Since its inception in 1970, Cirrus has never limited its vision to traditional art forms, but embraced young artists who were incorporating new mediums such as computers (Barbara Smith’s Field Piece), performance (Guy de Cointet), sculptural sound installation (Michael Brewster), transformative environments (Eric Orr, Robert Overby), Light and Space work (Greg Card, David Trowbridge), text based works (Ed Ruscha, Bruce Nauman, Alexis Smith, Chris Burden) and deconstructed material painting (Charles Hill, Eugene Sturman, Karen Carson, and Jay McCafferty). Continuing with the gallery’s vision, the inaugural exhibition in the new space examines the relationship between image, text and technology. The rapidity of new tools and forms of communication has brought about not only an interweaving of images, text and sound, but also a blurring of lines between creative disciplines – opening up a collaborative world that is available on a global, 24/7 basis – if the creators so desire.
Using Magritte’s The Treachery of Images and Seth Price’s Dispersion as springboards, the show considers the various ways in which technology has influenced the progression of language and the creative process. While representing painting (Tyler Matthew Oyer, Despina Stokou and Siebren Versteeg) and drawing and coding (Guy de Cointet, Ed Kienholz and Ed Ruscha) that employ or co-opt both the aesthetic quality or function of technology, the exhibition continues the conversation with video and film (Kutluğ Ataman, John Baldessari, Brice Bischoff, Miranda July and Bruce Nauman), television (Chris Burden), Xerox (Kim Jones, Barbara Smith), FAX (David Hockney), mail art (Eleanor Antin, Ida Applebroog, and Suzanne Lacy), appropriation (Barbara Kruger), land art (Dennis Oppenheim), computer games (Eddo Stern, (interglobal.vision [Michael Ray-Von, Carlos Solares and Patrick Best]), Polaroid (Eve Sonneman), digital printing (Lee Mullican, Siebren Versteeg), and web art (interglobal.vision). Beyond the works represented in the gallery, there will be a number of other relevant pieces that will be accessible through both virtual and non-virtual environments. Paul Chan’s Sade for Fonts Sake for example, will be available for those wanting to participate in a call for the most tantalizing erotica. There will also be access to a number of performances via YouTube, and links (such as Satellite Collective’s Telephone and Cory Arcangel’s website), that also dialogue with the possibilities technology has brought.
For their contribution to the exhibition, interglobal.vision have created a text-based adventure game, Treachery of Images. As a player you explore the world of the exhibition, moving in space and performing tasks by entering single-word text commands. The adventure functions as an alternate catalog for the exhibition and forefronts questions of the translation of experience and the transference of ideas. The game may be played at http://treacheryofimag.es
A panel discussion focusing on how the logic of computers and the Internet is influencing new strategies for the convergence of text and image in the aesthetic realm will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition. The panel is organized by Heber Rodriguez.