Horizon (2009)

Through video, sound and installation Thomson & Craighead comment on the socio-political structures and developments of our digital age. They examine how systems of global communication, such as the internet, impact and change our perception of time and space; concepts that are central to their work. With the appropriation of data, texts and images from online sources, they create works that re-contextualise the familiar, stimulating the viewer to see known structures and situations from a different perspective.

Thomson & Craighead tend to approach time with a sculptor’s mentality: as a supple quantity that can be moulded and remodelled. Horizon (2014), acquired for Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, is an embodiment of this. The digital collage is a narrative clock that ticks through the perpetual updating of images from around the world. The images are streamed from webcams found in the globe’s 24 different time zones. In this contemporary global electronic sundial, Thomson & Craighead manage to visualise the usually elusive notions of time and space, something that would not have been possible without modern technology. Sometimes the streamed images are interrupted or distorted, laying bare the defects of this apparent smooth digital world.

In recent years, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery has concentrated on developing a moving image collection, prioritising works produced since 1989 – the era of the Internet – and concentrating on artists who address topics including information overload, surveillance and narcissism. The work of Thomson & Craighead thus corresponds greatly with Bristol’s collection objectives, and Horizon will be a valuable addition to the Gallery’s growing digital art holdings.

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