For his first solo commission in a British public space
Simon Martin presents Untitled (2008), a new single-screen
video installation conceived specially for this exhibition
at Chisenhale.
Martin’s practice examines the cultural significance of art and
artifacts and our relationship to them, and encompasses
painting, sculpture and moving image. In recent years he has
focused almost exclusively on film. Untitled marks a departure
into the realm of high definition, CAD (computer assisted
design) animation.
In 1998 Martin made a photorealist painting of a strawberry
poison dart frog based on a found photograph. Untitled returns
to that same source image though here it is rendered in a fully
three-dimensional state. The animation of the frog could be
seen as a collection of establishing shots, carefully observing
the creature and exploring the virtual space of the synthetic
image. Moving between stillness and motion, Martin’s digital
rendering of the photographic image creates an uncanny effect
and a self-reflexive comment on the construction of images.
Punctuating shots of the frog are intertitles consisting of text
taken from a various airport novels. These are banal, generic
phrases, which describe a variety of locations and simple
actions and combine to evoke a liminal non-space. A collage of
rainforest sounds and orchestral extracts accompanies the
images and text. The orchestral extracts signify the ‘cinematic’,
yet the images, text and sound do not fully fuse, instead
remaining as discrete, parallel layers of information. There
might be clues to things outside of the film - love affairs or
world events - but extracted from a wider narrative, here, in
isolation, meaning is infinitely deferred and we remain
resolutely in the presentness of the work.
To quote Martin, ‘A picture of a poison dart frog is something
we could all be familiar with from a TV documentary or a
museum postcard. An image like this becomes the start of a
discussion or a springboard to somewhere else. An event or
situation can also coalesce into a memorable image, one that
we can try to reproduce or simply hold in our heads. How are
images used to direct our attention and what information
unwittingly leaks out in the process. What did the image-maker
not see? What does the frame exorcise? Why this particular
image? And how is it that some images remain, despite
familiarity or analysis, potent or strange whilst others will slip
by barely noticed.’
Simon Martin was included in Beatrix Ruf¹s Tate Triennial
(2006) and he has had solo exhibitions at The Power Plant,
Toronto (2006), Carl Freedman Gallery, London (2006), and
White Columns, New York (2005). Martin’s work has been
purchased by Tate and the Arts Council Collection and his
films are distributed by LUX.
Sunday 7 December, 2 – 5pm Join artists Jenny Hendra,
Alice Finbow and Sarah Michaels from the Institute of
Education for a family afternoon of drop-in art workshops
inspired by Simon Martin’s exhibition.
Monday 8 December, 7.30pm Esther Leslie, Professor of
Political Aesthetics, Birkbeck University explores moments
in the history, politics and aesthetics of animation and its
employment in the rendering of a ‘digital sublime’.
Saturday 13 December, 3pm Dan Fox, Associate Editor,
frieze in conversation with Simon Martin.
Thursday 8 January, 7.30pm A screening of artists’ film
and video selected by Simon Martin.
Saturday 17 January, 3pm Stuart Comer, Curator of Film,
Tate Modern discusses some themes and concerns emerging
from Simon Martin’s exhibition.
