Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Chapter, Cardiff
28 September – 10 November
Reviewed by: Sally Shaw
'Art For Networks' is a collection of works brought together by artist Simon Pope. The works seek to subvert and explore remote systems of communication, adopting text messaging and the internet as tools, as well as exploring more physical networks like communication, kinship, and sociability. It makes for a comprehensive and interesting collection, including contributions from Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie, Adam Chodzko, Jeremy Deller, Heath Bunting, Jodi, Rachel Baker, Stephen Willats, James Stevens, Technologies to the People, Anna Best, Ryosuke Cohen and Radioqualia.
A question that crops up more and more as an increased number of artists move into the arena of engaged practice is why show these works in the gallery. Although not all the included works are console-based, there seems to be an overwhelming feeling that most of the works are indeed 'not at home'. Anna Best's archive of information – research in progress towards a national ice cream van convention – will bring up to one hundred van owners together from cities across the country. Seeming still less 'at home' in the gallery is An artist's impression by Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie, an online game constructed by the artists, based around an island and childhood memories of where they lived. The actual experience of the online 'lo-fi' game is complex and generous, providing space for 'addictive' Big Brother-style voyeurism where participants can actively take part in the development of a society. It seems strange however to then make this open and vibrant debate concrete by constructing a physical embodiment of these ideas in the gallery by way of a model of the island. Combining a temporal real-time experience with its sculptural counterpart provokes multiple questions around the real and the virtual environment and how we question and dissect them.
Rachel Blake's Exit Strategy and Jeremy Deller's intervention in Cardiff Central Library seem to uphold most successfully the principles behind the curator's hopes for "the exploration of more expansive definitions of 'network'". Deller is developing a link between prison inmates at HMP Cardiff and members of the public via a more down to earth interface – the library notice board. Interestingly, his project has no presence in the exhibition at all apart from a brief description in the gallery information guide. Exit Strategy is a small book that features descriptions by four people: Steve Rushton, A Bichlbuam, Heath Bunting and Rachel Baker who have documented "four different migratory scenarios from the Eurostar". Again, the actual work, which the book acts as a turnstile to, is located far away from the gallery.
This exhibition is definitely one worth seeing predominantly because it raises so many questions about context and presentation methods. But also because it brings together a complex group of artists and artworks whose connections and relationships are illuminating and in some senses as infinite as the concept of 'networks' itself.
Writer detail:
SALLY SHAW
is based in Bristol.
Venue detail:
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