Daniel Pflumm
02 Apr - 09 May 2008
Whitechapel Laboratory: Daniel Pflumm
Musician, video-maker and graphic designer Daniel Pflumm has been playing with advertising and corporate branding in his films for over 15 years. Images promoting television, airlines, fashion houses, banks and utility companies are edited into a repetitive visual stream, set to hypnotic techno rhythms. Taking clips he creates montages that are part promotional, music video, abstract art and pirate TV.
While satirising expensive animated commercials, Pflumm’s work hovers between promise and emptiness, glamour and ruin, reflecting on the impact of the mass media on our lives.
The Whitechapel showcases Pflumm’s new film London, 2008, alongside three other films, Questions and Answers CNN, 1997, Europaischer Hof, 2002 and Paris, 2004.
Currently under development, the new video, London, 2008, will mix footage from the G8 summit with car traffic, crowds of pedestrians and heavy storms accompanied by a new soundtrack, also devised by the artist.
Questions and Answers CNN, 1997, shows a series of loops with TV anchormen sitting in silence, captured between the frenetic exchanges of highly charged interrogations, accompanied by subtle electronic music.
Europaischer Hof, 2002, alternates images of colourful, runny liquids with those of circling toothbrushes massaging false gums and teeth, and clips of advertisements from around the world. Mixing indulgent sensuality with clinical austerity, the montage takes on an unnerving child-like quality.
Paris, 2004, shows a multitude of flickering logos alongside film clips of controlled explosions, cars on fire, commuters in Paris, shots of nature, which all ends with the camera man being arrested at the airport.
Musician, video-maker and graphic designer Daniel Pflumm has been playing with advertising and corporate branding in his films for over 15 years. Images promoting television, airlines, fashion houses, banks and utility companies are edited into a repetitive visual stream, set to hypnotic techno rhythms. Taking clips he creates montages that are part promotional, music video, abstract art and pirate TV.
While satirising expensive animated commercials, Pflumm’s work hovers between promise and emptiness, glamour and ruin, reflecting on the impact of the mass media on our lives.
The Whitechapel showcases Pflumm’s new film London, 2008, alongside three other films, Questions and Answers CNN, 1997, Europaischer Hof, 2002 and Paris, 2004.
Currently under development, the new video, London, 2008, will mix footage from the G8 summit with car traffic, crowds of pedestrians and heavy storms accompanied by a new soundtrack, also devised by the artist.
Questions and Answers CNN, 1997, shows a series of loops with TV anchormen sitting in silence, captured between the frenetic exchanges of highly charged interrogations, accompanied by subtle electronic music.
Europaischer Hof, 2002, alternates images of colourful, runny liquids with those of circling toothbrushes massaging false gums and teeth, and clips of advertisements from around the world. Mixing indulgent sensuality with clinical austerity, the montage takes on an unnerving child-like quality.
Paris, 2004, shows a multitude of flickering logos alongside film clips of controlled explosions, cars on fire, commuters in Paris, shots of nature, which all ends with the camera man being arrested at the airport.