1. 05/24/12

    TURNED OFF

    Media artwork, High Definition Digital Video, Stereo Sound, 16:9, 2011.

    DEACTIVATE. SHUT DOWN. TERMINATE. SHUT OFF. ABORT. DISBAND. SWITCH OFF. CONCLUDE. TUNE OUT. DISCONNECT. TURN OFF. DESIST. CLOSE UP. CEASE. DISLIKE. CLOSE DOWN. CUT OFF. HALT. GIVE UP. DEPART. DROP OUT. EXPIRE. WRAP UP. DISCONTINUE. PUTT OFF. RETIRE. BREAK DOWN. FINISH. BREAK OFF. STOP. CALL OFF. UNPLUG. FLICK OFF. CLOSE. END. QUIT, TURN 

    TURNED OFF is an audio-visual video work that presents the moment when CRT TVs are turned off, creating various structures of light and abstractions of sound as the signal deconstructs and disappears into the tube. From representation to abstraction and finally finality, the switching off process is an event in which immersion breaks down to reality, conveying the apparatus or defining aspects of the technology, it’s tube. These farewelling orbs were not intentionally made with a function, their form follows the practicalities of their design. These visual manifestations are didactic moments that unveil and express the television’s materiality, regardless of the intentions of the viewer. Thus, their enframing or enslaving as a tool is dissolved, making these flashes of wavelengths poetic to us, as they are freed from our chains of demand and use. Also sublime, the deathly presence of the nothingness and void of their black, silent screens reminds us of our own mortality.

    The work bares similitude to the photographic documentation of this turning off occurrence by Sydney based artist Kenzee Paterson’s lightjet prints such as CR5A (2008) and the almost identical series Luminant Point Arrays (2011) by Berlin based Stephan Tillmans. Moreover, the work acts as a book end in video art history to Nam June Paik’s early and seminal experiments with CRT TVs which produced abstract images through a process of magnetising the tube, notably Magnet TV (1965). The breakdown of the picture echoes the breakdown of this technology within our cultural appreciation. Now as the medium reaches the limit of its use within mainstream culture, it is the upgrade, i.e. LCD, LED or Plasma TV etc, that allows us to define and understand the CRT TV’s qualities of uniqueness by comparison. While at the same time it is in this very moment of its death as a contemporary object that it transforms and begins a new life of representation and aesthetic relevance as an object of a certain historical and cultural context. Whilst almost posthumously its significance may become clearer, their meaning will undoubtedly shift as future use will further shape their signification. In TURNED OFF,the bursts of energy that are experienced when the TV is turned off, are visually and conceptually akin to a cardiac arrest or the dying of a star. A kind of cultural supernova, these transmitters of superstars are stars themselves, a vacuum pressured container of meaning with a lasting charge of historical memory. As long as there are processes of preservation, remembrance or appreciation alive within culture, their fate is not solely determined to nostalgia or fetishisation as a retro object. 
     

  2. 03/23/12
    Men have become the tools of their tools.
    — Henry David Thoreau 
     

  3. 02/06/12
    Taxidermy Blue Screen Media Installation, Painted 19” LCD Computer Monitor, 2011.

    Taxidermy Blue Screen

    Media Installation, Painted 19” LCD Computer Monitor, 2011.

     

  4. Code-a

    Media Installation, Found 21” LCD TV, No Signal Input, 2011.

     

  5. 01/31/12
    You may not like what you’re going to see
    — Robocop (1987)
     

  6. 01/17/12

    The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Media Living, Mixed Media Installation, 29cm x 14cm x 14cm, 2011.

    Exhibited at the public, small and wonderful TwentyByThirty gallery in Melbourne from December to January. 

    http://www.twentybythirtygallery.com/

     

  7. 12/04/11
    I’m afraid. I’m afraid… my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m a… fraid.
    — HAL, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968.
     

  8. 11/04/11

    Photos from the opening night of my solo show “Slip.p_Age/s” at Blindside Gallery 
    Melbourne, 2011, images courtesy of the gallery. The show runs till the 19th of November 2011.

     

  9. 10/31/11

     

    Blindside gallery presents Tara Cook

    Slip.p_Age/s

    Tara Cook continues her exploration of technology and detritus in Slip.p_Age/s. The glitched present births Slip.p_Age/s – constructions from error. Unwanted, random, and accidental, perhaps even mad, chaotic or entropic; they sit in the tense space between the presence of malfunction and the memory of intended but now absent functionality. Thought to be inferior as they lack control and clarity, they are viewed as negative and frustrating occurrences, to be reduced and eradicated. With no use, they’ve lost all reason. Our decaying interest and their disposable fate fill them with thoughts of failure, abandonment and death. These fears of disaster, disappointment and obsolescence breed with the times.

    Opening Thursday 3 November, 6 - 8pm.
    Open Tuesday to Saturday 12-6pm, Wednesday 2 November - Saturday 19 November.

    Blindside
    Level 7, Room 14, Nicholas Building 
    37 Swanston Street, Melbourne 3000 
    BLINDSIDE is an independent contemporary arts space located in the heart of Melbourne. We are committed to supporting and promoting contemporary art practice across a broad range of media through an ever-changing program of exhibitions, screenings, events and workshops. BLINDSIDE supports a thriving arts community in Melbourne and beyond—encouraging artistic experimentation, innovation and facilitating critical dialogue.

     

  10. 10/27/11

    Turned On (Stills)

    Media Artwork
    Single-channel HD 16:9 Video, Stereo Sound, 1”, Looped.
    2011.

    “DEACTIVATE. SHUT DOWN. TERMINATE. SHUT OFF. ABORT. DISBAND. SWITCH OFF. CONCLUDE. TUNE OUT. DISCONNECT. TURN OFF. DESIST. CLOSE UP. CEASE. DISLIKE. CLOSE DOWN. CUT OFF. HALT. GIVE UP. DEPART. DROP OUT. EXPIRE. WRAP UP. DISCONTINUE. PUTT OFF. RETIRE. BREAK DOWN. FINISH. BREAK OFF. STOP. CALL OFF. UNPLUG. FLICK OFF. CLOSE. END. QUIT, TURN “

    Exhibited tomorrow night at Experimental Sounds Sculptures & Installations Show (see below post).

     

  11.  

  12. 10/18/11
    Experimental Sounds Sculptures and Installations29th October 9 - 11pmThe Library Artspace, 100 Barkly St Fitzroy North, Melbourne. Enter via Dean St.  “Experimental sound is a particular genre of music that is elusive to many; it is a genre where people explore sounds outside general rules of composition and assembly to create an unaccustomed type of music. This exhibition offers a discourse of experimental sounds via different forms of media incorporating sculpture, installation and film and is to challenge traditional sensibilities as to what quantifies as music.” LOCAL ARTISTS: Rod Cooper, Tara Cook, Dale Chapman, Antonia Goodfellow, Lee-Ann Joy, Vijay Thillaimuthu, John Waller.INTERNATIONAL GUEST ARTISTS: Buttercup Insurgent, E.T.G, Exomène, Cezary Gapik, IDTAL, Jason Kavanagh, Sean Derrick Cooper Marquardt, NOS Project, Maresuke Okamoto, PAS, Jaime Rguez, Hugues Vincent.OPENING NIGHT PERFOMANCES: Dale Chapman, Marco Cher-gibard, Rodney Cooper, Mark Groves & Sharryn Koppins (Dick Threats), Vijay Thillaimuthu.

    Experimental Sounds Sculptures and Installations
    29th October 9 - 11pm
    The Library Artspace, 100 Barkly St Fitzroy North, Melbourne. Enter via Dean St. 

    “Experimental sound is a particular genre of music that is elusive to many; it is a genre where people explore sounds outside general rules of composition and assembly to create an unaccustomed type of music. This exhibition offers a discourse of experimental sounds via different forms of media incorporating sculpture, installation and film and is to challenge traditional sensibilities as to what quantifies as music.” 

    LOCAL ARTISTS: Rod Cooper, Tara Cook, Dale Chapman, Antonia Goodfellow, Lee-Ann Joy, Vijay Thillaimuthu, John Waller.

    INTERNATIONAL GUEST ARTISTS: Buttercup Insurgent, E.T.G, Exomène, Cezary Gapik, IDTAL, Jason Kavanagh, Sean Derrick Cooper Marquardt, NOS Project, Maresuke Okamoto, PAS, Jaime Rguez, Hugues Vincent.

    OPENING NIGHT PERFOMANCES: Dale Chapman, Marco Cher-gibard, Rodney Cooper, Mark Groves & Sharryn Koppins (Dick Threats), Vijay Thillaimuthu.

     

  13. 10/13/11
    Broken lines, broken strings
    Broken threads, broken springs
    Broken idols, broken heads
    People sleeping in broken beds
    Ain’t no use jiving
    Ain’t no use joking
    Everything is broken
    Broken bottles, broken plates
    Broken switches, broken gates
    Broken dishes, broken parts
    Streets are filled with broken hearts
    Broken words never meant to be spoken
    Everything is broken
    Seem like everytime you stop and turn around
    Something else just hit the ground
    Broken cutters, broken saws
    Broken buckles, broken laws
    Broken bodies, broken bones
    Broken voices on broken phones
    Take a deep breath, feel like you’re chokin’
    Everything is broken
    Everytime you leave and go off someplace
    Things fall to pieces in my face
    Broken hands on broken ploughs
    Broken treaties, broken vows
    Broken pipes, broken tools
    People bending broken rules
    Hound dog howling, bullfrog croaking
    Everything is broken
    — Robert Allen Zimmerman / Bob Dylan
     

  14. Documentation of I’mperfect, Post-media painting, Cracked 42” Plasma TV, mounted and painted, 2010-11. Exhibited at the New Low Launch Show, New Low, Melbourne.

     

  15. Documentation and statement for EPIC FAIL, Performance, Corrupted HD Video, 42” Plasma TV with faulty main board, painted and mounted, silent, looped, 16:9, 3’44”, 2011. Exhibited at “Check Check”, Artbeat, Melbourne.