Navid Nuur
27 Nov 2015 - 30 Jan 2016
NAVID NUUR
Context Is the New Content
27 November 2015 - 30 January 2016
Dear Martin,
Next time, you may want to take a more traditional approach and ask someone to write a text that can serve as an interface between the viewer and my work. Rather than this particular contribution of mine... which is more a kind of running monologue.
And nowadays, who wants to see a work of art in the flesh anyway? Most people see art in digital form. I’m aware that this new generation has full-body eyeball-licking skills when I see how they read and post visual content from the web. There’s a crazy amount of stuff online.
It’s as if your exhibition is only considered a success if you manage to extend its content and its visual impact beyond the physical venue.
But the biggest problem for me is that each work has one angle at which it looks its sexiest, and this generation can let everything look great. Not only that – they can also highlight that part that has to do with them. As a result, you get this whole cloud of reinterpretations of the work that is found solely online, which is interesting. I’m considering balancing this out with free unlimited editions, so that you can retain this physical, tactile nature. And perhaps get you to drag your body to the exhibition, and not just peep at the work through the keyhole of your smartphone. As a result, this digital dimension is increasingly becoming another material for me to use, for example in the work ‘The Main Remain’, in which you first need to take a picture with your flash on, so that you can see the work on the screen of your phone. This work owes its existence to your adding light to the image. So you create your own little work, and each flashed picture is different.
In addition, I’ve included a selection of older and recent work. I think this is healthier than constantly pushing for new productions. In addition, older work occasionally needs to ripen, meaning that you don’t necessarily have to call it ‘old’. The works that I’ll be showing in your space all have to do with the formal end result. To an extent, I have to let this process run its course, while part of it develops during execution. All works share this characteristic, and they all also have a relationship with time and distance and light.
While one work needs a flash of light of no more than one-thousandth of a second, another needs up to six months of light before it becomes visible. The work ‘Location (Study)’, for example, in which the passage of time is reflected in the discolouration on the tin’s surface.
Sunlight is also yellow heat (hell); white light (heaven) is over 1,250 degrees centigrade. When you stoke up a wood fire that hot, even the fly ash melts. Even dinosaur poo can be transformed into a glaze for objects without a purpose, from a time before Man as in de work ‘Rituals of the Rational’.
In addition, I’ve included a number of works in which rational distances are converted to physical distances – the video work ‘The Meter is Present’ for example.
And then there are works as ‘Recaptured from the Collective’ in which I’ve tried, as far as possible, to reduce the emotional distance between the idea and its realisation, by allowing the ink to be absorbed by the sheets of paper while limiting myself to thinking about the idea of my drawing and minimising my physical movements. To arrive at a physical representation of the concept, I transfer the contours of the ink stains to model foam and cut out the forms.
Also I’ve made ‘Study 52-153 (The Eye Codex of the Monochrome)’, a work that consists exclusively of colours that aren’t found in nature. The composition visualises what you see with your eyes closed. The tipping point between the physical world and your inner world.
And some other works besides. You’re free to explain them to people when they ask you about them – I’ll fill you in.
Grtsz,.
N
Extract of an email sent by the artist.
Context Is the New Content
27 November 2015 - 30 January 2016
Dear Martin,
Next time, you may want to take a more traditional approach and ask someone to write a text that can serve as an interface between the viewer and my work. Rather than this particular contribution of mine... which is more a kind of running monologue.
And nowadays, who wants to see a work of art in the flesh anyway? Most people see art in digital form. I’m aware that this new generation has full-body eyeball-licking skills when I see how they read and post visual content from the web. There’s a crazy amount of stuff online.
It’s as if your exhibition is only considered a success if you manage to extend its content and its visual impact beyond the physical venue.
But the biggest problem for me is that each work has one angle at which it looks its sexiest, and this generation can let everything look great. Not only that – they can also highlight that part that has to do with them. As a result, you get this whole cloud of reinterpretations of the work that is found solely online, which is interesting. I’m considering balancing this out with free unlimited editions, so that you can retain this physical, tactile nature. And perhaps get you to drag your body to the exhibition, and not just peep at the work through the keyhole of your smartphone. As a result, this digital dimension is increasingly becoming another material for me to use, for example in the work ‘The Main Remain’, in which you first need to take a picture with your flash on, so that you can see the work on the screen of your phone. This work owes its existence to your adding light to the image. So you create your own little work, and each flashed picture is different.
In addition, I’ve included a selection of older and recent work. I think this is healthier than constantly pushing for new productions. In addition, older work occasionally needs to ripen, meaning that you don’t necessarily have to call it ‘old’. The works that I’ll be showing in your space all have to do with the formal end result. To an extent, I have to let this process run its course, while part of it develops during execution. All works share this characteristic, and they all also have a relationship with time and distance and light.
While one work needs a flash of light of no more than one-thousandth of a second, another needs up to six months of light before it becomes visible. The work ‘Location (Study)’, for example, in which the passage of time is reflected in the discolouration on the tin’s surface.
Sunlight is also yellow heat (hell); white light (heaven) is over 1,250 degrees centigrade. When you stoke up a wood fire that hot, even the fly ash melts. Even dinosaur poo can be transformed into a glaze for objects without a purpose, from a time before Man as in de work ‘Rituals of the Rational’.
In addition, I’ve included a number of works in which rational distances are converted to physical distances – the video work ‘The Meter is Present’ for example.
And then there are works as ‘Recaptured from the Collective’ in which I’ve tried, as far as possible, to reduce the emotional distance between the idea and its realisation, by allowing the ink to be absorbed by the sheets of paper while limiting myself to thinking about the idea of my drawing and minimising my physical movements. To arrive at a physical representation of the concept, I transfer the contours of the ink stains to model foam and cut out the forms.
Also I’ve made ‘Study 52-153 (The Eye Codex of the Monochrome)’, a work that consists exclusively of colours that aren’t found in nature. The composition visualises what you see with your eyes closed. The tipping point between the physical world and your inner world.
And some other works besides. You’re free to explain them to people when they ask you about them – I’ll fill you in.
Grtsz,.
N
Extract of an email sent by the artist.