>Multi-Chrome_2017

2 x 7” digital photo frame, mdf, 2x novelty USBs, pins
49 x 34 cm (30 image loop)

Shown as part of; Any, More?, a two person show at Limbo, London and later at Hannah Barry Gallery.

Multi-Chrome consists of two looping sets of images of famous monochrome paintings on digital photo frames. The photos run in a set order transitioning with random presets inbuilt to the digital photo frame.

Within the 30 images Martin Kippenberger's ‘Model Interconti’ (his table famously made with Gerhard Richter monochrome painting) would also show intermittently along with the 29 other monochromatic works (single colour).

Multi-Chrome comes from a series where I was working with slide-shows on digital photo frames. I was interested in 'one liners' (jokes) and trying to bring that into my practice. I'd always thought Martin Kippenberger's ‘Model Interconti’ to be a beautifully fun/funny work and the sampling of that within the digital monochromes was my stab at writing a visual 'one liner'.

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Text:
Any, More? In the blink of an eye, everything in front of them had congealed into a single, amorphous entity. The market table in front of them, a thin tin-like sheet with a neatly trimmed edge, was suddenly home to a living monster. An assemblage of rusty scythes and trowels, busted GameCubes and pirate DVDs. The creature oozed a toxic mixture of copper bile and pink gouache, wriggling in the pan like an octopus waiting to be gutted. The longer they stared at this unnamed beast, the harder it became to discern its grim anatomy; its synthetic carcass writhing around an emaciated spine like an ouroboros – locked into a perpetual state of self-digestion. Soon ten jellied eels began melting their way through the beast’s diaphragm. Currents of electricity throbbed from their bodies in a nauseating ripple, infusing the monster’s entrails with a carnivorous energy. Gnawed optical wires sparked with luminescence, muddied family-postcards acquired a lenticular movement, a set of mangled golf clubs spasmed like BigDog on ice. The pallid eels slowly receded again, weaving through the monster’s innards like a bobbet worm through soil. The oily and taut belly of the market-trader protruded from under a stained white vest, dripping with an obnoxious liquid. And as their leer reached upward, they were confronted with further unspeakable horror. Where there would have usually sat a human face, was simply a blank rind of pale flesh. Its only visible details the stretch marks that pulled the oval mass of skin back in on itself. The stretch marks too had a sort of wicked energy to them: they rubbed and grazed against one another, as if itching a sore rash. The crowd had now grown to an insurmountable number, entering a frenzy. The swarm soon resembled a furious live chat: a rapid succession of bodies spontaneously emerging at its head, with those at the bottom sunk beneath its weight and crushed. Their eyes were all catatonic. As the sun set behind the stall a peculiar yellow gloom engulfed the sprawling market. Traders began shuffling endlessly between one another. Tables vanished and appeared, each home to a preying mass of bloodshot retinas. The street’s cartography stretched from 1:1 to infinity. As the fabric of the air ripped and tore, the wild oscillations of a black and white substance enmeshed in their own molecular activity was revealed. Entangled and disjointed, the limbs of the crowd now levitated at least a foot from the ground. They pulsed like a jellyfish. The intensity of their stare had begun to seize control of the monster, a coordinated and collective gesture of the audience-body could cause the monster to lurch from one direction to another. The squirming face of the market trader convulsing inward like a black hole. Spasming, he coughed forth a nugget of fresh mucous, green with bubonic shades. It slumped on the table, whining and helpless. With a click of ⌘F3 the scene shot back into the distance, joined by seven other variable wormholes: a pdf of his personal artist portfolio; several unfinished TextEdit docs coloured with turquoise and yellow highlights; a pirate copy of The Gagosian’s The Show Is Over catalogue. With a second click he was launched forward at incredible speed. Everything around him submerged into a deep crimson red. In an instant, nothing else had become intelligible, just limitless and pure colour. Hesitant for a moment, his finger gravitated in its former position. But soon the feeling was simply overwhelming. Staring into his glowing screen, he fell into it, like you would a fever, or a daydream.

Written by Charlie Mills    

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