Visual Exploration: WK4: MONSTERS OF THE ID

EXHIBITION

Our visit to The John Hansard gallery to see David Cotterrell begun at 1pm, we met outside the library then walked to the bus stop where we got a ride to Southampton University. We were asked after our visit to write a review of this exhibition in the style of SOURCE MAGAZINE which needed some research in order to archive their style of writing.

mini assignment

http://www.source.ie/index.php

Scan of Online Exhibition Review on Source Website

SOURCE PHOTO

THE VIEW FROM INSIDE SOURCE

MONSTERS OF THE ID

VISITED ON 20TH MARCH 2012

THE JOHN HANSARD GALLERY

In order to create his technological advanced and artificially intelligent installations, war artist David Cotterrell uses a simple intranet kinetic network commonly seen in X-Box Software creating interactive and responsive art work. His work address the complexity of war, morality and politics of his time in Afghanistan through a cinematic delivery of an exploration of landscape.

Upon arrival, I was presented with a projected piece titled "The Observer Effect" which illustrates a empty desert that combines the real and virtual by calculating the impact the audience has on the space. The intimidating presence of the digital subjects grows due to the real time created by mathematica, causing the relation of the piece to change through our approach.

The second space demonstrates a aerial view of a desert landscape on a low platform made of chalk, "Searchlight 2" correlates with previous installation through three dimensional scanning technology. A striking feature of the construction is the tiny shadows of people transversing across the piece, relating the material of the sculputre to the people in the previous space, capturing the disorientation of observing a militarised environment.

The third section of the exhibition surrounds you with two opposing domes of vista-like projections, titled "Apparent Horizon" that pan the desert in a dim dusk. It seemed to combine the sublime with anticipation without the theatrics of drama, allowing the landscape to speak for itself.

The final room was most like a set of a military base of communication and surveillance filled with ebay bought items of controlling technologies. The set suggests a false illusion questioning war in the media and moral integrity, whether we are helping or hindering such events.

MONSTERS OF THE ID is a John Hansard Gallery exhibition

Price £4.50

www.cotterrell.com