The London Consortium
Static. Issue 05 | ISSN 1754-5374
Birkbeck College TATE ICA - Insitute of Contemporary Arts The Architectural Association School of Architecture
 
   

The Origin of Painting

DISINFORMATION

Origin: Static Issue 05
Content: Text/Images/Video

Disinformation - Static 5Disinformation - Static 5

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The Origin of Painting is an interactive luminous graffiti, shadow wall and electromagnetic sound installation created and exhibited by art group Disinformation. The installation is titled after ‘The Maid of Corinth, or The Origin of Painting’ depicted by the painter Joseph ‘Wright of Derby’ in 1782 (Paul Mellon Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington). Joseph Wright depicted a theme suggested to him by the myth described in William Hayley's poem ‘An Essay on Painting’, in which a woman sketched around the outline of the shadow cast by her departing lover in lamp light against a wall... ‘Inspired by love, the soft Corinthian maid, Her graceful lover's sleeping form portray'd...’ (William Hayley 1778).

During the exhibition ‘Soundproofs’ at The Museum of Installation in London in July 1997, artist Hayley Newman performed ‘A Shot in the Dark’ in a luminous suit lit by photographic flash guns. Adapting this idea (with Hayley's consent), Disinformation combined ideas from ‘Artificial Lightning’ (a track on ‘R&D2’ inspired by the writings of MIT electrical engineer Harold Edgerton), with a colour scheme inspired by The MOI performance, and a timing mechanism designed by electrical engineer Tim Register, into a machine which enables audiences to photograph their own life-size shadows, and to literally draw with light, to a soundtrack of live (and surprisingly musical) electromagentic noise. A scratch / demo ‘Artificial Lightning’ installation was devised for a few tens of pounds, and remained unexhibited until the idea was resourced (specifically not ‘commissioned’) by The Hayward Gallery for the ‘Sonic Boom’ exhibition (curated by David Toop) in April 2000.

The resemblance of the work’simagery to silhouettes left by the atomic flashes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the image of mortality that visitors see reflected in the act of separating from their fading shadows, cause ‘The Origin of Painting’ to function as an active contemporary equivalent of traditional Vanitas painting.

Contributor:

Disinformation is a highly experimental electronic music and sound art project, which (since 1995) pioneered the use of electromagnetic noise induced by live mains electricity, lightning, laboratory equipment, industrial, metro, railway and IT hardware, magnetic storms and the sun etc, as the raw material of CD and LP publications, concerts, and sound installations. Since this time, Disinformation has also evolved into a widely exhibited kinetic, video and visual arts project, particularly focussing on exhibiting works that explore aspects of psychology of illusion.

Associated Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation_%
28art_and_music_project%29

 

 

 
   
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