Channel
8 is an un-programmable channel. It receives no specific data, no
pixels are initialized or assigned specific forms or colours. The
channel is responsive only to random flows of information.
Artists
Martin Cole, Matthew Johnstone and Daif King similarly feed from
streams of non-specific data. Assisted by new media and due to cycles of
information alluding to the zeitgeist, their influences and
inspiration form correlations.
This data is transferred into digital drawings, reworked into sound, gifs and animations, or processed into moving image. It is often then reapplied within consubstantial cyclical networks.
References are purposely vast; drawing on familiar imagery from contemporary visual culture as well as famously reproduced artworks, their production also retains a specific liking to a certain over-saturated 1980's aesthetic and is often divisive in it's referencing and reproduction of painterly abstraction.
One could speculate that some of the visual connections between these references are due to the mechanical look of certain abstract work, the 80's infatuation with the digital, the question of relevance in relation to contrasting versions of history and the question of who art is for.
In a direct response to this Channel 8 will also launch online, accessible though www.thecomposingrooms.com.
06.06.11 - 27.06.11
The Composing Rooms London
Curator: Che Bloomfield
Image copyright Martin Cole
