Exhibition
The Drifting Canvas - Cole Contemporary
Press Release
The Drifting Canvas
18 June – 17 July
Preview 17 June 6 – 8pm
The Drifting Canvas presents eight artists painting in the context of the digital information age, as ever developing CGI technology creates new and innovative ways of approaching the visual.
As the increasing layers of CGI in film create a superimposed way of looking, computer effects replace images that were once conjured, thus removing elements of suspense and calling into question the credibility of the image. This drift from the real to the unreal can be characterised as the overall ubiquity of digital recording, and can also be presented as a means of rescue or escape - a unifying approach to a fragmented installation of images or a dislocation of subject and context. When capturing an image it can initially be seen as a record but with the presence of elemental form, i.e. the pixel which is contrastingly both the greatest quantity and smallest detail. The actions of painting have in turn informed and proliferated from such method.
The Drifting Canvas forms a dialogue present in contemporary painting practice, dissolving abstraction and special effect with works by Harry Scoging Beer, Robin Footitt, Ian Homerston, Thomas Livesey, Tom McParland, Ellen MacDonald, Simon Mathers and Jamie Partridge.
The Drifting Canvas is co-curated by Robin Footitt and Tom Cole. A publication with an essay by Robin Footitt, published by Ditto Press, will be available at the exhibition preview.
