Psychic Compound
Solo show
C24 Gallery, New York
2016
C24 Gallery is pleased to announce Psychic Compound, a solo exhibition by British artist, Nick Gentry. The exhibition marks Gentry’s first solo show with C24 Gallery.
On view will be a new series of portraits constructed from recycled technological materials, mounted on light boxes.
Using obsolete technologies like 35mm film negatives, VHS cassettes, X-ray prints, and floppy discs, Gentry’s work comments on the rapidity and scope of contemporary technological shifts. These materials, sourced directly from individuals all over the world, come together—in one form—to suggest a compound of shared experiences.
A New Form of Portraiture
Paul Laster writes of Gentry’s portraits, “Creating a new form of portraiture that’s influenced by the development of the technology, identity and cyber culture in contemporary society, Gentry doesn’t consider the faces he forms to be the subject matter. His avatar’s bodies become vehicles for information from the past.”
His style is delicate yet bold, led primarily by the intrinsic qualities of the materials he chooses to work with, which creates a stunning and unique aesthetic.
Art from the obsolete
By repurposing anachronistic technology, Gentry’s work raises questions regarding consumerism, cyber culture, and identity, while simultaneously highlighting our relationships with technologies of both the past and the future. The resulting portraits explore the line where reality meets illusion and memory.
The intentional use of the word “psychic” in the exhibit’s title alludes to the intangible evolution of our external perceptions, which, as Gentry states, “relates to the soul or the mind - something spiritual that is not fully understood by science.”
Finding a New Purpose for Old Technology:
A Conversation with Nick Gentry by Erika Streisfield
Many of your materials are sourced by external contributors, including film negatives, VHS cassettes, X-rays, and floppy discs. Why did you choose to work with these items and how is this collaborative effort significant to your artwork?
Art is becoming much more inclusive and collaborative. The renaissance days of having this separate, isolated object are gone. A revolution is happening where the public is now demanding to be included as part of the work, and it’s inspiring to see that artists are now responding to that call.
As people we need art to reflect and define who we are, so to fully embrace this notion I have opened up my practice and invited the public to get fully involved by embedding their memories within the work.
I want people to feel the artwork from the inside out and to be involved from conception (and even far earlier, when you consider that we are dealing with materials with such rich history).
I propose that these objects contain a shared energy and stand for something quite remarkable. I resist defining exactly what that is, preferring to leave the viewer to again take part and feel something unique based on their own individual past experiences.
How are your ideas about reality versus the created world reflected in your work?
We are creating and recording our experience of the world with ever greater frequency and detail. The real world is there, but now overlaid with more and more of these digital additions and filters. This augmented reality that we are entering is completely different to the pre-internet and pre-digital photography age that I grew up in.
Since those inventions have occurred, I feel it’s my duty as an artist to describe the feeling of this hugely significant shift. Are we currently experiencing the most significant change in human history? It feels incredibly inspiring to be here now to respond to that suggestion.
With technology rapidly changing, will your art encompass these changes? What kind of tech tools or associated materials do you hope to work with in the future (i.e. iPods, Walkmans, video games)?
I don’t project myself too far into the future – I have a hard enough time comprehending the present! I actually find that as experiences occur it then takes time to assimilate those and reflect later on.
So really, you could say that I’m using elements of the recent past to reflect the present times. The future is implied of course, but I personally love the fact that it is unknown to us, that element of mystery is inspirational to me.
Imagine it’s the year 2020, what does art look like?
If the predictions of the world come true then we may well be looking to machines to provide us with all forms of culture. We are programming an alternate reality, with superior versions of ourselves in our own image. Hello Art Frankenstein!