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The endless circulation of data and e-information that now
travels in and around everyday existence, like an unabating convergence of
starlings blotting out a Roman sunset, is not a subject one tends to frequently
consider. Text, images and code fracture before committing to an imperceptible
journey and only at their destination do the fragments rearrange themselves into
their original forms. This is referred to as de-interlacing.
De-interlaced is a response by artist Kenneth Lambert to this
series of seemingly simple events, taking the form of a multi-panel
installation, that examines the commonality between the artistic process of
conceptualisation, scrutiny and final outcome and the way in which data behaves
in transit. Lambert has created six containers of technological uncertainty
that, while imposing due to their size and solitary, almost detached nature,
cannot help but invite curious investigation by the viewer.
As physical objects the installation embodies the sense of the
de-interlaced. The outer layer exposed to the viewer is constructed of Mylar, a
material commonly utilised when packaging electronic consumer products, while
the interior is never revealed. In this sense the object itself and the viewer
experience life in a middle ground of sorts, between conceptualisation and
active use, both informed of a soon to be functional existence yet unaware of
exactly what that existence may entail. Each seems as if it were simply opened
whatever is contained would be immediately put to use.
Through slight visual cues Lambert dares each individual object
to reveal a greater purpose, almost breathing life into dormant sentinels.
Distinct colours are used to reference specific areas of research in which new
media technologies have had a significant impact on the contemporary human
psyche; personal identity, social interaction, cultural identity,
environmentalism, political preference and spirituality. The de-interlacing of
information suggests that increasingly digital selves made up of these varying
aspects are perpetually swirling around the world we know, a tempest of our own
and our peers’ personalities supposedly laid bare and immediately reachable yet
still invisible, like each reflective techno-monolith Lambert presents.
In De-interlaced microscopic voyages of fantastic proportions
are revealed and through an attentiveness to human relationships with current technologies
the artist transmutes this surging swarm of unobserved digital intelligence
into tangible reflections of the intricacies of our own modern-day identities.
Despite an impenetrable aloofness conveyed by the physical structures Lambert
somehow pierces the skin to release a clearer picture of what the contents may
become when data adrift reaches a terminus.
Sotiris Sotiriou
Gallerist and Curator
www.comagallery.com