Data brings together a sequence of works by Salvatore Arancio, James Brooks, Leo Fitzmaurice, Helen Kincaid, Noa Lidor and Tom Richards that explore systems of knowledge and information. Interrogating scientific disciplines, the works investigate the potential for data to be manipulated and re-invented through obstruction, deletion and imitation.
The participating artists take as their starting point those tools employed to evidence, measure and order the physical world – architectural plans, astronomical charts, electronic control boxes and geological illustrations – and, using a range of strategies to subvert static signal systems, transform them into the psychological realm, investing them with wonder and humour.
Through acts of deletion and redaction, concealment and defacement, blurring, muting and amalgamation, the artists interrogate notions of scientific and artistic authority while experimenting with the suggestive visual language of data representation. In place of reassuring information, the manipulated, malfunctioning objects offer a sense of disorientation and confusion.
Works are arranged across the space, some instantly visible and others in less obvious locations. The exhibition presents a survey of possibilities and limitations, exploring the boundaries between fact and fiction, science and art, objectivity and poetic license, and asking questions rather than providing conclusive answers, offering a space for exploring these tensions.
A public sound performance by artist Tom Richards on the opening night will offer an opportunity to further engage with the exhibition theme.
Curated by Shiri Shalmy.