John Gerrard Selects ROE Visual for Digital Artwork
Leek, the Netherlands (16 November 2021) – DSMP is delighted to host a unique installation for their latest Paris-based location 3537, designed by artists Gerrard and Richie Hawtin, in partnership with ROE Visual.
The digital artwork, infini.1.iridescent.stream by John Gerrard, accompanied by a bespoke Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman composition, can be experienced at 3537, a new physical and digital site for experimental artistic projects hosted by Dover Street Market/Comme des Garcons. Here Rei Kawakubo and her husband Adrian Joffe are birthing yet another creative company, where fashion can engage with communities and foster culture in addition to commerce.
Internationally acclaimed visual artists John Gerrard and Richie Hawtin, pioneers in their respective fields, have come together for a unique collaboration, creating an immersive art experience that combines advanced digital simulation, original techno composition, and artificial intelligence. Imagine watching an artwork that changes gradually over an entire year, with a musical accompaniment that also morphs continually. The resulting work becomes a minutely conceived and specified 'techno room' where audiences are immersed in a unified musical and visual artwork.
The installation, a large, high-definition LED screen facing off with a stack of speakers, has a one-month residency. The screen depicts an iridescent python eating its tail and moving slowly in a figure-eight, the shape of infinity. Gerrard programmed a virtual camera to pan over the snake at the sun's speed, with the light, perspective, and speed changing with the seasons.
Embedded in many of Gerrard's works are warnings about climate change. His "solar serpent" at 3537, moving under the sun in the shape of an ancient symbol of birth and renewal, suggests that people ignore rhythms of balance at their peril. TheParis residency coincides with COP26, the United Nations climate change conference.
Looking for a LED screen that would do right to the minutiae iridescent color shades and the deep black surrounding the snake, executive producer Martine d'Anglejan-Chatillon and Jim Martin approached ROE Visual. Convinced that only a high-quality LED product would do justice to this digital work of art, they were delighted that ROE Visual could supply the correct type of LED panel. The extraordinary color gamut of the Ruby RB2.3 LED panel, combined with its wide viewing angle and high contrast, made it perfect for the job.
"Being able to transpose my artwork from a design environment to a live environment without loss of quality or color spectrum is of enormous importance and meaning for any artist," comments Gerrard.
"We're delighted with the final results, the LED wall is perfection, and the python on it looks beautiful," states d'Anglejan-Chatillon.
Credits:
Music arranged by Studio Bronze. Executive Producers Martine d'Anglejan-Chatillon at MDAC and Jim Martin at XXVII Arts. Commissioner Monica Monajem, In Partnership with ROE Visual and MDAC Productions.
Product used:
ROE Visual Ruby RB2.3
About John Gerrard
John Gerrard is a celebrated artist and pioneer of simulation within contemporary art. His annual softwares are in the collections of MoMA, Tate, SFMoMA, LACMA, Pinault Collection, Ullens Foundation, M+, Pinakothek der Moderne, and TBA21, among others. Gerrard's work is regularly presented in the public realm in large-scale urban installations such as Lincoln Centre, New York, and Somerset House, London as well as installed as destination works in remote but significant locations under the auspices of biennials or museum off-sites such as Okoyama Triennale, Japan or Desert X, California.
For more information, please visit: http://www.johngerrard.net
About Richie Hawtin
The critical acclaim of RICHIE HAWTIN, aka Plastikman, spans the creative realm of the fine art community to the technological vanguard. As a performing artist, he is constantly pushing conceptual frontiers, moving things forward, welcoming as many as he can to ideas and experiences that would have seemed pure science fiction when he began his career as a DJ and producer in the emerging techno scene in Detroit. Hawtin is British-born and Canadian-raised. He is the business mind behind the labels Plus 8, MINUS Records, and now From Our Minds. And, of course, he is Plastikman, electronic musician par excellence, maintaining an underground agenda of avant-garde electronica over six albums. The New York Times called him "one of the electronic dance world's intellectual forces." However, it's plaudits from other areas that showcase the breadth of Hawtin's appeal. Raf Simons, Co-Creative Director at Prada, says he listens "to Richie Hawtin's music like others listen to classical music," calling him "the Kraftwerk of today."
For more information, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/richiehawtin