So it's been two months, slightly better than seven months but not quite the every week or two schedule that I want to get back to. Tomorrow I'll be installing my solo show, Bit Rot, at Broadway Studio + Gallery in Letchworth which opens on the 27th February next week. Other than that I've been going to a few exhibitions, planning the show in Brussels that I’m curating, which will be opening in late April, organising a small group show for the website and just generally continuing to apply to open calls and creating new work.
Mostly I’ve been making work for the solo show, which will be my largest show to date, with quite a few artworks. I think there’s over 50 or so paintings in total (including 24 that I have made as an edition to be sold in the gallery shop) alongside around 20 sculptures and two new video installations. Now that I’m breaking it down into actual numbers it is quite daunting but exciting. Here’s the press release:
Broadway Studio and Gallery are delighted to present Bit Rot, a solo exhibition by artist, curator and writer Bob Bicknell-Knight.
Working within various artistic mediums, Bicknell-Knight’s work responds to the hyper consumerism of the internet, exploring ideas of surveillance capitalism, utopian and dystopian ideologies and the digitization of the self.
Bit Rot, also known as bit decay, data rot and data decay, is the slow deterioration in the performance and integrity of data stored on storage media. The process occurs overs many years, due to imperfect insulation on flash drives, floppy disks losing their magnetic orientation and by storing CDs and DVDs in warm, humid environments, causing them to physically and visually rot.
In Bit Rot, Bicknell-Knight exhibits new paintings, sculptures and videos, depicting relics from the past and the present, set in a near future where nature has overwhelmed various forms of technology in a world not dissimilar to our own. The paintings and video works utilise imagery and footage taken from the video game Horizon Zero Dawn.
The 2017 game follows Aloy, a hunter in the year 3040, who inhabits a future Earth that has limited access to technology and has become overrun by animal like machines controlled by a rogue artificial intelligence. The works began with Bicknell-Knight wandering through this virtual world, using in game photography techniques to document the degradation of technology and modern life in a number of different in game environments. The in-game objects have become monuments to virtual users who would have previously inhabited them within the digital space. The cars, buildings and roads in the paintings and videos are relics from a future world, with these elements frozen in time and space due to unknown interventions.
The sculptures within the exhibition are real world objects that have been overwhelmed by artificial interventions, from faux grass to plastic flowers, mimicking the digital nature displayed within the game world, created and crafted over hundreds of hours by a small workforce of video game developers.
Within the exhibition the two videos are displayed on and around an aluminium modular extrusion system, used in office partitions and within forms of autonomous production. The films contain manipulated footage captured from within the video game, presenting a number of the digital landscapes over a 24-hour period, complete with digital birdsong and running water. The original footage has been altered, transforming the once hyper real landscapes into moving paintings, presented in the same aesthetic style as the physical paintings.
Another series of paintings in the show feature individual flower varieties, captured at different times of day within the in-game world. A series of 24 paintings, each depicting the intricacies of the same digital flower at a different hour in a given day, are available to purchase and view at the gallery’s reception desk.
So the show is preserving the digital rotting which occurs within the video game and on the literal game disks within themselves. Perhaps a little too meta, but I think it makes sense to an extent. I’m really excited to see how the videos look installed on a new series of aluminium structures, with custom USB drives that are in the shape of copper minerals, the elements used within computer CPUs and other electronics which cause them to physically rot. After spending a lot of time thinking about the videos, whether to simply show them as is (captured from within the game world) or edited in some way, I finally realised that it would be amazing if they resembled the painterly style that I use to create the paintings. After searching for a while, and thinking that I might have to physically edit each frame of two forty minute videos, I discovered a plugin that can be downloaded for Premiere that allows you to make this change to the video quite easily. Anyway, it’s an exciting development which I may use for future work, although I wouldn’t want to overuse the filter.
I’ve made lots of sculptures too, covered in green with various silk and plastic flowers protruding from them. These will be sporadically placed around the gallery, as if they’ve been left and discarded in the midst of an apocalyptic event. Once I added in the artificial flowers, mimicking the digital/artificial nature of the video game, I think the works improved drastically, as apposed to having the sculptures simply covered in green and left to rot.
Aside from planning for the show, which has taken up most of my time, I have also continued working on my trophy hunter portraits of various tech billionaires. I’m slowly accumulating them, hopefully at some point I can have a solo show of the paintings, accompanied by 3D printed heads of each of the tech billionaires placed around the gallery space. A mix of trophy hunting and some sort of billionaire retreat where they hunt each other for sport. Maybe that’s new work, Mark Zuckerberg holding the head of Bill Gates, etc?
I’m also working on this Brussels exhibition, which is slowly forming. Most of the artists I’ve invited said yes, which is positive. The show is very screen focused, the most screens I’ve had in a show I’ve curated, so I’m a little suspicious of how everything will look. Also the fact that it’s in a different county and very distant from myself. I dunno, I feel quite disconnected, along with the fact that it’s not in a gallery but in a private office type space, so it changes the dynamic to some degree. It should be a great show. So far the list of confirmed artists are Lynn Hershman Leeson, JODI, Ryan Kuo, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Ami Clarke, Jacob Ciocci, Ben Grosser, Joel Holmberg, Joy Buolamwini, Stephanie Dinkins, Elvia Vasconcelos, Esther Hovers, Claire Jervert and myself. I’m still waiting to hear back from a few, but for the moment it should be a strong show. I’ll be showing a video and a new painting of various AI in cinema and how their portrayal has slowly evolved through the years.
What else is going on? I’m currently curating a show on the isthisit? website, as I’m yet to have an online show on there this year, so I thought I’d kickstart the process a little. It’s called Office Space and features work by Lydia Blakely, Naomi Fitzsimmons, Johnny Izatt-Lowry, Perce Jerrom and Lilli Mathod. I’m still organising how the show looks on the website, and will hopefully release it by the end of the month. The show is about the inherent violence embedded within the aesthetics, language and visual identity of corporate culture and office buildings.
I think that might be it for now, I have a few group shows coming up and continue to apply to open calls, but we shall see. I’d like to have another solo show this year, showing the trophy hunter works, but only time will tell. I’d also like to sell more work (of course) and slowly build up a life away from my day jobs. Within the next five years I also see myself and my partner moving out of London, although who knows where at this point… Anyway, let’s focus on shows I’ve seen, which painfully isn’t that many.
First up is Hot Moment at Auto Italia South East, curated by Radclyffe Hall featuring Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, Flora Dunster, Ingrid Pollard, Jill Posener, Taylor Le Melle, Tessa Boffin and Zinzi Minott. A lot of their shows are steeped in research, being more museum like than a commercial or project space. The show featured photographers capturing lesbian identity in London, mostly in the 80s and 90s.
RedivideЯ at Platform Southwark, curated by Hector Campbell with Yulia Iosilzon and India Nielsen, felt very busy and full of work that I didn’t really enjoy. I found one small piece which I did really like, although it was hung with a wire when it seemed to have a perfectly fitted hole, premade into the work so that it would hang from a screw or nail. Very odd, and just full of work that I did not like.
Daniel Burley’s Skelf II at GAO was fun, as I work there I know a lot more about the show than an average passer-by. I think his work is fun, although very sketchy and unrefined. The sculptures are obviously very carefully made, but there are elements which feel rushed or simply ‘bodged’ together. It feels like there’s so much embedded within the work that it needs to have an accompanying book or essay.
James Welling at Maureen Paley wasn’t for me, especially as the frame for the dye sublimation prints were so thick. It was all about photography and printmaking, which I don’t find very interesting.
Dustin Hodges’ Establishing Shot at Soft Opening was very simple, presenting two paintings, looking somewhat half finished. I enjoyed how the artist has painted, not to the edge of the stretched canvas, but to about a cm or so line inwards. It adds a secondary framing of the work, which I did enjoy.
Hyper Functional, Ultra Healthy at Somerset House was an exhibition programme featuring mostly performances and a new video work, titled Cryptic Ruins, by Stine Deja. The video consisted of a CGI gym, buried in sand and brick. The voiceover talks about these machines, questioning what they were previously used for and why people would visit a venue with these machines present. It’s a fun, fairly short, piece that I enjoyed. The video is available to view online here - https://vimeo.com/381023160
Joey Holder’s Semelparous, a site specific installation curated by Julia Greenway in the Pool and Spa of the closed Springhealth Leisure Center, was fun. The install was quite fantastic, with the pool being taken over by a short looping video concerning European eels and their complex migration and reproduction, accompanied by machine cut MDF and various prints adorning the walls and light boxes. Entering the space felt great, embedded within a truly derelict experience, alongside the venue itself being perfectly suited to this slippery work. The actual video, the focus of the installation, was similar to Joey’s previous work, a mixture of found footage, internet scrawling and computer created line illustrations referencing symbols and mythology. The videos always feel science esque, containing some heavy research but no more than what can be found on Wikipedia. I like the work and the aesthetic, although without the science it’s vey image based and feels quite random. As a whole though, the show is really great and I would highly recommend going.
Modern Art had two shows on, one with Katy Moran and not great abstract paintings.
The other featured work from Paul Mpagi Sepuya, photographs of intimate studio portraits between various friends, lovers, or members of the queer and artistic community of LA and New York. They were very beautiful works.
Chasing Unborn Shadows, curated by Hervisions at Gossamer Fog featured work from Furmaan Ahmed, Anna Sophie De Vries, Snow Yunxue Fu, Deborah Mora, Sofia Albina Novikof Unger, Paola Pinna, Tabita Rezaire and Dorine Van Meel. I wasn’t that into the show, a lot of the work I wasn’t that into or interested in, accompanied by the screen overload. Kind of disappointing.
I found Habitual at Castor Projects, on the other hand, fantastic. The show featured a ton of artists, including Sara Anstis, Claire Baily, Jack Burton, Gareth Cadwallader, Lotti V Closs, Stevie Dix, Jemma Egan, Ben Jamie, Simon Linington, Alan Magee, Derek Mainella, Simon Mathers, Amanda Moström, Nick Paton, Sebastian Sochan, Willem Weismann, Jack West, Grace Woodcock and Rafal Zajko. The show was presenting all this work in a purpose built art storage chest of drawers, with the press release detailing the addiction of a fictious collector. So the show is, in affect, you browsing through the persons personal collection of artworks. It’s very fun and makes the viewing of work like a game, which is very rare. It included a few nice pieces, although I think the actual conceit of the group show was far better than any of the works featured.
Kate MacGarry had an exhibition of new works by J Blackwell, which were all not very interesting.
Project Native Informant had a duo presentation from Flo Brooks and Bagus Pandega. I’ve written about Brooks work before, which I do thoroughly enjoy, but Pandega’s was new to me. Their work featured hospital like instruments and 3D printed components to talk about labor and the difference between private vs public. It was interesting work.
Patrick H Jones at The Sunday Painter was creepy, with a very thick painting style. I’m not sure whether I liked them or not.
Rubem Valentim at The approach was surprisingly great, some solid paintings from the 1980s.
Emalin had a show with work by Nicholas Cheveldave, Bjorn Copeland and Georgia Dickie that I wasn’t so into. Just a bit too big and abstract for me.
Chris Dorland at NıCOLETTı was not to my taste. Too glitchy and techy for me.
Peter Davies’ Aftershock at The approach was painfully painty.
Ellen Gronemeyer at Greengrassi was fine, I wasn’t that into the painting style.
Downstairs at CORVI-MORA had work by Adam Buick, Gretchen Faust, Ellen Gronemeyer, Juha Pekka Matias Laakkonen, Maria Toumazou and Pae White. It felt very well curated, with the works positioned well, but the actual work wasn’t so interesting to me.
mother's tankstation had a good show with work by Yuko Mohri and Zeinab Saleh, various tech elements attached to musical devices, alongside electric candles as sculptures. Nice.
Gabriele Beveridge at Freehouse was fun, although had no press release. I’m a fan of the glass sculptures mixed with ways of displaying consumer products.
Hazel Brill’s Pup & Blubber at Block 336 was quite lovely, making connections between the progresses made in AI with two puppets that used to host a TV show. The install was full of projection mapping and simple moving parts, and just felt nice and respectful.
Also at Block 336 was Nervous Systems by Teresita Dennis, which I was less into.
No horizon, no edge to liquid, was a group show at the Zabludowicz Collection curated by students from MA Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central Saint Martins; MA Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Arts; and MA Film Programming and Curating at Birkbeck College. It featured work from Alvaro Barrington, Varda Caivano, Nir Evron, Richard Ayodeji Ikhide, Laura Lima, Mohamed Namou, Nam June Paik, Seth Price, Hiraki Sawa, Raqib Shaw, Nobuko Tsuchiya, Francis Upritchard and Saya Woolfalk. I didn’t really like any of the work, the yearly group curated shows always feel like there were too many cooks involved in the process. Way too many.
Laurence Owen’s show Gerund, also at the Zabludowicz Collection, was kind of fun, a truly mixed media set of artworks featuring clay, fabric, oil paint, wood and various other materials. Not my thing but fun to see.
Alongside this was the 360 Virtual Reality Room at the Collection. Swan Collective had a piece there, titled NowForeVR which was truly basic.
The other piece being shown was Filip Kostic’s Executable Experience, which I liked more but had an inordinate amount of dragons. I wasn’t really sure what the work was actually about because of this. Some documentation of the piece here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ53U6278Rw
The final show was Crowd at Hannah Barry Gallery, with work by Charlie Billingham, Lydia Blakeley, Sharon Eyal, Danny Fox, Christopher Hartmann, Norman Hyams, Kingsley Ifill, Yulia Iosilzon, Damien Jalet, Dale Lewis, James Lincoln, George Rouy, Xiuching Tsay and Harley Weir. I dunno, it felt a little too crowded for me. Another excuse for a group show, but unlike Habitual the conceit here felt a little too weak for me. It was fun to see this huge piece by Lydia Blackeley though.
I think that’s it for shows, now lets get into TV shows, films and video games. The Witcher on Netflix was surprisingly fun and didn’t take itself too seriously. I’ve played both The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3, the video games that were inspired by the original books which the TV show was inspired by. They’re brilliant games, and the TV show did add to that. I’m looking forward to season 2.
Le Mans '66 or Ford v Ferrari was a thrilling experience, making you truly excited about car racing, which I’m really not into at all. Matt Damon and Christian Bale were fantastic.
Urban Myths is a fun BBC tv show, re-enacting various myths and legends, from various points in history. One of my favourites was seeing Hitler and his multiple attempts to get into art school. It was funny and easy.
The Report, featuring the always amazing Adam Driver, was quite depressing. It was based on a real life story of the investigation into the torture methods used post 9/11. Very bleak and upsetting.
The Lighthouse was quite fantastic and just painful to watch. So amazingly great and a must watch. A very tense watch.
Messiah on Netflix was kind of fun, questioning what would happen if someone, at this present moment, would declare themselves as the second coming, doing miracles, etc. I kind of liked it, although by the end of the season I think I was tired and done with it.
Last Christmas, watched after the Christmas period, was painfully trashy.
I really enjoyed The Two Popes, learning about the intricate politics of the Vatican was quite thrilling.
That leads me onto The Young Pope, with Jude Law playing the pope. Again, delving even further into the politics and power involved in being the pope and having so much control over the Christian community. Just very well done.
The second season, titled The New Pope, changed it up again by having John Malkovich as the pope. I’m really enjoying the series.
Little Women was very good, a really great adaptation and an amazing set of actors.
Again, Adam Driver being amazing in Marriage Story. So very painful and fantastic.
Frozen II was fine, no way as good as the first.
Fillmore! was a fantastic cartoon, the premise being that each middle school in America has a police force, made up of kids whose captain is another kid. They solve the crimes around the school and consistently get berated by the head captain, who is in the principle. It’s a very good show that is a total mockery of 90s cop shows. One of the best clips from the show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtlAp0uQUvM
Jexi was terrible, like a rip off Her. So bad, I regret everything.
I thoroughly enjoyed Ruben Brandt, Collector. The animation style was truly beautiful and the plot was a nice mix of heist and art. Four expert thieves attempt to steal every famous artwork that is haunting their mutual psychotherapist. Very good and very recommended.
Where'd You Go, Bernadette was fine, although not Linklater’s best. It felt a little weak and unrealistic, not like his other films aren’t, but still…
The Aeronauts was fine, exciting but not that great. I probably wouldn’t recommend it.
I thought Infernal Affairs was fantastic, a shame I haven’t watched it before.
The tv show version of Watchmen was really amazing. It’s set in an alternate history where masked vigilantes are treated as outlaws. Really very good.
Bombshell was great and just very distressing.
Fast Food Nation, another Linklater film, was fun but slightly dated. I guess that’s what happens when you watch a film 14 years after it was made.
The Dead Don't Die was fine, another basic zombie film, although enhanced by Adam Driver.
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts was a wonderful cartoon.
I watched Won't You Be My Neighbor? to understand Fred Rogers a little more after watching the Tom Hanks film. It was interesting to learn more.
I loved A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon. Like all their films, the animation is always wonderfully intricate and well made. Very good.
Avenue 5 is a trashy tv show about a tourist, cruise like, spaceship trapped in space.
21 Bridges was fun trash.
I really enjyed Queen & Slim, although the whole experience was painfully distressing. This is the setup, from IMDB: Slim and Queen's first date takes an unexpected turn when a policeman pulls them over for a minor traffic violation. When the situation escalates, Slim takes the officer's gun and shoots him in self-defence. Now labelled cop killers in the media, Slim and Queen feel that they have no choice but to go on the run and evade the law. When a video of the incident goes viral, the unwitting outlaws soon become a symbol of trauma, terror, grief and pain for people all across the country.
I’ve been enjoying Star Trek: Picard, although to fully appreciate it I think I’d need to know more about Star Trek.
The second season of The End of the F***ing World was even more distressing than the first, in a good way of course, but anything involving rape deeply distresses me. It’s good tv but painful to watch.
Horse Girl, a new film charting the downfall of a young woman, slowly going insane, was okay.
To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You was a fun sequel, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I will happily watch more PG teen movies.
Honey Boy was fantastic and made me appreciate Shia LaBeouf more and more.
Jumanji: The Next Level was good, light fun which I enjoyed.
Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman was quite amazing and so weird. I’ll let IMDB tell you the plot: A stoic book salesman leads a double life as he plays hooky from work to write his sweets blog. In his journey to attain a glimpse of sweets heaven Kantaro samples various Japanese and Western sweets.
I played and loved Inside, focusing on a boy running into an unknown military like space, where worker bodies are controlled by machines and scientists enact grim experiments. The whole experience was quite amazing, taking around 3 – 4 hours to complete. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and if you play games I would definitely recommend spending the time to experience it.
I’ve also been playing Return of the Obra Dinn, although it’s quite a hard game. The aim of the game is to explore a ship, whose crew have all died or gone missing. You have to piece together what happened to each crew member by reliving when they died. It’s really well made and very clever, almost too clever. It’s got a fantastic art style and I look forward to eventually completing it.
Annnd I think that’s it for now, tomorrow I’ll be installing my show, and after that I’ll have a lot more time to focus on future projects, my art and curatorial projects, alongside playing some more video games.
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