 – 2020) graphite on paper
13) 4 Year Old Pet Walker (study notes 1990 – 2020) graphite on paper
14) 02022020 degrees of infinite plasticity (study notes 2020)
15) 100 Seconds to Midnight (2020) lady bugs, clothes, metal
16) 8 x Wardrobes (2020) formica panel, cotton curtain, metal, linoleum
17) 2 x Belief System of a Cannibal Soul 2 poster (2020) inkjet uv poster print
18) 100 x Belief System of a Cannibal Soul 2 cards (2020) uv printed cards
