As part of FAD’s media partnership with ArtPadSF we caught up with Artist Andrew Benson ahead of his Live Video Art Performance “Shine Bright Plastic Diamonds” which takes place next Thursday May 16th 8pm @ArtPadSF.
1 Andrew who are you ?
I’m an artist from California that makes videos, animations, web-based work, and performs occasionally.
2. Can you tell us more about your work and what are the main ideas you would like to express?
In the early days of cable TV, in the 1970s, you had all these artists and writers that viewed the video signal as this liberating force, as something that could lead to transcendental awareness and a more empowered civilization. Along with that optimism and utopian spirit were people who were taking apart the video signal and altering it to make visual art, like Nam June Paik, Woody and Steina Vasulka, and Stephen Beck. Now we have a new broadcast signal, in the form of the internet, 3D graphics, and digital video. I’m involved in taking apart that signal and dealing with it as a kind of material, the way that a painter deals with pigments and surface. My work combines all the technologies of digital and electronic representation, but I constantly ask what else they can do besides showing me a picture of my face or simulating reality. Part of this process also involves thinking about how our desires and needs play out in the technical space, how image filtering gets used as a sort of makeup, how a status update represents an idealized self, and how our need for validation and connection with others becomes expressed through digital signals. I’m interested in the clumsiness of trying to communicate through an imperfect medium, and how that allows us to express something different.
Cyber Fantasy from andrew benson on Vimeo.
3. How do you start the process of making work?
It really depends on the project, but all of my best ideas for work come from working. Before I even have an idea, I’ll start building something, or drawing, or writing. I try to figure out what the context for the work will be, what the space will be like, and work from there. A lot of my work ends up being projected, so I try to think about how that projection will interact with the surface and how I would want to animate the surface in terms of light. Other than that, I’m really just constantly working and then things take form as I go. I don’t have a lot of faith in concepts, personally, unless they can be expressed through my relationship with the tools and materials, or the space. I work a lot with different computer software, and write some software, and I’m always looking for ways that I can expand the intended uses of different processes and tools. Also, sound is really important to my process, even in projects where it’s silent. I usually work on sound concurrently with my visual work.
4. What will yo be showing at ArtPad SF ?
I will be performing a live video work called “Shine Bright Plastic Diamonds”, to be projected onto a building adjacent to the Phoenix Hotel as well as the trees in the courtyard of the hotel. I will have a few assistants streaming video to me from their iPhones around the art fair. This will be used to drive animations and abstract video processes, interspersed with brief glimpses of something recognizable. It will be bright, playful, and full of color.
5. Gif or Jpeg ?
GIF but only if it’s animated.
6. RGB or CYMK ?
RGB definitely
7. Do you use Vine ? If you do how can we find your video’s ?
I use it, it’s cool. I really like the app because there’s a built-in clumsiness to it. I don’t feel like you can make anything perfect with it, and you don’t really know what you will get. It’s simultaneously precious and garbage, and you have to just put something out there. I feel like a lot of social media has become really workshopped, and people are too aware of how they are presenting themselves in most settings and it gets used for a lot of PR and political junk. Vine still feels pretty raw. Also, I cried the first time I saw http://www.vinepeek.com/ it’s so intense.
8. Finally (Almost) if you had $257,000 to buy art, what would you buy ?
That number is so inconceivable to me that I wouldn’t even know. I don’t ever look at the price of art, so I would need to educate myself about the options. That’s roughly five years of my life that could be paid for. That said, I’d probably buy some good work from small galleries and try to put together a show of commissioned videos and animations.
9. Finally what’s next for you after ArtPADSF ?
I’m currently working with HOK Architects on a Market St. window display for the IIDA Windows project.
The display will involve video projections on layers of different perforated or translucent materials.
The big reveal for that project will also happen on May 16th – so I’ll miss the party – but will be on view on Market St. in San Francisco for a month.
I’m also curating an online “pavilion” for a digital biennale called “The Wrong”, organized by David Quiles Guillo. There will be 25 different pavilions, each curated by a different artist. I can’t tell you much more about it, but my pavilion will have some very amazing artists’ work, so keep your eye out for that in November. I’m also collaborating with the documentary director Lourdes Portillo on an animated short and working on several projects that are still too vague to mention.
ArtPadSF Thursday May 16th – Sunday 19th at the Phoenix Hotel 601 Eddy St.
San Francisco, CA 94109 www.ArtPadSF.com
