Take it to the Net

SETH PRICE
PAPER RAD
TAKESHI MURATA
MICHAEL BELL-SMITH
THOMAS BARBEY
PAUL DAVIS (BEIGE)
JEAN BAPTISTE BAYLE


Curated by Hanne Mugaas
Vilma Gold, London, May 2006








Take it to the Net is an investigation into a new generation of artists who use the techniques, skills, and aesthetics of the internet as well as digital information transfer in their work. What is or is not conceived of as art is of less importance in an era where the amateur as producer has become the professional. The Internet has opened the floodgates for producers, and the emphasis now lies in the hands of those who access the information.

The exhibition includes works by New York and Paris based artists such as Michael Bell Smith, whose Chapters 1-12 of R.Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" Synced and Played Simultaneously features a manipulated version of R. Kelly's hip-hopera. Takeshi Murata employs an exacting frame-by-frame technique to turn B-movie footage into fragmented and abstracted digital imagery. Seth Price's Painting Sites is a slide show ensembling images from an Alta Vista search, completed with a fairytale narrative. The artist group Paper Rad reprograms extracts from television, video games and popular music, frequently doing performances and concerts as well as gallery shows. They have made a new work for this exhibition. Jean Baptiste Bayle has constructed a web site for downloading of hits played backwards to defeat copyright laws, as well as a site of compilations of every cover available of Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. Paul Davis is part of the programming ensemble Beige, and is showing a work comprised of cassette mix tapes along with their packaging design.