126 presents:
Alan Butler
IntheBedroom OMIGOD SUBSCRIBE!!! KTHXBAI XXX
November 25th until December 18th
The exhibition is a new selection of mixed media works, which use the proliferation of culture as their subject or starting points. Through drawing, video, print and installation, Butler has produced a series of works, which abstractly examine the life-cycle of musical artifacts and paraphernalia that have been reproduced as ‘tributes’ to well known works.
The research for the works in this exhibition is based on new modes of production which challenge the 20th Century’s producer/consumer model of transmission for film and music. In recent years, consumers have become both producers of and audience for the multitude of entertainment and cultural artifacts available online. Butler has collected and appropriated 20 versions of a pop song from 1974 (performed and uploaded YouTube.com users) and synchronised these to create an absurd, and at moments unpleasant, virtual choir from the song’s re-interpretations. The original videos in raw format are testament to the genuine passion and love people have for culture. The mash-up, which presents us with the aimlessness of this kind of activity, highlights the very human need to produce our own culture and share it with like-minded individuals, regardless of its collective uncouthness. It presents to us a network of people from many different age, ethnic, gender and geographical backgrounds who are connected by one song and asks the question ‘who owns culture outside of commerce and copyright (with its ever-dwindling relevance)?’ Are these performers, singing to an unknown audience, the unknowing authors of a new folk art?
A new series of 2D works use appropriated content from online fan sites to present hidden spectacles which sometimes go unnoticed due to the abundance of information online. These works are made from collections of album bootlegs re-arranged by colour and presented as colourful matrices. Also exhibited are drawings combining logos of teeny pop-stars and grindcore/death-metal acts which contrast the very definite methods of visually presenting or branding music.
The exhibition will also feature an ‘offsite’ online work which can be accessed after visiting the gallery. Much of the content from this show is created in a similar manner to its subjects, rather than needing a studio it could have been produced in a garage or a bedroom and uploaded to share with anyone interested.
Alan Butler was born in Dublin in 1981. He completed his BA of Fine Art (specialising in new media) in NCAD in 2004 and has complimented his prolific studio practice with various curatorial, art-community and art management projects. Some of these include work for the Dublin Fringe Festival, Dublin Art Fair ’08, Monster Truck Gallery & Studios, Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Blackletter.ie (Irish online art-community) and the Dublin Arts and Technology Association (DATA). Since his MAFA at LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore (2008-09) Butler’s art work has featured in projects and exhibitions at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore, Hatje Cantz Con prefazione di Angela Vettese, Venice and École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Most recently, he has had solo exhibitions at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios and Cake Contemporary Arts, Kildare, and a collaborative exhibition at the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray. He currently occupies a project studio at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios where he listens to Gwar.
The exhibition is a new selection of mixed media works, which use the proliferation of culture as their subject or starting points. Through drawing, video, print and installation, Butler has produced a series of works, which abstractly examine the life-cycle of musical artifacts and paraphernalia that have been reproduced as ‘tributes’ to well known works.
The research for the works in this exhibition is based on new modes of production which challenge the 20th Century’s producer/consumer model of transmission for film and music. In recent years, consumers have become both producers of and audience for the multitude of entertainment and cultural artifacts available online. Butler has collected and appropriated 20 versions of a pop song from 1974 (performed and uploaded YouTube.com users) and synchronised these to create an absurd, and at moments unpleasant, virtual choir from the song’s re-interpretations. The original videos in raw format are testament to the genuine passion and love people have for culture. The mash-up, which presents us with the aimlessness of this kind of activity, highlights the very human need to produce our own culture and share it with like-minded individuals, regardless of its collective uncouthness. It presents to us a network of people from many different age, ethnic, gender and geographical backgrounds who are connected by one song and asks the question ‘who owns culture outside of commerce and copyright (with its ever-dwindling relevance)?’ Are these performers, singing to an unknown audience, the unknowing authors of a new folk art?
A new series of 2D works use appropriated content from online fan sites to present hidden spectacles which sometimes go unnoticed due to the abundance of information online. These works are made from collections of album bootlegs re-arranged by colour and presented as colourful matrices. Also exhibited are drawings combining logos of teeny pop-stars and grindcore/death-metal acts which contrast the very definite methods of visually presenting or branding music.
The exhibition will also feature an ‘offsite’ online work which can be accessed after visiting the gallery. Much of the content from this show is created in a similar manner to its subjects, rather than needing a studio it could have been produced in a garage or a bedroom and uploaded to share with anyone interested.
Alan Butler was born in Dublin in 1981. He completed his BA of Fine Art (specialising in new media) in NCAD in 2004 and has complimented his prolific studio practice with various curatorial, art-community and art management projects. Some of these include work for the Dublin Fringe Festival, Dublin Art Fair ’08, Monster Truck Gallery & Studios, Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Blackletter.ie (Irish online art-community) and the Dublin Arts and Technology Association (DATA). Since his MAFA at LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore (2008-09) Butler’s art work has featured in projects and exhibitions at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore, Hatje Cantz Con prefazione di Angela Vettese, Venice and École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Most recently, he has had solo exhibitions at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios and Cake Contemporary Arts, Kildare, and a collaborative exhibition at the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray. He currently occupies a project studio at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios where he listens to Gwar.
