Upper Gallery 1, Canteen Gallery 2 & Arch Gallery 3
3 March – 21 March 2010
Tuesday – Sunday 11am – 5pm
On-Site Residency open to the public
Closing Event: Friday 19 March 2010, 8-10pm
Upper Gallery 1
Kane’s Revolutions, 2010
“How to construct narrative?” is the question preoccupying Anthony Gross and informing his TestBed residency. Already in place are some story lines and approaches established in earlier artworks, particularly Columbo Eats Columbo, 2009 (now showing on FlatScreen).
Gross now intends to experiment with the production of the sequel: Kane’s Revolutions. Using live action and animation the artist will test his own principles of film-making. Working out the storyboard for a narrative on site, the artist may engage friends and actors to film various scenes and the three week occupation provides the artist opportunities to investigate the local architecture and its cinematic potential. Upper Gallery 1 will be the site for internal shots and scenes, whilst locations for external, outdoor action will be sourced in the immediate vicinity. Themes of destruction and regeneration are explored by looking at the changing faces of South London including Elephant and Castle and The Heygate Estate, as well as the longstanding industrial railway architecture around Beaconsfield in Vauxhall.
Closing Event: Friday 19 March, from 8.00-10pm. An invitation is extended to the public to preview scenes from the upcoming movie Kane’s Revolutions. The evening will be accompanied by a live electronic soundtrack by ZON ON N.
Canteen Gallery 2: Flatscreen
Columbo Eats Columbo, 2009
Duration: 27”35’. Single screen 16:9, HDV and computer animation
This film uses the Columbo detective series as a basis for examining a subject close to the artist’s heart; the era of early computer technology and graphics which coincided with his teenage years. In the film, Columbo becomes anxious as he fears the loss of the analogue world he inhabits, but he can also sense the liberating possibilities of the dawn of a new age. The film investigates the circular nature of ideas and their styling, and considers fantasies about the future, comparing current technological projections with the nostalgia for past predictions.
Columbo Eats Columbo is the first film by Anthony Gross that uses live action sequences mixed with computer animation to form an abstract narrative. The stereo soundtrack is made from sound samples found online and computer software voices programmed to read a script by Anthony Gross.
Arch Gallery 3
Various 3D animations
In the 3D world of these films, Gross builds environments – “Digital Ready-mades” – from existing models found online. These Digital Ready-mades were painstakingly assembled films, using customized houses, furniture, objects, figures, clothes and accessories, often downloaded from internet forums or purchased for a few dollars. Browsing through these online shops led to free-form sampling and a way of producing narrative.
TestBed 1 is produced as part of Beaconsfield’s curatorial mentoring scheme for emerging artist-curators. Mentees: Dafna Talmor and Joseph Walsh. Beaconsfield is the central London site dedicated to providing a critical space for creative enquiry.
Beaconsfield Commissions 2010
Image: TestBed 1: Anthony Gross, Kane’s Revolutions, 2010, video still