Sound Mirrors
Exhibition: Sound Mirrors
Disinformation Solo Exhibition 28 October to 2 December 2006 Wrexham Arts Centre Rhosddu Road Wrexham LL11 1AU 01978 292093
“The Origin of Painting” by Disinformation is a highly interactive, entertaining and accessible sound, light and live performance installation, which encourages audiences to photograph their shadows, to a soundtrack of live (and surprisingly musical) electromagnetic noise. The installation also enables participants to draw with light directly onto the painting’s surface - producing graffiti, portraits, abstracts etc which are literally incandescent. The installation draws its title from “The Corinthian Maid, or The Origin of Painting” painted by Joseph Wright in 1782. The fading shadows produced by this exhibit function as a contemporary form of traditional Vanitas painting. Sci-Fi author Jeff Noon wrote in The Independent that “people are fascinated by this work, it brings a shiver, a sudden recognition of death, as if we have seen or heard our own ghost”, and the exhibit has been described as “visually stunning” by The Metro newspaper, and as “actively thrilling” by The Financial Times.
The exhibition also features a Disinformation installation which takes its title from “The Analysis of Beauty” - the book written by artist William Hogarth in 1753. “The Analysis of Beauty” is a contemporary equivalent of Trompe L’Oeil painting - using signals from sine-wave generators to create a pattern on the screen of a laboratory oscilloscope, which produce an illusion know as the Kinetic Depth Effect - whereby impressions of sculptural form emerge despite the absence of the perspective, precedence and parallax cues traditionally thought to control perceptions of visual space. “The Analysis of Beauty” was described as “subtle, visually sophisticated (and) distinctive and intelligent” by Art Monthly, and The Guardian wrote that “Disinformation combine scientific nous with poetic lyricism to create some of the most beautiful installations around”.
The exhibition also features “Spellbound” (”An Allegorical Portrait of J Robert Oppenheimer”), and “Blackout” - Barry Hale’s highly influential (and frequently copied) video of monolithic, concrete air-defence Sound Mirrors. The Sound Mirrors video has also been shown at NTT ICC (Tokyo), Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt), The Dom (Moscow), The Royal College of Art (London), Galerie fur Zeitgennossische Kunst (Leipzig) and others, and exhibited at The Mac (Birmingham), CCCB (Barcelona), The ICA (London), Quay Arts (Isle of Wight), Q Gallery (Derby), South Hill Park (Bracknell), The Waygood Gallery (Newcastle), Event Gallery (London) and The Latvian National Museum of Art.
