11 February–31 March 2012
John Hansard Gallery
University of Southampton
Highfield, Southampton
SO17 1BJ, UK
Hours:
Tuesday–Friday 11am–5pm
Saturday 11am–4pm
+44 (0)23 8059 2158
[email protected]
David Cotterrell’s work spans video, audio, interactive media, artificial intelligence, and hybrid technology. Derived from the artist’s journeys to Afghanistan, Monsters of the Id tests our expectations of cinematic and media representation, presenting a series of new works that experiment with advanced display technologies. The exhibition captures the disorientation of a civilian observer within a militarised environment.
Upon entering the gallery, visitors are immersed in a landscape that crosses the physical and the virtual. The disquieting Observer Effect presents viewers with a projected image of a distant, self-absorbed population. As visitors remain within the space, this virtual community grows in number and becomes distracted by their presence.
Searchlight 2 reveals illusory human shadows traversing a low platform terrain, suggestive of the desert landscape as seen by an aerial drone. The unnerving movements of this unidentified population are computer-generated and directly mirror the actions seen in Observer Effect.
Apparent Horizon renders immersive, virtualised vistas of a desert landscape. As viewers, our role hovers between sublime reverie and the quiet anxiety between of periods of violence. The exhibition ends with a final cinematic flourish, enabling visitors to consider their role in the exhibition and its dialogue of control, observation truth and contradiction.
David Cotterrell: Monsters of the Id is a John Hansard Gallery exhibition co-curated with Helen Sloan, SCAN, and is accompanied by a new, fully-illustrated publication. The development of the exhibition has been supported through residencies with the Joint Forces Medical Group in Helmand province and civilian agencies in the northern provinces of Afghanistan enabled by Wellcome Trust and the RSA, and supported by a Philip Leverhulme Prize for research, Danielle Arnaud, Sheffield Hallam University, Wellcome Trust and Arts Council England.
About David Cotterrell
David is an installation artist working across varied media including video, audio, interactive media, artificial intelligence, device control and hybrid technology. His work exhibits political, social and behavioural, analyses of the environments and contexts, which he and his work inhabit.
Over the last ten years, his work has been extensively commissioned and exhibited in North America, Europe and the Far East, in gallery spaces, museums and within the public realm.
David Cotterrell is Professor of Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University. He is represented by Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London.
For more information: www.davidcotterrell.com
About SCAN
SCAN is an agency developing media arts in the South of England. It works in partnerships with a broad range of individuals, groups and institutions nationally and internationally to commission innovative projects that cross and merge disciplines drawn from arts, media, humanities, science and technology. SCAN explores ideas, sites, and tools showing the creative potential that media arts offer in our changing society. Helen Sloan has been Director of SCAN, Digital and Interdisciplinary Arts Agency since its launch in 2003.
For more information: www.scansite.org
Exhibition Associated Events:
In Conversation:
David Cotterrell and Helen Sloan
Thursday 23 February 2012, 6–7pm
Free/ No Booking Required
Find out more about Monsters of the Id at this discussion event with David Cotterrell and co-curator Helen Sloan, Director of media arts agency SCAN.
One Day Conference:
Art Image Politics
Saturday 10 March 2012, 10am–6.30pm
Tickets: 10 GBP / Booking Essential
Art Image Politics presents a range of speakers who will explore how artists in the 21st Century are using technologies, reflecting new political agendas, and are constructing imagery or concepts to represent the current world situation. To book: Please call 023 8059 2158 or e-mail: [email protected]
Press images and further information:
Adrian Hunt, Head of Communications / T: 023 8059 7271 / E: [email protected]
