Reality Bites- John Gerrard’s POWER.PLAY at UCCA

Curated by Philip Tinari and Guo Xi

John Gerrard’s first exhibition in China featured  Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada),  Farm (Pryor Creek, Oklahoma) and  Exercise (Dunhuang) recently shown at UCCA in 798 , Beijing.

 1. SolarReserve photo:Niamh Cunningham1

Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada) John Gerrard, POWER.PLAY at UCCA, 798, Beijing Summer 2016

What is real and what is a real representation are some of the internal workings going on with you as you experience these huge simulated light sculptures. These ambiguous interventions are so very similar to camera work. The slow steady panning of movement is quite hypnotic and the viewer needs time to find out how they are responding to this slightly strange yet familiar world.

But there are many layers to this new media and lucky for me Gerrard is one of the most articulate artists I have come across.

These pieces of software do not exist if they’re not energized. “The works are effectively energy in transit. That’s their condition. There is no film. There is no artifact. You simply have this set of instructions, which is bundled into an executable file. Without a computer to execute it, you have nothing. So my logic around that is that this is a very pregnant way to respond to contemporary conditions, because a lot of our realities are profoundly influenced by what I would call the algorithmic turn. Investment banking, political decision-making, military decision-making, trade, supermarkets: they are modeling reality, and, on that basis, they are making decisions about how reality is formed.”

 

Usually when you think about time based media you think of a fixed time for a particular work however Gerrard’s work is exported as software which produces a non durational image in real time. Assistant curator Guo Xi elaborated,  “the non durational emphasizes how it is different from video as the software is variable into time zones, season, changing daylight and so the time factor reaches far beyond the idea of a fixed time for which the artwork lasts.”

Often exploring geographically isolated locations, Gerrard has pioneered the use of post-cinematic, virtual space through complex algorithms that generate imagery in real time often referring to structures of power and networks of energy that have coincided with the expansion of human endeavor in the past century.

The game engine Gerrard uses is a Russian engine called Unigine which builds a virtual world around a camera position. After taking a huge number of images which are then sent to a 3 D modeler who rebuilds a 3 D portrait of the building or area of interest, a process which often takes more than a year. This production can’t be automated and is built “by hand” building up small sections of complicated buildings. Once the model is completed to satisfaction it goes into the game engine creating a somatic world in a virtual space.

It needs a powerful machine, like a gaming-type machine. It can be manifested as a projection, it can exist as an object, it can exist as an LED wall. For this exhibition they are projections (from behind ) on expansive screens 4 by 5 metres in size sponsored by video equipment Christie. The only place that it really cannot exist is online because the scenes are too dense.

Solar Reserve is a piece of software that simulates a massive light sculpture of a powerplant in the Mojave Desert. It was exhibited at the Lincoln Center Plaza, New York in 2014. The sun is programmed for a solar annual orbit of 365 days, so that piece is an annual work—the sun rises and falls in real time. And so the camera view tracks a 30 minute from ground to space and another 30 mins returning back down to grounds taking 12 hours to do one cycle. These orbits around the solar plant is a symbol of humanity’s reliance on and resistance to solar rhythm.

Exercise (Dunhuang) 2014,

Exercise is a reconstruction based on satellite imagery of a network of roadways the size of a small town located mysteriously in the middle of the Gobi Desert, which then becomes the site for a lengthy elimination game played among avatars modeled on factory workers in Guangzhou.

Gerrard applied motion scans of 38 workers from a Guangzhou computer manufacturing plant, wearing blue uniforms and paper bonnets, into the simulation, their movements as they wander through the vast network mirroring those of the actual workers.

The scanning for this alone took a year of work, after the layout of the roads, then figures for the “Game” and recording their individual movements and the manner in which they may fall during the game once they see another figure (ie once another figure comes into view on the screen).

2. Ground camera Start game , Pong Yipings photo

Exercise (Dunhuang) 2014, John Gerrard, POWER.PLAY at UCCA, 798, Beijing Summer 2016

 

One screen showed a simulation of a satellite camera (you can barely make out the slowly moving dot of a figure), the other of a simulated view from a drone and the third of a camera on the ground focused on the nearby figure. Only one figure is documented at a time and that is the figure holding the view of the camera. The image above was taken just at the start of the game when all 39 figures are in view this only happens once every 3 days while the game lasts.

Exercise doesn’t have human participants but virtual participants. Gerrard pointed out the inhuman link to the work. “You can deal with much more when working with inhuman durations, inhuman requests with 38 factory workers who perform through night and day, over an annual orbit, with no rest, with no food, with nothing that would be considered normal working conditions. So there’s a kind of cruelty within it, but it’s sort of a victimless crime in a way.”

 

3. ground camera view simulation Exercise (Dunhuang) 2014 .jpg

Exercise (Dunhuang) 2014, John Gerrard, POWER.PLAY at UCCA, 798, Beijing Summer 2016 (ground view)

 

Even though there is a logical method to the game you are following the expected order of events are without emotion and so the viewer is dislocated from the outcome. Which ever figure is nearest an exit and is within view of another person, that figure falls down and is removed from the game.

The roadways are cleared gravel revealing a pale substrate sad underneath. “I think it’s interesting to pick up Land Art as a virtual form and present it to the public in the form of light interventions”

The whole nature of this game and the location from which it was designed reflects military readiness and preparedness.

4. Drone view simulation Exercise (Dunhuang) 2014 .jpg

Exercise (Dunhuang) 2014, John Gerrard, POWER.PLAY at UCCA, 798, Beijing Summer 2016 ( simulated drone view)

“The work rests on traditions of military simulation, ie battlefield simulations, flight simulations—that is its history. …. battle play, which were early strategy games, sandbox games, where military strategists would play out outcomes and military campaigns. During what was called the Manhattan Project in America during the Second World War, those types of games were computerized. Some of the very earliest simulations were actually the Manhattan Project’s military strategies models.”

5. Satellite view simulation Exercise (Dunhuang) 2014

 

Exercise (Dunhuang) 2014, John Gerrard, POWER.PLAY at UCCA, 798, Beijing Summer 2016 (simulated satellite view)

 

Gerrard referred to how military readiness is evident in our present times as he spoke at a floor talk at his opening at UCCA. A few days previously (June 2016) the huge military exercise “Anaconda” in Poland took place where 31,000 service members from 24 Nato and partner nations engaged in military exercises to reassure the east European nations rattled by Russia’s actions in nearby Ukraine. Needless to say that uneasy readiness also became more evident the following month after the exhibition opening with Sino-US tensions over the South China Seas  brought the work closer to home and very relevant.

 

 Farm (Pryor Creek, Oklahoma)

 

Farm (Pryor Creek, Oklahoma) 2015, is a digitally modeled composite of one of Google’s server centres in Oklahoma. Here the internet is solidified to metal and concrete an austere industrial unit. The slow panning of a simulated camera movement renders a harshly sunlit industrial exterior with coolings units for the computers. While viewing this you are aware that inside sits one of Googles 6 main data farms. When looking at this themes of power, information and ownership are hard to escape. Other themes which come to mind of input/ output ie the input of all your emails and searches, this is where they are sorted. Some of this information is “output” back to you but it is also output back to other destinations too.

6. Farm (Pryor Creek, Oklahoma)

 

 Farm (Pryor Creek, Oklahoma), John Gerrard, POWER.PLAY at UCCA, 798, Beijing Summer 2016

It is that shake free camera work that reminds you that this is a simulation of a reality using algorithms and not a real camera working, sometimes as a viewer you need to remind yourself of this. When Google refused Gerrard access to the plant, he checked with Oklahoma police and hired a helicopter and photographer to document the structure from above (4 to 5 thousand photos)so that a sufficient number of images were processed to rebuild the virtual building.

So what are we looking at is a virtual representation of a real place which processes and exchanges virtual information bringing the internet down to bricks and mortar and metal.

What interests Gerrard most with this building is what powers it. “I was interested to root the internet in this one particular site, that it’s not an ethereal, otherworldly entity. It has a presence on the landscape and by documenting these great diesel generators it is clear that this (Google) is a diesel-powered website. Data is energy in transit…It doesn’t just exist ethereally…..The building is actually a minimal object in a sense, but it’s full of power. It’s not a void. It has 40,000 computers in there.”

 

7. with John Gerrard

with John Gerrard just before he legged it out the door

 

Note: This post makes reference to the content of the Peckham-Gerarrd interviews published by UCCA 2016.

 

 

 

 

Niamh Cunningham- Bio 。。。个人简介-倪芙瑞莲
'The Pattern that Connects' is part of the Common Threads project showing at EPIC Museum Irish Emigration Museum, Dublin Feb 1- 14th


Currently Showing Oct 2022: The Sasse Museum of Art , Pomona, CA, in the US opened a photography exhibition last weekend showing a process print (23.01.2018) from my mixed media Sucrose Series "Ginkgo Palace", Niamh Cunningham 2018
The original physical sucrose plate and accompanying print on aluminium was collected at Art Beijing 2021
Promoting Connectivity through Creative Industries Sept 2022 at Yindi Art Museum, hosted by Opportunity Lab
Hair Skull recently exhibited (Oct 1st-7th 2022) at Art Plus Shanghai , the group exhibition"Linear" is curated by Chang Feng

For more information on the Hair Skull and working with DNA as an art material click HERE

Ann Derwin, Ambassador to Ireland in China with gallerist 庞春慧Peng Chun Hui at For 觅 gallery , August 2022
Currently showing - Moon Covenant
证在展出-月亮之约

Artist talk on gathering peoples tree stories before Spitoon Book Club discussion on Pulitzer prize winning novel " The Overstory" by Richard Powers
Online Catalogue launched Jan 2022 , showing Sucrose Series alongside Microbe Art
Recently exhibited in Xishuangbanna State Art Museum Dec 2021
Canal Bank Walk , Yuan Dadu Culural Relics Park Beijing
Grand Canal artist Residency and Exhibition

Her Name Penninsula Art Museum Weihai, Shandong 16 July- 22 Oct 2021

Linear….. showing at LangKong Art Museum (朗空美术馆) 07.7-30.7.21
Suzhou Couples Retreat Gardens
The Second Step – mini solo of 18 portraits in HouHai from 6.6 tp 8.8 2021
Astro World Exit Tourism – Group exhibition June 2021
Recently ART Beijing 2021 Booth B28 Irish Contemporary Art
Early stage – Sculpture project HongFangzi ShaWan Sichuan
Current Events 正在展出

即将展出:

2022 9月   谷山村中国农民丰收节暨大地艺术节

正在展出:

2022 9月   传粉者:北京西山鼓山乡村公园的再生材料雕塑

最新动态:

 

2022 6-8“月亮之约” For觅画廊,通州,北京

2022 1 来自爱尔兰的艺术家 ,线上展览 在线链接

2022 1 清华大学精准医学研究院, EBM 中心

202112“生命之律动”,西双版纳州美术馆,景洪

202112“线性”,竞衡艺术空间,上海

202110-11“中国抽象艺术”,江苏泰州

202110“相遇大运河”,通州新光大中心

20217 “线性”,798朗空美术馆,北京

20217“她的名字——存在”,半岛美术馆,威海

20216“润物细无声·艺术与遗产新解构”,苏州耦园 

2021610“万物有灵——多样之美” 艺术展与企业社会责任国际论坛,北京

20216“第二步”(小型个人展),龙头井胡同JoyBeans Space,北京

20216“天体世界:出逃旅行” 蓝色港湾KUN美术馆,北京

2021年3月4月 ART Beijing 2021

202012 艺术推动可持续未来” 中国企业社会责任国际学术研讨会, 北京泰富酒店

20209月“同生·由此及彼”,山东济宁市泗水等闲谷艺术粮仓美术馆 

20207  “沉默的爆破”,无锡外滩美术馆,江苏无锡, 7月11日至31日

2019年11月”中国 爱尔兰  MUSEu&m , 上海

*2019年11月装置中国—红房子首届国际户外装置创作营在乐山沙湾红房子开营 …开始阶段

*2019年8月*Gobi Heaven- August 戈壁。天堂-八月

*2019年7月”1919″ 爱尔兰  Sligo -Hamilton Gallery  

*2019年5月“胜日寻芳“ 山东济宁市泗水等闲谷艺术粮仓美术馆

2019年5月-16 爱尔兰大使馆布卢姆日的展览

20195-6  《一张棉花纸》   在宋庄东区玖层美术馆展出

*2019年4月-5月在匈牙利首都布达佩斯

*2019年4月”奥德赛——回归”群展2019年4月13日在东岳美术馆开幕。

*2018年11月-12月“地图与疆域”国际艺术邀请展 北京吉利学院

*2018年11月-12月“纸上·至上”展览,韩国光州市立美术馆北京创作中心

*2018, 10月中欧国当代艺术全球巡展·上海

2018, 9月-10月“纸上·至上”展览,沈阳市拓•空间,

2018, 6月-11月诗人叶芝日,爱尔兰,斯莱戈(SLIGO),汉密尔顿艺术画廊

*2018年8月 淮阴艺术馆提名展,淮安市

*2018, 8月 “纸上·至上”展览, 鄂尔多斯,

*2018 , 6月30日 济南“国际抽象艺术展”

*2018 , 6月17 日 纸上•至上2018 在青岛,

*2018 , 5月20 日存在-国际女性艺术展,湖南长沙,

*2018 , 4月21 日延缓的时间,4月21日-29日,红门画廊,798艺术区

*2018 , 4月20 日 挖掘,,和画廊,来鹏高尔夫俱乐部

*2018年4月-12日 挖掘, , 展览,悦美术馆,北京798艺术区

*2018年2月-3月深圳观澜版画艺术区,5个星期驻地项目

*2018年1月28日-3月3日,《红&果》,流浪美术馆融空间,新年主题艺术展,北京中关村融科资讯中心

*2017年12月,中外视觉艺术湖南展,湖南长沙梅溪新天地梅溪书院.

*2017年12月末至2018年1月末, 《时间之外》主题艺术展, 北京中关村融科资讯中心

*2017年12月, 形质与叙事, 形质与叙事, 东岳美术馆

 *2017年12月,广州新造当代艺术中心,纸上·至上 纸艺作品群展.

Upcoming Exhibitions:

* Gushan Rural Village Park Harvest  Autumn 2022

Current Exhibition

 

Recent  exhibitions:

2022 Moon Covenant Forgallery , Grasse Town , Beijing June- August

2022 Artists from Ireland (online) Sasse Museum of Art Pomona, CA, USA (catalogue link)

2022 Peoples’ Portraits EBM Centre, Tsinghua Uni Intelligent HealthCare, BJ

2021 Rhythm of Life Xishuangbanna Art Museum, Jinghong, Dec

2021 Linear Jingheng Art centre, Jinshan, Shanghai Dec

2021 Abstract China, Taizhou, Jiangsu Oct-Nov

2021 Meet the Grand Canal Xinguanda Centre Tongzhou, Oct

2021 Linear Langkong Art Museum 798, Beijing July

2021 Her Name – Existence Peninsula Art Museum, Weihai, July

2021 Silent and Soft -New Interpretations Suzhou classical Gardens June

2021 All things Bright CSR symposium Shangrila Hotel, Beijing June 10th

2021 The Second Step (mini solo) Joy Beans Space, Jiu Longtou hutong, June

* AstroWorld Kun Art Museum June 5 2021

*Portraits (solo) Joybeans  Hou  Hai 6.6-8.8

*River things  Suzhou Zhenyuan garden UNESCO world Heritage Training and Research centre June 12 th

*Art Beijing  2021 Booth B28  Garden of Friendship

*“Art promotes a Sustainable Future” China CSR international symposium Dec 2020.

*Silent Explosion, Wuxi Bund Art Centre, Jiangsu,  July 11-31 2020

* Sculpture project in HongFangzu , Shawan, Sichuan , begining phase Nov 2019

Current Exhibition

*China Ireland exhibition at MUSEU&m, near the Bund , Shanghai, Nov 29th 2019

* Sculpture project in HongFangzu , Shawan, Sichuan , begining phase Nov 2019

*1919 – Group Exhibition (Hamilton Gallery) in New York, Irish Consulate

*1919 – Group Exhibition Hamilton Gallery , Sligo , Ireland July – September

*Gobi Heaven Art Festival , Inner Mongolia , August 2019

*A piece of Cotton Paper  9th floor gallery Songzhuang June 15th

*”Winning the Day ‘ Granary Art Centre,  SiShui , Shandong, May – June 2019

*Beyond the form of Art , Wick Art Centre , Budapest, Hungary may 2019

*Odyssey The Return ; group exhibition at Dong Yue Art Museum, Beijing  in April

Map and Territory Art IRRCA at Beijing Geely College Nov 20- Dec 20 2018

*Thousands of Sprouts, an experimental online exhibition – by Elizabeth Ross  Nov 2018

* On Paper Supreme, Gwangju Art Museum Beijing Creative Centre Songzhuang Nov- Dec 2018

*China Europe Internaitional Contemporary Art Global Tour Shanghai Oct 2018

*An Irish Airman foresees his Death – Hamilton Gallery Sligo, Ireland June – Nov 2018

*On Paper Supreme, Extension Space, Shenyang, Liaoning,  Sept 16th – Oct 21st  2018

*Artist Nomination Exhibition, Huaiyin art gallery, Huai ‘an shi, Jiangsu, July-Aug 2018

*On Paper Supreme, Ordos Culture and Art Centre , Inner Mongolia , Aug 17th – Sept 10th  2018

*International Abstract Art , ChungChuen College, Jinan, July 2018

* On Paper Supreme, QingDao , Tiantai Art Centre, June 2018

* Existence , International Feminist Art Exhibition,  Mezzi Bookstore Art Space , Changsha

* Excavations 20 April-4th June  He Gallery, Golf Club.

*’Mortgaged Time’ 21st- 29th April at Red Gate Gallery , 798 Beijing  April 21st

*’Excavations’ 12-18th Enjoy Museum 798,  Beijing   preview 5 pm 12th April

* 5 week residency at Guanlan Printmaking base , Shenzhen (Feb-March 2018)

*Lunar New Year theme exhibition “Red Fruit” showing at Raycom IT centre, Zhongguancun,  28th Jan continues to March 3rd, organised by RoveArt , supporting the Female Protection Fund.

*Chinese & Foreign Visual Arts Hunan,  at the Meixi Academy Book Complex, Changsha Dec 26th to Jan 26th 2018.

* ‘Beyond Time’  Raycom IT Centre, Zhongguangcun, Beijing Dec – Jan 27th  2018

*”Qualitative Phase and The Narrative” Beijing Film Academy Triennial Exhibition at Dong Yue Art Museum, Beijing, curated by Li Zhen till Dec 18th 2017…………………………………………….

 

由此及彼——中(国)爱(尔兰)女艺术家邀请展 The Pattern That Connects Sept 2020
Wuxi Bund Art Centre “Silent Explosion”
My interview with Today Art Museum and Today Art Media on the COVID era

Recent Interview , click on above image April 2020

Link to newspaper coverage -Carlow Nationalist (click on image)

In Her Eyes, F&E 100x100cm acrylic on canvas, 倪芙瑞莲Niamh Cunningham 2019

Silent Explosion
‘China-Ireland’ exhibition Shanghai Nov 29th 2019

China Ireland exhibition at MUSEu&m, Shanghai , opening Nov 29th

‘Whirls in the Old’ in New York at the exhibition ‘1919’

1919-Whirls in the Old Terezin acrylic on canvas 30x30cm Niamh Cunningham 2019

Gobi Heaven Art Festival August 2019

Participating in the International Artists program for this exciting event in the Gobi Dessert

Jul.Aug 2019 Group Exhibition , Hamilton Gallery , Sligo, Ireland and also Sept 2019 at the Irish Consulate Offices , Park Ave NYC
Granary Art exhibition SiShui Shandong June 2019

Granary Art Exhibition SiSHui , Shangdong June 2019 click on image

Swim Duck Video …30 sec clip of original work recently shown at Bloomsday event at Embassy of Ireland Niamh Cunningham 2019
clip from Swim Duck video Niamh Cunningham 2019

Clip from 'Swim Duck' Video by Niamh Cunningham 2019

Group exhibition in Sishui, Shangdong 正在展出

Granary Art Museum , Sishui, Jining , Shandong

April /May 2019 in Budapest 近期展出匈牙利

Currently showing in Budapest Aprli- May 2019

Wandering Rocks series of portraits 游岩系列
Web Of Fabulous Grass – Sucrose Series Click on image for Artist Profile English &简体中文
Talk on James Joyce at Bookworm with prof Fu Hao 乔伊斯座谈会
Aritst Talk on James Joyce at Beijing Bookworm

Talk on James Joyce at Bookwork Beijing April 2019

Map and Territory project Nov -Dec 2018 at Beijing Geely University
Map and Territory

Map and Territory

Artist talk at Beijing Geely College Dec 11th 2018
-.On Paper Supreme made its final exhibition for 2018 in Beijing Songzhuang opening Nov 16th
Group exhibition Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
Hamilton Gallery Sligo - Lonely Impulse 2

A response to WB Yeats poem 'An Irish Airman Foresees his Death'

Group show Oct 27th Shanghai Bund 27 The House of Roosevelt House , the Bund Shanghai
With curator Guo Zhen at the opening of Existence in Changsha , exhibition continues till end of July 2018

和策展人郭桢在开幕式《存在》

Recent ‘At your Leisure’ Summer exhibition Jiangsu “悠游“——淮阴艺术馆
exhibited in Jinan curated by Ma Yi Ying
简体中文Artist Interview & Profile for the Art Project ‘Existence’
Group exhibition at Red Gate in April 2018 focussing on antiwar poet Ingeborg Bachmann
Niamh Cunningham 'Bachmann Girl' 2017

Artwork for poster is 'Bachmann Girl' 100x100cm Acrylic on Canvas by Niamh Cunningham 2017

Recent Posts
Excavations showing at Enjoy Museum 798 April 2018

Excavations , a cross collaborative exhibition showing contemporary art by Chinese and Irish artists , showing in Enjoy Museum, 798 , 2018.4.12

Very honoured to have Irish Ambassador Eoin O’ Leary visit Chinese New Year exhibition “Red & Fruit”

Irish Ambassador Eoin O'Leary with subway paintings at Raycom Centre exhibition Feb 2018

The Grand Canal (Hangzhou to Beijing) artist residency(August 2021) and exhibition (Oct 2021)

RTE interview on preparing for upcoming group exhibition 2 min clip

Currently showing as part of the Common Threads project, at EPIC Irish Emigration Museum , Dublin

Feb 1 -14th , 2023