South likes: Antoine Catala at Peep-Hole, Milan
Antoine Catala, Image Families, 2013, installation view, drones, latex, aluminium/wood frame, pump, tube, TV, glass, two-way mirror, turntable, LED lights, ceramic, steel. Courtesy 47 Canal, New York
South likes: Antoine Catala at Peep-Hole, Milan
Heavy Words
Peep-Hole, Milan, Italy in collaboration with FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims
23 May – 12 July, 2014
With the words Once upon a time… Antoine Catala begins a conceptual account on digital communications, linguistics, and augmented reality. The first of the three projects showcased in this show at Peep-Hole, curated by Florence Derieux, is presented as a rebus to compose the opening words of a tale (Il était une fois…). Using different supports like holograms and projections on steam, Catala plays with the possible associations between images and words. In fact these associations are continuously shaped of digital technologies and internet—and everybody is familiar with the everyday experience of image search engines. The artist’s ongoing research transports the conceptual relationships between object, image, and word into the potential of new technologies, which can transform a word into a series of images and further process them into 3D prints. With Abracadabra Catala creates kinetic pictograms, the language of emoticons, so to speak, to create sculptural objects. The technological apparition of Image Families is the third work on display: a drone flying around the room tests digital image-recognition capacities, analysing different types of images.
If one thing is clear is that new intersections between technological principles and perception of reality have come to a totally different level indeed. With this show Antoine Catala envisions different different possible developments in what we know about language and perception. In 1965 the american Conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth presented a well-known work, consisting of a chair, a photograph of this chair, and a dictionary definition of the word “chair”. With this exhibition Antoine Catala seems to experiment on the technological evolution of the famous One and Three Chairs, overlapping the experience of machine-images, language and illusions.
Michelangelo Corsaro
http://www.peep-hole.org/ph/current/
Antoine Catala, Image Families, 2013, installation view, drones, latex, aluminium/wood frame, pump, tube, TV, glass, two-way mirror, turntable, LED lights, ceramic, steel. Courtesy 47 Canal, New York
Antoine Catala, Image Families, 2013, installation view, drones, latex, aluminium/wood frame, pump, tube, TV, glass, two-way mirror, turntable, LED lights, ceramic, steel. Courtesy 47 Canal, New York
Antoine Catala, A-B-R-A-C-A-D-A-B-R-A, 2013, installation view, aluminum, silicone rubber, latex, pump, electronics, wood, mechanized arm. Courtesy 47 Canal, New York
Antoine Catala, (///)<, 2014, installation view, steel, plastic coated polystyrene, rubber coated 3D printed ABS plastic, motor, 3D printed ABS plastic, electronics and power supply. Courtesy 47 Canal, New York
Antoine Catala, A-B-R-A-C-A-D-A-B-R-A, 2013, installation view, aluminum, silicone rubber, latex, pump, electronics, wood, mechanized arm. Courtesy 47 Canal, New York
Antoine Catala, Image Families, 2013, installation view, drones, latex, aluminium/wood frame, pump, tube, TV, glass, two-way mirror, turntable, LED lights, ceramic, steel. Courtesy 47 Canal, New York
Antoine Catala, Il était une fois…, 2013, installation view, aluminium stand, humidifier, TV, LED lights, two-way mirror, USB drive, video, nano projector, latex, pump, tube, polystyrene, plastic, silicone rubber, computer, cables, electronics, solenoid valves. Collection FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims
Antoine Catala, Il était une fois…, 2013, installation view, aluminium stand, humidifier, TV, LED lights, two-way mirror, USB drive, video, nano projector, latex, pump, tube, polystyrene, plastic, silicone rubber, computer, cables, electronics, solenoid valves. Collection FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims
Antoine Catala, Il était une fois…, 2013, installation view, aluminium stand, humidifier, TV, LED lights, two-way mirror, USB drive, video, nano projector, latex, pump, tube, polystyrene, plastic, silicone rubber, computer, cables, electronics, solenoid valves. Collection FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims
