James R Ford: Loopy
23 April 2013 - 16 June 2013
AV Gallery
Loopy is a selection of films and animations by James R Ford that feature loopy ideas that loop and/or may drive viewers loopy. The exhibition focuses on absurdity, probability and infinity, relating to life and how we spend time in the everyday or in the art-making process. A number of Ford's films result from a period of exploration into boredom, and the paradox of doing something to relieve boredom that in turn becomes boring. The most recent works use twisted scenarios to illustrate scientific/theoretical ideas and paradoxes.
Ford is a British born artist whose varied practice includes drawing, assemblage, installation and film. Ford playfully revels in the inanity of activities and repetitive gestures that have come to occupy our everyday lives. A performance element is often present in his work.
Infinite Monkey Syndrome (2012) extends Ford’s recent investigations into the infinite. It has been theorised that if a monkey was left to type on a typewriter for an infinite amount of time, it would type out everything ever written, including all the great works of literature. The work appears as a ridiculously rudimentary inquiry into this theory, in which the artist dresses a young woman in a monkey suit and sets her the remunerated task of typing arbitrary nonsense ad infinitum.
The Snake Pi works contemplate properties of the universe (physical dimensions, time, mass, energy) and its random, yet cyclical/infinite nature, using the irrational mathematical constant pi combined with variables based on the movement of snakes. Snake Pi (version 3i) (2011) is an animated film lasting exactly 3.14 hours. A simple snake appears on screen and slowly slithers and twists up and around itself until it fully fills the shape of pi, before pulling its body along the path it has made, and disappearing from the bottom of the picture. The work purposely references the monochrome display of mobile phones from the late 1990s, on which a classic snake game was a standard feature.
Hit Me With Your Best Shot (2008) features no music - only the pathetic clicks and twangs produced by the plastic guitar controller can be heard as Ford plays his way through all 39 solo career songs in the Guitar Hero III game. Having the camera mounted on the head of the ‘guitar’ in the fashion of a rock star, alongside the non-eventful audio, highlights the realisation that you aren’t actually creating anything tuneful in reality. Turning the game into a non-stop durational challenge also transforms a boredom-reliever into a tiresome task, as well as a boredom-inducer for the viewer.
James R Ford (b. 1980, UK) studied at Goldsmiths College in London and currently lives and works in Wellington. Ford has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand and overseas and his work has featured in a variety of national and international publications. Recent solo exhibitions include Snake Pis, Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin (2012); Tongue-Tied and Tired, {Suite} Gallery, Wellington (2012); Air of the Irrational, Christian Ferreira at the Wapping Project, London (2011); and Zero Expectations, Peloton Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2011). Ford recently curated a national touring exhibition of contemporary male artists based in NZ, entitled Never Mind the Pollocks, featuring creatives who employ intellect, keen observation and a lightness of touch in their work. Ford was winner of the inaugural Tui McLauchlan Emerging Artist's Award from the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in 2013.