Lisson Gallery presents Errors and Omissions, Cory Arcangel’s second show in Shanghai, following his 2019 solo presentation, Topline, at CC Foundation. Constructed as a focused take on a survey show, this exhibition features an array of the artist’s multimedia projects, including video games, single-channel video, inkjets and industrially-coated aluminum ‘paintings’, utilizing techniques such as AI, machine learning and machine code. The show is anchored by two video game works created nearly 20 years apart — Super Slow Tetris (2004), and /roʊˈdeɪoʊ/ Let’s Play: HOLLYWOOD (2021). Super Slow Tetris, an original copy of the Nintendo Entertainment System game Tetris has been hacked and slowed radically so that it now takes almost a whole day for a group of blocks to fall to the bottom of the screen (while crucially still playable). /roʊˈdeɪoʊ/ (pronounced ‘Rodeo’) is another approach to extended game play, but here a bespoke Deep-Q machine-learning super computing system plays a casual, free-to-play Android game called ‘Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,’ where players aim to increase their reputation by gaining fans and A-List celebrity stardom. /roʊˈdeɪoʊ/ Let’s Play: HOLLYWOOD (2021) presented in the Shanghai gallery is a 3 hour long single-channel screen capture video of /roʊˈdeɪoʊ/ playing ‘Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,’ recorded on 14 December 2021.
Read moreConnecting these works are not only /roʊˈdeɪoʊ/’s ambient system sounds by musician Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), but a new series, entitled Things I Made, in which various webpages from coryarcangel.com become prints on paper ripped from a HP Deskjet 2710e manual. The prints track the progress of Arcangel’s work over the last two decades and include Photoshop Gradient and Smudge Tool Demonstration (2007) and his Self-Playing Nintendo 64 NBA Courtside 2 (2011).
The show concludes with a ready-made floor installation and a new series of Alus, aluminum paintings featuring abstract shapes and signatures cut by a robotic CNC fibre laser cutting machine with finishes that are reminiscent of Apple’s product lines for both casual and professional users. The lines, curves, and letters have been rendered from vectorized photographs of tracksuits, motifs which have been a long-standing interest of Arcangel’s. Industrially painted in hot pink, each work and its markings are unique. Diamond Plate (2023) utilizes a non-skid, safety surface used for stairs, catwalks, work platforms, walkways and ramps as the backdrop for the exhibition. Notably, the diamond plate pattern was a popular website background in the early days of the internet, and was the background for the artist’s first website (circa 1996). From the ’90s until 2023, Arcangel has weaved and swerved through a career centering contemporary art around ideas of power, digital technology and humor. Errors and Omissions serves as a teaser to Arcangel’s continuing journey.
里森画廊呈现科里·阿肯吉尔 (Cory Arcangel) 的个展「错与疏」(Errors and Omissions)，这也是继2019年在基金会的个展「主旋律线」(Topline) 之后，他在上海推出的第二次个展。作为一个综述阿肯吉尔实践的展览，「错与疏」通过一系列运用人工智能、机器学习和机器语言指令等科技创作的多媒体作品，展现了他探索的主题和创作手法，呈现的作品包括电子游戏、单频影像、喷墨打印作品和工业涂层铝板“绘画”等。
展览的核心是两件电子游戏作品，它们的创作时间几乎相隔了20年，分别是《超慢版俄罗斯方块》(Super Slow Tetris，2004) 和《/roʊˈdeɪoʊ/ 开始游戏：好莱坞》(/roʊˈdeɪoʊ/ Let’s Play: HOLLYWOOD，2021)。《超慢版俄罗斯方块》的创作基于任天堂的原版俄罗斯方块游戏，但艺术家在破解版中大幅减慢了游戏速度，使得每组方块几乎需要一整天时间才能落到屏幕底部 (游戏依然是可玩的)。而创作于2017年至2021年的《/roʊˈdeɪoʊ/》(发音为“Rodeo” 罗迪欧) 中，阿肯吉尔则采取另一种手段来增加游戏时长：艺术家让一个定制的Deep-Q机器学习超级计算系统来玩一款名为“金·卡戴珊：好莱坞”(Kim Kardashian: Hollywood) 的免费游戏，玩家的目标是扩张自己的影响力，吸引粉丝并成为顶流大咖。在上海空间展出的《/roʊˈdeɪoʊ/ 开始游戏：好莱坞》则是一部录制于2021年12月14日的单频录屏影像，呈现了长达3小时的游戏过程。
联结上述新旧作品的不仅有音乐人丹尼尔·洛帕廷 (Daniel Lopatin, 又名Oneohtrix Point Never) 为《/roʊˈdeɪoʊ/》制作的系统背景音，还有全新系列《我的创作》(Things I Made) ——艺术家从惠普Deskjet 2710e打印机的说明书中撕下纸张，并在其上打印了来自个人网站coryarcangel.com的多个页面。这些作品追溯了阿肯吉尔过去逾二十年的创作实践，包括《Photoshop渐变和涂抹工具演示》(Photoshop Gradient and Smudge Tool Demonstration，2007) 和《自动游玩版N64 游戏NBA赛场2》(Self-Playing Nintendo 64 NBA Courtside 2，2011)。
本次展览还呈现了一件装置作品《网纹板》(Diamond Plate，2023)，以及一系列名为《Alus》的新作。在《Alus》系列中，艺术家在铝板上用CNC光纤镭射切割机绘出抽象形状与签名，其表面的质感让人想起为不同使用者设计了专业版和普通版的苹果产品。几件《Alus》作品中的线条、弧度与文字均取自矢量化的运动服照片，这也是阿肯吉尔在实践中多次出现并长期关注的图像。尽管都采用工业化的方式被涂上鲜艳的粉红色，但每件作品及其图案都是独一无二的。此外，覆盖于展厅地面和部分墙身的《网纹板》的媒介为常用于楼梯、T台、工作平台、人行道和坡道的安全防滑表面，艺术家以此为展览营造一个特别的背景。这种网纹图案正是流行于互联网早期的网页背景之一，也是艺术家第一个网站的背景 (大约创建于1996年)。从1990年代直到2023年，阿肯吉尔始终围绕着影响力、数字技术和幽默的主题，编织自己的当代艺术生涯，而「错与疏」则是阿肯吉尔无尽旅程的一支预告片。
