Simon Denny & Nick Austin
14 Dec 2008 - 24 Jan 2009
SIMON DENNY & NICK AUSTIN
"Aquarium Paintings"
14.12.2008-24.01.2009
(Doris Mampe und Dorothea Jendricke)
Press Release
Center is pleased to present the first show of Simon Denny and Nick Austin in Berlin.
Wallpaper-music
“... Music that is constant, always the same, yet always changing. It may be too constant to call this "wallpaper music", but it is extremely holographic, in that you can start the CD at any point and it's all the same, yet always changing. These CDs still haven't been officially released, but if you ask her as I did she might sell you a copy...My non 'New Age Music' friends just stare at me blank and say "I could have done that with one finger!". It's the small variations in the background that hold it together. This is music that's always changing yet always the same...If you just glance at it it's just a base chord, but if you listen closely, there's always things happening, so it never gets stale...”
It’s very hard to make something that can be described as “extremely holographic” by anybody that you would usually ask for an opinion of. I guess an holographic anything would be in essence a sort of lie, but quite a good one. One that would sort of dazzle, but in a way that you knew you were being dazzled. Every soda jerk wants to dress up, wants to be a swell. Or they want to look at a soda jerk and see a dress up. I feel like the best producers follow the same principal – soda jerks making the best hologram swell, with a careful sense of dress up. I am saturated in situations where everybody is interested in everything that happens there – when it’s all changing yet nobody’s playing anything different. And at the end of the day you’re totally convinced by it – even if you’re the swell behind the desk.
Is there a clear process for these things? Ideas grow out of a situation. If you get a good public situation it goes on and on and has many radiations. But it doesn’t even need to go on and on to look like you can do it with one finger.
If an artist goes into a gallery, and he thinks he's slick but he's got a big hole in his pants - if that is treated humorously, it's bound to be funny. Especially if it's done with dignity and pride. I've always thought that any incidents related will make at least a sleeper, like the setting up of a pool game on a billiard table. Each ball is an incident in itself. One touches the other, you see, and if it hits another ball then it’s another ball. And the whole makes a triangle. I carry that image a great deal, and I think everybody instinctively knows it simply because they’ve seen it a lot. It’s an image you see again and again without it being the same because it’s a structure.
I've watched other artists who seem to relax their pace. I can feel my way much better with pace than I can with being slow. I haven't the confidence to move slow, I simply haven't the confidence in what I'm doing. Anyway, if you’re doing something that at any point feels the same, it’s much better from the viewer’s seat if you’re doing it fast.
I have stolen a lot of phrases in the slapping up of this text, and a lot of them have been from an interview with Charlie Chaplin – who’s films I’ve actually only seen a few of. I get board in Chaplin films even though I know they’re around a lot, and I always tell people I like them, but I don’t watch them very much really. I can enjoy certain gags, but a lot of the jokes are all the same. I’m told that its not so good to like Chaplin films – there are a lot of filmmakers who are actually good to like – and he can seem just a bit too good in conversation. Anyway, regardless of his films, his life seems pretty convincing and it always surprises me when you see pictures of him as the tramp – which there are a lot of – and then real life pictures. In the real life ones he always looks so dashing, like he’s your rich friend’s elder brother or something. But then when he’s the tramp he’s such a goofy git. But then you realise that that just means he was extra convincing at what he was doing – like he knew how to goof. The next bit I am not going to steal, because its important that Chaplin said it for it to make sense now. So after just enough stealing, I’m going to put it right and rid myself of this text.
“I inquired of wardrobe that I wanted two large pairs of old shoes, because I had absurdly small feet, so I wanted these big shoes, and I knew they would give me a comic gait. I'm naturally very graceful, but trying to be graceful in big feet - that's funny.”
Text by Simon Denny
Center is currently run by Dorothea Jendricke and Doris Mampe
"Aquarium Paintings"
14.12.2008-24.01.2009
(Doris Mampe und Dorothea Jendricke)
Press Release
Center is pleased to present the first show of Simon Denny and Nick Austin in Berlin.
Wallpaper-music
“... Music that is constant, always the same, yet always changing. It may be too constant to call this "wallpaper music", but it is extremely holographic, in that you can start the CD at any point and it's all the same, yet always changing. These CDs still haven't been officially released, but if you ask her as I did she might sell you a copy...My non 'New Age Music' friends just stare at me blank and say "I could have done that with one finger!". It's the small variations in the background that hold it together. This is music that's always changing yet always the same...If you just glance at it it's just a base chord, but if you listen closely, there's always things happening, so it never gets stale...”
It’s very hard to make something that can be described as “extremely holographic” by anybody that you would usually ask for an opinion of. I guess an holographic anything would be in essence a sort of lie, but quite a good one. One that would sort of dazzle, but in a way that you knew you were being dazzled. Every soda jerk wants to dress up, wants to be a swell. Or they want to look at a soda jerk and see a dress up. I feel like the best producers follow the same principal – soda jerks making the best hologram swell, with a careful sense of dress up. I am saturated in situations where everybody is interested in everything that happens there – when it’s all changing yet nobody’s playing anything different. And at the end of the day you’re totally convinced by it – even if you’re the swell behind the desk.
Is there a clear process for these things? Ideas grow out of a situation. If you get a good public situation it goes on and on and has many radiations. But it doesn’t even need to go on and on to look like you can do it with one finger.
If an artist goes into a gallery, and he thinks he's slick but he's got a big hole in his pants - if that is treated humorously, it's bound to be funny. Especially if it's done with dignity and pride. I've always thought that any incidents related will make at least a sleeper, like the setting up of a pool game on a billiard table. Each ball is an incident in itself. One touches the other, you see, and if it hits another ball then it’s another ball. And the whole makes a triangle. I carry that image a great deal, and I think everybody instinctively knows it simply because they’ve seen it a lot. It’s an image you see again and again without it being the same because it’s a structure.
I've watched other artists who seem to relax their pace. I can feel my way much better with pace than I can with being slow. I haven't the confidence to move slow, I simply haven't the confidence in what I'm doing. Anyway, if you’re doing something that at any point feels the same, it’s much better from the viewer’s seat if you’re doing it fast.
I have stolen a lot of phrases in the slapping up of this text, and a lot of them have been from an interview with Charlie Chaplin – who’s films I’ve actually only seen a few of. I get board in Chaplin films even though I know they’re around a lot, and I always tell people I like them, but I don’t watch them very much really. I can enjoy certain gags, but a lot of the jokes are all the same. I’m told that its not so good to like Chaplin films – there are a lot of filmmakers who are actually good to like – and he can seem just a bit too good in conversation. Anyway, regardless of his films, his life seems pretty convincing and it always surprises me when you see pictures of him as the tramp – which there are a lot of – and then real life pictures. In the real life ones he always looks so dashing, like he’s your rich friend’s elder brother or something. But then when he’s the tramp he’s such a goofy git. But then you realise that that just means he was extra convincing at what he was doing – like he knew how to goof. The next bit I am not going to steal, because its important that Chaplin said it for it to make sense now. So after just enough stealing, I’m going to put it right and rid myself of this text.
“I inquired of wardrobe that I wanted two large pairs of old shoes, because I had absurdly small feet, so I wanted these big shoes, and I knew they would give me a comic gait. I'm naturally very graceful, but trying to be graceful in big feet - that's funny.”
Text by Simon Denny
Center is currently run by Dorothea Jendricke and Doris Mampe