HdM GALLERY is delighted to present a solo exhibition of Charles Sandison entitled Arcadia opening on 27 March. It will include 6 works and will last until 8 May. This is the second collaboration with the gallery after his 2019 solo show in London.
The exhibition combines video projections and large screen works that invite the audience to immerse themselves in the digital glow of an alternate universe populated with AI-animated life forms. Words, numbers, signs, and symbols roam freely around the walls. Sometimes, they briefly merge into form human figures and then explode into a storm of letters, at other times they transform themselves from one lexicon to another. Sandison combines his ability to write complex computer programs with a savant-like spatial dexterity that puts into visual form the hidden world of data that surrounds us. The computer for Sandison operates like an oracle.
At the centre of my works is 'simulation', especially scientific modelling of natural systems or human systems to gain insight into their functioning. Simulation can be used to show the eventual real effects of alternative conditions and courses of action. Simulation is also used when the real system cannot be engaged, because it may not be accessible, or it may be dangerous or unacceptable to engage, or it is being designed but not yet built, or it may simply not exist.
Central to the exhibition are the interrelated themes of environment, identity, morality, and memory. The multi-channel video installation Arcadia, 2021 is a biological collage that uses artificial intelligence to create an imaginary eco-system that constantly swings between chaos and entropy. The artwork is a self-contained reality that explores the potential for a utopian world where humanity exists harmoniously within nature.
In Male and Female (2020) the computer analyses a dataset of historical 2D and 3D imagery for ideals of figurative harmony in the human form throughout history. Using artificial intelligence, the resultant data is re- configured to create visualisations, a series of never repeating hybrid authenticities.
In GOOD AND EVIL AND YES AND NO (2018), the words suggest an opposition of type, reflected in the timeless idea of the struggle between extreme opposites. The words are animated using similar genetic codes as found in microorganisms such as bacteria or cancerous cells.
In all the works the artist seeks to open a dialogue between the viewer and the extraordinarily complex digital society we inhabit. 'For some reason I was born with an innate ability to speak to computers in their own language. For me, computer code sounds like poetry.
Press release courtesy HdM GALLERY.
798 Art District, No.4 Jiuxianqiao Lu
Chaoyang District
100015, Beijing
China
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