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Obituary is the first large scale, solo work presented by
artists Jon Thomson and Alison Craighead. Having investigated
the intersections of popular belief, new technologies and
surveillance in numerous video, multi-media, audio and internet
works, the gallery space at 30 Underwood Street offers them
a unique opportunity to bring these concerns together in one
environment. |
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In an era which some call
the age of transparency, the work Obituary is especially timely.
As many of Thomson and Craighead's earlier pieces, it explores
the complex and often contradictory manifestations of the
electronic ether in our lives. This ambient environment, so
difficult to conceptualise in singular terms, collapses the
ominous surveillance capabilities of satellite and CCTV camera's
with the shared emotional experiences that are subtly forced
upon us by television, radio, greeting cards and recorded
music. |
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The electronic ether is
the space of global media vectors. It is created and used
by governmental, military and commercial broadcasting and
data gathering organisations alike while simultaneously binding
millions across the globe into a an illusion of nearly familial
proximity and intimacy. The electronic ether is the repository
for a vast amount of usable data on often banal, but potentially
incriminating evidence on our daily whereabouts and actions.
Thomson and Craighead explore the layers of emotional experience
that are emerging from this vapour of intimacy, fear, power
and structured paranoia. In Obituary, they cast a sympathetic
yet unflinching eye on a seance, site par extraordinaire for
the ghosts of the electronic netherworld to cross the boundaries
that separate them from the living. |
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By projecting synchronised
'front' and 'back' versions of the same event, the projection
screen is able to slice through space, providing a seamless
record of events that occurred in a three dimensional space
on a two dimensional plane.
A small group of people sit around a table. The medium's face
is smudged with video mosaic thus rendered anonymous for reasons
unknown to the viewer. An accumulation of neutral voices cushion
this space with the generic pleasantries of birthday cards
and cemetery gravestones, so meaningful to someone, so deathly
once sucked up into the mass. Are we witnessing the conduit
between us and our dead brethren or merely a more efficient
springboard into the banality, illusions and enforced submissions
of the electronic ether?
Pauline van Mourik Broekman.
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