David Jablonowski
16 Jan - 02 Mar 2013
DAVID JABLONOWSKI
Corporate Foresight
16 January - 2 March 2013
Max Wigram Gallery is proud to announce Corporate Foresight, the first solo exhibition with David Jablonowski.
Comprising sculptural elements constructed from a variety of objects and materials derived from the equipment of information technology, the exhibition will consist of mixed media installations displayed on the walls and floors of the gallery space, resulting in one unified environment. The works are physical manifestations of Jablonowski’s inquiry into the potential of communication in visual culture, looking at how information can be translated into form through the media. He is fascinated with the political significance of materials, expressed for instance by their association with branding.
Jablonowski’s sculptures are both objects and surfaces. The combination of reflective and transparent materials, such as the aluminium and Plexiglas used in Untitled, provides at once a ‘body’, and also a surface, that multiplies the space by reflecting it, and becomes a screen on which information is displayed in the form of video. By treating reproductive technologies, such as scanners and offset printing plates, as objects, embedded in the works, Jablonowski’s sculptures are able to present a unity, they are finite entities.
The artist combines uniquely shaped carbon fiber sculptural elements with the materials and instruments of reproductive technologies, paralleling the history of sculpture with the history of media. The formal qualities of the works embody the contrast between digital and analogue, between 2 and 3 dimension (or the no-dimension of the digital), ‘non-materiality’ and materiality. With Screenshots (detail) I and II, for instance, the greasy traces left by fingers on tablet displays, suggest use and not function, pointing at the inherent paradox of the disembodied interface of digital information media by revealing its specific haptic qualities. Jablonowski reminds us that we (subconsciously) interact with the material itself, not the information transmitted by the equipment.
The presence of aromatic spice powders on the work Corporate Foresight provides an olfactory element, while the ‘soundtrack’ taken from found footage, which tells the history of product development, becomes a unifying aural factor to the exhibition. The tactile qualities of the equipment he presents is also commented upon by the high resolution images of cherries projected onto a large multi-media sculpture installation.
Jablonowski creates a feedback system, where the works and the viewers engage in a continuous transmission of information. Such information, though, is limited to the sheer communicative potential of the materials themselves: there is no directly discernible message. Jablonowski seeks to explore all the options, and all the possibilities of the material.
David Jablonowski (b. 1982, Bochum, Germany) lives and works in Amsterdam.
In the last year, David Jablonowski has been involved in many international projects.
His work is currently presented in Blue Greens at the Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster, where Jablonowski has placed new sculptures and installations in the botanical gardens. Jablonowski also held two major solo shows in 2011. At Dallas Contemporary he exhibited several installations resulting in one all encompassing environment, under the title Many to Many (Stone Carving High Performance). For his project at Bloomberg Space in London, titled Comma 30, Jablonowski transformed the gallery through a series of specially commissioned sculptures and film.
Previous exhibitions include: Material Kontingenz, SMBA, Amsterdam (2012); The Global Contemporary Art Worlds After 1989, ZKM, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (2011); Monumentalism—History and National Identity in Contemporary Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2010); and After Architects, Kunsthalle Basel (2010). Jablonowski has completed residencies at De Ateliers, Amsterdam and ISCP New York.
Corporate Foresight
16 January - 2 March 2013
Max Wigram Gallery is proud to announce Corporate Foresight, the first solo exhibition with David Jablonowski.
Comprising sculptural elements constructed from a variety of objects and materials derived from the equipment of information technology, the exhibition will consist of mixed media installations displayed on the walls and floors of the gallery space, resulting in one unified environment. The works are physical manifestations of Jablonowski’s inquiry into the potential of communication in visual culture, looking at how information can be translated into form through the media. He is fascinated with the political significance of materials, expressed for instance by their association with branding.
Jablonowski’s sculptures are both objects and surfaces. The combination of reflective and transparent materials, such as the aluminium and Plexiglas used in Untitled, provides at once a ‘body’, and also a surface, that multiplies the space by reflecting it, and becomes a screen on which information is displayed in the form of video. By treating reproductive technologies, such as scanners and offset printing plates, as objects, embedded in the works, Jablonowski’s sculptures are able to present a unity, they are finite entities.
The artist combines uniquely shaped carbon fiber sculptural elements with the materials and instruments of reproductive technologies, paralleling the history of sculpture with the history of media. The formal qualities of the works embody the contrast between digital and analogue, between 2 and 3 dimension (or the no-dimension of the digital), ‘non-materiality’ and materiality. With Screenshots (detail) I and II, for instance, the greasy traces left by fingers on tablet displays, suggest use and not function, pointing at the inherent paradox of the disembodied interface of digital information media by revealing its specific haptic qualities. Jablonowski reminds us that we (subconsciously) interact with the material itself, not the information transmitted by the equipment.
The presence of aromatic spice powders on the work Corporate Foresight provides an olfactory element, while the ‘soundtrack’ taken from found footage, which tells the history of product development, becomes a unifying aural factor to the exhibition. The tactile qualities of the equipment he presents is also commented upon by the high resolution images of cherries projected onto a large multi-media sculpture installation.
Jablonowski creates a feedback system, where the works and the viewers engage in a continuous transmission of information. Such information, though, is limited to the sheer communicative potential of the materials themselves: there is no directly discernible message. Jablonowski seeks to explore all the options, and all the possibilities of the material.
David Jablonowski (b. 1982, Bochum, Germany) lives and works in Amsterdam.
In the last year, David Jablonowski has been involved in many international projects.
His work is currently presented in Blue Greens at the Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster, where Jablonowski has placed new sculptures and installations in the botanical gardens. Jablonowski also held two major solo shows in 2011. At Dallas Contemporary he exhibited several installations resulting in one all encompassing environment, under the title Many to Many (Stone Carving High Performance). For his project at Bloomberg Space in London, titled Comma 30, Jablonowski transformed the gallery through a series of specially commissioned sculptures and film.
Previous exhibitions include: Material Kontingenz, SMBA, Amsterdam (2012); The Global Contemporary Art Worlds After 1989, ZKM, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (2011); Monumentalism—History and National Identity in Contemporary Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2010); and After Architects, Kunsthalle Basel (2010). Jablonowski has completed residencies at De Ateliers, Amsterdam and ISCP New York.