calendario eventi  :: 

X

2/10/2001

Wattage and Friendship

mullerdechiara, Berlin

curated by David Hunt

In a recent article in the New Yorker magazine a company was mentioned that resells electricity from public utilities out into the open market. It's a classic pyramid scheme. Each salesperson is told to recruit their friends and family to buy electricity and then they become a salesperson themselves. In this sense, the more friends you have the more sales you have, and hence more electricity.

Electricity or wattage, in the form of fiber-optic networks, internet bandwidth, modem speed, long distance services, GPS systems and PDAs have always been championed by technology companies as tools for "collapsing distances" and "bringing people together". The more wattage you possess ­ that is, the more speed, power, and hence convenience? The easier it is for you to "interface" with your friends. More often than not, however, what is "collapsed" is the distance between you, the consumer - sitting at home in front of your monitor, or television screen, or propped up in bed with your phone in hand - and the product waiting to be sent to you as soon as you give the customer service representative on the other line your credit card number. Or, ideally, if you´re sitting in front of your own computer, you can simply type the digits in yourself and click the mouse. You might not have assuaged that nagging sense of loneliness and alienation deep in your soul, but at least you´ll have the latest John Grisham bestseller from Amazon.com delivered straight to your door, or Radiohead´s latest disc overnighted in shrink-wrapped plastic from CDnow.com.

People are connected 100% of the time, but what this does is create more casual acquaintances, rather than true friends. "Wattage & Friendship", then, highlights this notion of a direct relationship between electricity and community, and in some cases refutes it, subverts it, satirizes it, exploits it, or generally takes it in directions one has never seen.

In "Wattage and Friendship" some of the artists are making work that relates to "wattage" or "electricity" some are making work that relates to "friendship" and others are making work that invokes this direct relationship between the two.

"Wattage and Friendship" is meant to invoke network and circuit metaphors, but also to play with something as simple and primitive as an electric light bulb

Catalog available.

Matt Bakkom, Andrea Claire, Jay Davis, John Espinosa, Danny Hobart, Diego Gravinese, Jacqueline Humphries, Paul Johnson, Charles LaBelle, Pam Lins, J. Mayer H., Joao Onofre, Mick O´Shea, Luca Pancrazzi, Erik Parker, Jeffrey Reed, Elisa Sighicelli, Suzy Spence, Dannielle Tegeder, John Widman, Suzanne Wright

Inaugural Exhibition vernissage october 3, 2001, 7 -10 pm

october 4 - november 17, 2001, 12.00 am - 6.00 pm

hours during ART FORUM october 3 - 7, 2001: 10.00 am to 8.00 pm

Berlin Mitte galleries open long october 6, 10.00 am - 9.00 pm

Inaugural Exhibition in temporary location

Alte Jakobstrasse 149/Mendelsohn-Building Entrance Lindenstrasse, next to Jewish Museum D-10969 Berlin

müllerdechiara
gallery space opening soon:
Weydinger Strasse 10, 10178 Berlin, phone: +49-30-390 320 40, Fax +49-30-390 320 44

stampa

permanent link