Jon Nash – You know you’re not the first
8th July – 31st July 2011
“There were times when no maps existed to match the reality we were trying to create.” “What reality?” “We tried to create new realities overnight, careful sets of words that resemble advertising slogans in memorability and repeatability. These were words that would yield pictures eventually and then become three-dimensional. The reality stands, it walks, it squats. Except when it doesn’t.” (Point Omega, Don DeLilo)
The Hudson River Series is the product of extensive travels throughout Google’s Streetview program. On one of several long distance journeys between the Adirondack Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean an anomaly in the scenery occurs. The work is captured as screengrabs from this two mile stretch of technical
failure.
In China, fake exceeds real. Pirated DVD’s are often produced to a higher quality than the genuine original. Fake seals of authenticity and limited edition copies pad out a prosperous black market. As films are copied and distributed the difference becomes trivial. Through perpetual appropriation online images build their own
black market, uncontrollably spinning away from the creator.
The A3 laser-jet prints show images lifted from the internet, digitally painted on then replaced with corresponding metadata. ‘Your know you’re not the first’ is the tag line from a BMW used car advert showing an attractive, naked girl lying on her back. Widely disseminated, the image exists as multiple versions of the original, repeated on blogs, forums and websites. These images have a self-multiplying
quality and the work participates in this repetition, hijacking established, online aura.
Commodities are traded by men at computers, often as futures. These are agreements to exchange a specified asset for a price agreed today but delivered at a future date. Here trade becomes virtual – the space between a lump of gold and its intended use is hyper mediated. Gold can also be produced by men at computers. Farmed from the fantasy virtual landscape of World of Warcraft, it is then sold to wealthy Westerners who have jobs and lack the time needed to grow their avatars’ fortunes. There were calls to tax this virtual currency and reports that drugs cartels were using the program to launder money. More recently it was reported that prisoners whose days were spent mining valuable
minerals were forced to farm gold by night. This reality stands, it walks, it squats. Except when it doesn’t.
French Riviera is a gallery in Bethnal Green, London, presented by artists Samuel Levack and Jennifer Lewandowski as an extension of their long standing collaboration. Occupying the artists’ former studio in a shop on Bethnal Green Road, the gallery offers a platform to artists who are currently without representation.
