COS•MO To Cut Or Not To Paste, That Is The Question
A concept group exhibition curated by Gilles Massot
in collaboration with Akira Takahashi, Allysa Sing Zhi Bing, Andreas Schlegel, Benjamin Ziggy Lee, Bradley Foisset, Bureau One (collective), Carrie Lam, Charles Lim, Filip Gudovic, Guillaume Leclercq, Isabelle Desjeux, Jacqueline Sim, Jasper Yu, Kee Ya Ting, Kevin Tan Bo Xi, Kim Ji-Yoon, Koh Nguang How, Leonard Yang, Lim Shengen, Marcel Gaspar, Nel Lim, Nicolas Ledoux, Rubin Hashim, Ryf Zaini, Shaun-Joel Liew, Tan Chee Hon, Teow Yue Han, Urich Lau, Vanessa Ban.
Brother Joseph Gallery, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore LASALLE College of the Arts 7-24 November 2013
The invention of mechanical means of recording that took place in the 19th century arguably brought about a decisive qualitative change to the human perception of time and space and the representation of the world. One could go as far as saying that it resulted in today’s infocom society. Starting with the Point of View at Le Gras, the first photograph by Niecephore Niepce in 1826, followed by the invention of the phonograph by Edison in 1877, and their subsequent association/transformation in the form of cinema, video and instant replay, these mechanical means of recording initiated a process of record/replay that defines much of the way 21st century humankind lives and perceives itself.
This process of record/replay is used extensively in contemporary art practice to talk about topics such as identity, gender, and other social-political issues. Yet, although it has had such a decisive impact on our life, practitioners rarely investigate the process itself. Much is written and shown in relation to the new form of communications. But the very process of ‘recording’ and ‘replaying’, so central to this phenomenon, is hardly ever given the importance it deserves from a phenomenological point of view. What is happening to us through the on-going process of record/cut and replay/paste central to the use of these mediums? The exhibition COS•MO might not quite find clear-cut answers, but it hopes to ignite the need to raise the question.
COS•MO stands for Constant Self-recording Mode, a sentence devised to describe a process that by now sees the world looking at itself existing in real time through 24 hour news channels and social media. This workshop exhibition-event gathers works of all sorts, photographs, video, installations, interactive works, sonic pieces, performances, and texts, dealing with the theme of the Constant Self-recording Mode in literal or metaphoric ways. In all these works, as in the life many of us live today, the cut and paste method plays a paramount role. Through the ‘self’ of the individuals, the ‘self’ of the World looks at itself emerging in a way unlike anything that has existed before, resulting in a society in which “To cut or not to paste” has become “the Question”.
Bradley James Foisset COS•MO MIKSANG Single Channel Video, colour with sound 1:57 to 4:43 (variable in edits) 2013 Miksang is being deliberately open and present in the moment, value neutral, beyond like or dislike—a visual corollary to sitting meditation, which seeks to still the mind’s chatter and sound wash surrounding the teeming, careening moments of contemporary life. This ability or inability is the area my artwork will intersect; examining the cycle and its deceptions. Miksang “seeing” normally gives the practitioner the opportunity to pay attention to visual experience before the “labeling mind” takes over perception. “COS•MO MIKSANG” will examine the void between seeing and labeling as either a spiritual/ deceptive or aware/ignorant site.
