DERBY.- 80º N by Gibson/Martelli went on display in
QUAD Gallery in December. The exhibition features ideas of voyaging and Polar exploration, through immersive artworks utilizing ground-breaking technology that literally and virtually points the viewer North, beyond the 80th parallel.
“Gibson and Martelli’s work pushes both the capacity of cutting edge visualization technology and our understanding of where contemporary art can take us.” -- CAFKA Biennial Director Gordon Hatt, 2014
In its attention to the expansive frozen lands and seas of ice, the exhibition contemplates the overwhelming might of nature, its beauty and its vulnerability. Through human endeavor and scientific enquiry the planet has been conquered, all discovered - the Pole was reached over a century ago and now cruise ships navigate the North West Passage, tourism replacing exploration.
Drawing from heroic exploits and classical representations of the natural world, Gibson/Martelli invite the viewer to contemplate the Arctic from a first-person perspective. Employing immersive techniques from virtual reality and video games, the viewer’s panoramic gaze is transformed by individual agency. In these spaces science & fiction merge, addressing the position of the self in relation to nature and technology - imagined & experienced views of place where invention and memory collide.
80ºN by Gibson/Martelli is on display in QUAD Gallery from 13 December until 8 February 2015.
80ºN includes three works: In Search of Abandoned presents a vision of a non-place ‘discovered’ in the Arctic Circle on Google maps during Martelli’s residency in Svalbard. The artists built a computer generated world using height map data and game engine technology; the resulting 3D stereoscopic experience brings together an imagined view of place and an experience of one. White Island re-imagines S. A. Andrée’s doomed Polar balloon expedition of 1897, allowing visitors to soar over a virtual version of Kvitøya (White Island) in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean created for Oculus Rift. In Perfect Circle a 100 year old sailing boat, Noorderlicht, makes a 360º turn in an attempt to describe a perfect circle in the sea.
Ruth Gibson & Bruno Martelli see their practice as an ongoing investigation into simulacra and the sublime underpinned by the tradition of figure and landscape. They make environments and performances using print, video and computer games. Known as igloo from 1995 - 2010, their first work together won them a BAFTA nomination. They exhibit in galleries, theatres and festivals around the world including The Detroit Institute for Art, the Barbican, SIGGRAPH, ISEA, The Royal Opera House, Royal Festival Hall & 52nd Venice Biennale. Bruno lectures at AA School of Architecture, Slade & Goldsmiths College; while Ruth is Creative Fellow at the Centre for Dance Research at Coventry University's School of Art & Design. Their work can be found in private and public collections including Sarah Meltzer Gallery, Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art & the British Film Institute.
