Blowup: Speculative Realities
Exhibition featuring three new commissions by Tuur van Balen (BE) & Revital Cohen (UK), Cheryl Field (UK), and Karolina Sobecka (US). With a new e-book release.
This edition of Blowup will examine the how and the
why of speculative realism, object-oriented ontology and artistic
practice. Three new art commissions examine different aspects of
Object-oriented ontology (OOO), such as a non-human-centered view
of the world, and the limits of knowledge. An e-book of interviews
with artists and thinkers, released with a short talk at the
exhibition finissage, will round out the programme and provide
insights into the relationship between this exciting turn in
philosophy and contemporary art and design. Artists being
commissioned include Tuur van Balen & Revital Cohen (BE/UK),
Cheryl Field (UK), and Karolina Sobecka (US). Thinkers being
interviewed for the e-book include Rick
Dolphijn (NL), Sven Lütticken (DE/NL), and Jussi Parikka (FI/UK).
Background: The term “speculative realism” was coined at a conference at Goldsmiths in 2007 chaired by Alberto Toscano that included the philosophers Ray Brassier, Iain Hamilton Grant, Graham Harman and Quentin Meillassoux. Since then the term has split into factions like object-oriented ontology (OOO), spawned a number of journals (Speculations and O-Zone), book series and several other conferences and debates. The theme can be taken as part of a current philosophical interest in rethinking correlationism (an act of division between human and world), and is broadly congruent with existing discussions of the nonhuman, more-than-human and other frameworks of new materialism. Many key points of these conceptual trends are also pertinent to current trends in artistic practice: a non-anthropocentric worldview; an interest in modes of ontological levelling (a democracy of things); a consideration of aggregate forces like climate through categories of autonomy.
Opening Times
Vernissage (in the presence of the artists): December 8, 14:00 - 17:30
Finissage (with special guests, e-book launch): January 11, 17:00 - 19:00
Exhibition hours are Tuesday - Friday 11:00 - 17:00, or by appointment
by emailing: Michelle Kasprzak
The exhibition will be closed over the holidays from December 22 - January 2.
