19 May – 1 July 2001, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
In continued exploration of (in no particular order)
Conjunction/distortion, f(r)acture, surface, plot,
time, space, beauty, environment, identity, cyber/human
No Matter
Never Mind
D O < R >
19 May – 1 July 2001
“No more delay, no more relief, volume is no longer the reality of things.
This is now concealed in the flatness of figures.” ~ Paul Virilio 1
In this installation D O < R > (depth of reality, depth of relief), featuring both sculptural and photographic based art works, Marcus Bunyan investigates how bodies and identities are being altered within a cybernetic matrix, how the lines of intersection between human and machine are being radically redefined.
Figures are being flattened into the thickness of a computer screen so that, as Virilio says, they have no more relief. Paradoxically, within the man-machine interface, humans are seeking more relief, greater connection in the third dimension through ‘tactile telepresence’ or touching at a distance. As the body becomes a (post)human terminal to be plugged into the machine we maybe witnessing the final urbanisation of the human body through its ability to be absent / present in a world of its own making.
In an aesthetically beautiful and conceptually informed installation, Bunyan uses the flattened diagrammatic plans of geometric figures (such as those of dodecahedrons and octahedrons) to create a virtual reality and walk through installation. Haunting and distant photographic images of the semi-present human form are interlaced in this exhibition. The artist examines the intersections, perspectives and paradox of (no) more relief and its implications in the future construction and embodiment of human consciousness, identity and the physical form of the human vessel.
Text from the Bendigo Art Gallery website
In the installation D O < R > (depth of reality, depth of relief), I investigate how the lines of intersection between human and machine are being radically redefined. Within a cybernetic environment figures are being flattened into the thickness of a computer screen so that, as the French urbanist Paul Virilio says, they have no more relief.1 Paradoxically, within the man-machine interface, humans are seeking more relief, greater connection through ‘tactile telepresence’ or touching at a distance. As the body becomes a (post)human terminal to be plugged into the machine we may be witnessing the final urbanization of the human body through its ability to be absent / present in a world of its own making.
The work contrasts 1980s buttons (acting as organisms and mandalas) inlaid with other images, with the geometric flatness of mathematical ‘figures’ of octahedrons and dodecahedrons. The floor piece recreates on of the buttons (in tulle and velvet) and one of the mathematical figures (using wood and mirror) re-presenting the depth of field and textural stuffiness of the interface.
Catalogue essays were by Dr Ted Gott (at that time Senior Curator at Heide Museum of Modern Art) and now Professor, Darren Tofts (Professor of Media and Communications, Swinburne University of Technology). The exhibition also featured a survey of previous work up until this date.
Dr Marcus Bunyan
All images © Marcus Bunyan
- Paul Virilio. Open Sky. London: Verso, 1997, p. 26.
Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.
Photographs are available from this series for purchase. As a guide, a digital colour 16″ x 20″ print costs $1,000 plus tracked and insured shipping. For more information please see the Store web page.
Marcus Bunyan – Imagemaker 