Into the Black: January 2009

Konrad Wyrebek at Saatchi gallery London

Artist Konrad Wyrebek at Saatchi gallery London from konrad on Vimeo.
Konrad Wyrebek at Saatchi gallery London

"COMMUNICATION: LIVE" BY KONRAD WYREBEK
"Communication: Live" was a five-minute site specific performance that temporarily multiplied the sculpture "Communication" by Chinese artist Cang Xin. It might also be seen as nine people starting a micro-revolution in the way that audiences connect with art. Whatever interpretation, Konrad Wyrebek's work blurred the lines between direct action and the passive gaze.
At 4pm on Sunday 21 December, Wyrebek led a group of eight performers into gallery six at The Saatchi Gallery, Chelsea. The group, dressed similarly to the male figure in "Communication", then took to the floor and lay stomach down, arms out-stretched, in poses that mirrored the original work by Cang Xin. The group viewed the work from the floor, at eye level with the original piece. As other gallery-goers entered the room they were unsure where "Communication" ended and "Communication: Live" began.
Polish born, London-based, artist Wyrebek was inspired to create "Communication: Live" on a previous visit to The Revolution Continues: New Art From China show at the gallery.
'The sculpture "Communication" seemed to be about action, but was also frozen and still,' says Wyrebek. 'The figure, with his tongue to the floor and arms in a crucifixion-like pose, reminded me of direct action protesters lying in front or tanks or soldiers. He appeared to be making a bold, active statement yet was also clearly a passive object.
'I lay down on the floor in the same pose as the figure in "Communication' because it seemed the best way to appreciate the piece. From the floor I experienced a far stronger connection with the work, but to do so also felt transgressive. In art galleries the audience is conditioned to stand and view each work and then move on. It is very clear what is art and what is audience, and what positions both are expected to take. With Communication Live I wanted to break down that barrier by inviting my friends and other gallery-goers to connect with the sculpture. It was a coordinated direct action that was almost as still, and frozen, as the original artwork. And I liked the way you might call it performance, but it was also just a bunch of friends looking at a sculpture, and everyone was free to join in.'

Artist Konrad Wyrebek at Saatchi gallery London

Artist Konrad Wyrebek at Saatchi gallery London, gallery floor

Artist Konrad Wyrebek at Saatchi gallery London

Artist Konrad Wyrebek at Saatchi gallery London, gallery floor close up

Artist Konrad Wyrebek at Saatchi gallery London, gallery floor close up

FLASH MOB AUDIENCE REVOLUTION SURPRISES SAATCHI GALLERY
"Communication: Live", a flash action at New Art From China exhibition, suggests a revolution in the way gallery-goers interact with art.

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EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS

2015 — The Whole is Other than the Sum of the Parts, London (Upcoming)

2015 — Nightlife, London (Upcoming)

2015 — The C Art Collection, curated by Vittoria Broggini, Milan

2015 — Dallas Art Fair, Dallas

2014 — Space Age, curated by Jessica Warren, with works by Ophelia Finke, Santiago Taccetti, Nathan Green, Hus Gallery, London

2014 — Video Painting in relation, curated by Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich and Sergey Popov, Solyanka Art Museum, Moscow

2014 — PUBLICPRIVATE, curated by Wills Baker and Sarah Sulistio during Armory Art week, New York

2013 — Flesh Reality group show, Works by: Sarah Lucas, John Isaacs, Konrad Wyrebek, Erwin Wurm, Matthew Miles, Laurie Simmons, Whitney McVeigh, Tatsumi Hijikata, Kiki Smith, Matthew Killick, Hans Bellmer and Jiri Kolar. Curated by Point Zero and guest curator Eiko Honda, London

2012 — Question of Sport, Clifford Chance Collection, curated by Michael Petry, Royal Academy and Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), London

2012 — Face/OFF, Group show with Eberhard Havekost, Maria Brunner, Tatjana Doll, Frank Nitsche, Bjarne Melgaard and John Isaacs.Curated by Olga Hammermeister. Gallery Gebr. Lehmann, Berlin

2011 — On Time, Curated by Joanna Parkin Villa Venetian. during Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami

2011 — Uprising. Video Art, collaboration for a giant screen projection for Robert Kupisz show, Warsaw

2011 — Showroom, curated by Marcus Bowerman, Metropolitan Works, London

2011 — Idea of Worship, Clifford Chance Collection, London. Curated by Michael Petry, Royal Academy and Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), London

2011 — CutOut, London. Curated by Yu’an Bu, Sothebys Institute of Art, London

2010 — Icons, group show with Grayson Perry, Chris Ofili, Peter Doig, Elmgreen and Dragset. Patron - Victoria Miro, Victoria Miro Gallery. Curated by Eiko Honda and James Putnam, London

2010 — Safe Haven, Curated by Rupert Record, Brunswick centre, London

2010 — Wicked, curated by Sydney Southam. My work featured in Saatchi Gallery report, Hackney Wicked Art Festival, London

2010 — Blasphemy, curated by Alix Marie, Helene Butler and Flow Valmont, Barcelona

2010 — Close But No Cigar, curated by David Gryn, Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), London

2010 — Billbored, curated by Josef Valentino, Tate Modern, Liverpool Street station, Shoreditch, Southbank and Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Pollocks, London

2009 — ANK, group show with Anthony Gormley, Tracey Emin and Wolfgang Tillmans. Curated by Katy Dawe, London

2009 — Name Portable, curated by Patrick Brill (Bob and Roberta Smith) and Ben Cain, Hales Gallery, London

2009 — Art Art Art Gallery, Commission forMatt Roberts Arts Foundation, London

2008 — Communication:Live, site-specific installation, Saatchi Gallery, London

2007 — Empty, curated by Simon McAndrew and Bogna Chreptowicz, Da! Creative Space, London

2006 — Gallery 43, curated by Simon McAndrew and Bogna Chreptowicz, London

2005 — Co-founder of DA! Art Movement, London

2004 — PECS, International Youth Festival, Hungary, Pecs

PRIZES AND AWARDS/SCHOLARSHIPS

Sir John Cass Sculpture Prize, London. 2011
John Burn – Sponsorship Award – 3D printing. 2011
Metropolitan Works – Sponsorship Award – Rapid Prototyping. 2011

PUBLICATIONS

Saatchi Art and Music Magazine
Saatchi Gallery Online Magazine
The Guardian
Art Forum
This Is London
Dazed and Confused
Fault
Art Review
Jotta
PoP
FAD
London Insider
Open
Art Slant
Amelia Magazine
Creative Boom
AXM
GT
Agent Magazine
Glass Magazine
AN Magazine
Other Criteria
KaltBlunt Magazine
Kunst Magazine

Data Error are a series of large format abstract paintings and video-paintings using images captured from television, film, and print that represent contemporary living, lifestyle and culture.

Each image is pixelated through a succession of digital compressions with deliberate settings causing corruption of data in transfer between different softwares and devices. Wyrebek explains that there is a connection between the process and the intensification of abstraction Mondrian's paintings.

During the process, images are destroyed, protected and subsequently retrieved “It is related to my interest in imperfection and deformation”

“I know what I am interested in and I am trying to make that happen. When you are watching a video online, you can see that sometimes pixelation happens for a second, but I am trying to set the condition to make it happen a bit longer”

Wyrebek’s large-format abstract paintings examine the relationship of mark-makings between the emotional artist's hand and rational technology. The question is also raised as to how far and how soon, humanity is losing itself in the digital; how far we are already embarked on a journey that merges mind and body with the stuff of machine.

Like Wyrebek's previous half flash, half steel ‘live sculpture’, contrasting elements are brought into play in Data Error Paintings Apart from showing merely elements of abstraction, Wyrebek's paintings also retain the possibility of interference. They are not simply the product of corrupting process of data, each painting is unique and singular, and each finishing layer is retouched.

The nature of abstract art is always a subject of investigation in Wyrebek's work. “Can photography be abstract?” he asks. In his previous work, Plato's Cave, he photographed abstract light in different environments. The photographs look abstract, but they are, nevertheless, a faithful representation of reality. “It is a presentation of something that looks abstract, but it was an object, a video, a picture”

“I like the randomness. When the mistakes come out, for me, they look beautiful. By enforcing this mistake, they have the potential to become deeper stories than they are. The mistakes and pixelation eventually end up looking interesting and have the intellectual potential to open the gate to see and understand something different.”

There is a certain irony in Wyrebek's abstract paintings, when the details are gone, we are but forced to step back to see a clearer and bigger picture. As the viewers step back, the boarders of the pixels become invisible, the process of pixelation is being reversed and the seemingly calm, regular and geometrical pixels become chaotic and dynamic. By reducing the superficial meaning, and by abstracting the figurative, artists like Wyrebek’s knowingly compel viewers to search for meaning in the art work, to see rather than simply looking.

On a daily base we are exposed to vast amounts of information that can be interrupted, transformed or even corrupted. Konrad Wyrebek's DataError paintings open discussion and further investigation the chaotic and complex DNA of the digital age.