Everything You See Is In The Past

About

Visit the exhibition at linktr.ee/everythingyousee

A MESSAGE TO ALL VISITORS �� This exhibition was originally organised as an ordinary offline, on-location pop-up show of two days at the Heritage Gallery, London. However, in this time of crisis and much confusion, with communities around the world struggling with Coronavirus (COVID-19), we felt we needed to change plans swiftly to respond to the current situation. In order to protect the health and wellbeing of volunteers, artists, and visitors, we have taken the difficult decision to move the exhibition online.

Especially during phenomenal times like these, online spaces are more important than ever because they provide makers and galleries alike with ways to connect with their audience, to help each other, listen, collaborate and heal. Please help the organiser cover the costs involved in setting up this show by donating what you can on the exhibition crowdfund on JustGiving.

PRESS RELEASE ��

The big shift in the way people talk about the internet today is that when they say internet, they do not necessarily mean online. The internet (a term we use here to mean the web, social media, and all that gravitates around these "entities") has such a pervasive effect on our lives that it is hard to imagine living without it. People use it as a tool, a companion, a vehicle for communication, a space for self-reflection, and an entertainment platform. As a result, we now begin to speak of post-internet because the internet has become so ubiquitous that we stop to notice its existence.

No more does the internet exists to indicate the online web, accessible through a device connected to a network. Rather, it endures as an online-offline heterotopian space that connects faces and machines from around the world. A location that is neither here nor there. According to writer and curator Stephanie Bailey, the internet is a non-dimension of "consensus and dissensus, convergence and divergence". Public—but very much privately owned.

In an essay based on a lecture given in 1967, Michael Focault defines heterotopia as space that, like the internet, is simultaneously mythic and real such as the moment when you see yourself mirror:
"In the mirror, I see myself there where I am not, in an unreal, virtual space that opens up behind the surface; I am over there, there where I am not, a sort of shadow that gives my own visibility to myself, that enables me to see myself there where I am absent..." (Foucault, 1967)

The title of this project, Everything You See Is In the Past, takes its name from a namesake exhibition by Dutch-Brazilian artist Rafaël Rozendaal at Postmasters Gallery, New York. For how ambiguous, this title is not as abstract as it may seem. Everything you see is in the past because we never see anything in real-time. Light travels about one foot per nanosecond. Take the sun as an example: when we look at it, the sun as we see it only actually appeared eight minutes ago. In the same way, what we experience on the internet—or thanks to the internet—has in reality already happened, been transmitted, processed, and displayed before our eyes a few nanoseconds ago. The internet is the new reality and we are the oblivious participants unable to keep up with its speed.

This exhibition is part of a research project by University of Greenwich student Francesco Imola which looks at what concerns the internet brings to artists and curators. It also provides an opportunity to consider and analyse some of the changes that have occurred to curatorial practice in the 21st century thanks to the internet and digital culture.

The big shift in the way people talk about the internet today is that when they say internet, they don't necessarily mean online. The Internet has pervaded our lives, and it is hard to imagine living without it. People use it as a tool, a vehicle for communication, a medium for self-reflection, and an entertainment platform. We treat (and are treated by) the internet as a multidimensional and multipurpose site, object, and companion. As a result, we now begin to speak of post-internet because the internet has become so ubiquitous that we cease to notice its existence. No more does the internet exists to indicate the online web accessible through a device connected to a network, but rather it suggests an online-offline heterotopian space that connects faces and machines from around the world. A space that it is neither here nor there. Public—but very much privately owned. In an essay based on a lecture given in 1967, Michael Focault defines heterotopia as space that is simultaneously mythic and real (just like the internet) such as the moment when you see yourself mirror:

"In the mirror, I see myself there where I am not, in an unreal, virtual space that opens up behind the surface; I am over there, there where I am not, a sort of shadow that gives my own visibility to myself, that enables me to see myself there where I am absent [...]" (Foucault, 1967)

Everything You See Is In the Past is the first exhibition entirely curated by Francesco Imola featuring work from international artists making art at the intersection with digital culture.

FEATURED ARTISTS

Atom Chen — Atom Chen is a London based independent curator and artist working in installation, sculpture and painting. Examining childhood memories and the effects of nostalgia, his work addresses the disorder of time. Laced with humour, his art warns of a tendency to over embrace the future and the homogenisation of digitised culture. Chen is currently studying MA Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art and holds a BFA Fine Art from the School of Visual Arts, New York.

Dario Bucheli — Dario S. Bucheli was born in a small industrial city in northern Mexico and is currently based in the United States. He earned his BA in Studio Art, with a concentration in painting from the University of Dallas. He is now an MFA candidate in Studio Art at Texas Christian University. Dario has exhibited work in the US and internationally. In 2019 he was a participant in the Genius Loci residency in Tuscany. Most recently, he began the 405_Gallery project, a digital gallery space where he acts as director and curator.

Enes Alba — Enes Alba, born 1997, is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist based in Istanbul. His works focus on queer semiotics, biopolitics, and homoeroticism.

Francesco Imola — Francesco Imola was born in Alatri, Italy in 1996 and now lives in London. He is an artist, designer, and curator. He works with photography, sound, archives, and social networking platforms as tools at the basis of his creative practice.

Perce Jerrom — Perce Jerrom was born in Bristol (UK) in 1985. He graduated from his BA in Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University in 2009. He subsequently attended an unaccredited MA at School Of The Damned in 2015. He recently completed and was awarded a Distinction on the Fine Art MFA Programme at Goldsmiths University. His practice explores online cultures to respond to notions of whiteness, toxic masculinity and male fragility.

Visit the exhibition here

Would you like to support this project? Head to Francesco's JustGiving crowdfunding campaign here to help him make this exhibition succeed and his project happen.

Follow updates about this exhibition on instagram at @post_post_internet.