Autonomous Times

source: theartelephant

For those of you living or visiting the UK right now, we have some awesome news for you. Nelmarie du Preez, a South African artist, is having a solo exhibit in arebyte gallery, Hackney Wick, London. Opening on October 1st from 6-9pm, the show “Autonomous Times” will run for a little over a month from October 2 to November 7.

Based in both Pretoria, South Africa and London, England, the artist will showcase her imagined future wherein us humans may need to domesticate and tame our autonomous but potentially “dangerous” artificial creations. Per the official press release: “In times of autonomous cars and self-aware robots, du Preez not only wants to explore our fluctuating trust in technology but also in ourselves and each other.”

The new exhibition is a result of the artist’s residency at the gallery last June 7-28, spending time imagining and constructing her new artwork as a follow-up to 2013’s Loops of Relation. During the residency, she set out to expand her robotic performance partner into an assembly line of robotic arms, redesigned and reprogrammed to create a trusting relationship between (wo)man and machine.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/64726188

“Autonomous Times” is a mix of both video work and art installation – composed of one video artwork, an installation of responsive robotic arms, and a live performance at the private view. In addition, the artist shall also present a behind-the-scenes set of material showcasing her assembly line/process. There will even be a talk on November 3 as the show is also a part of Art Lick weekend and supported by both Arts Council England and Foundation for Future London.

The artist explores the dichotomy in so many forms, including how a mix of the fake and the real in cinematography can produce a spectacular result. Combining special effects with real life stunts, the show gathers plenty of inspiration from “Mad Max: Fury Road,” a recent blockbuster hit by George Miller.

The end result of “Autonomous Times” shows both the good and bad that come out of technology and human intervention where power changes and shifts from one to the other all the time. The artist uses her “somewhat ‘schizophrenic’ relationship with her ‘unruly’ DIY robots to test the suspense between trust/violence; danger/intimacy; fake/real; and finally self and other.”
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source: nelmariedupreezcoza

As a South African artist split between London and Pretoria, I perform multiple roles as computer programmer, videographer, composer and performance artist. My art practice mainly serves as a means to ponder, transform and satisfy my own socio-political anxieties. Here Art and Science allow me to uncover the causes and symptoms of my somewhat schizophrenic concerns. Through the use of masquerade, mimicry and humour I navigate my entrapment within the post-human and postcolonial conditions with an emphasis on the fragility of relation and ultimately the politics and value of trust.

BIO

Nelmarie du Preez (b. 1985) is a South African artist based in London and Pretoria, working in the fields of performance, photography, video and computational arts. She recently completed her MFA Fine Art (with distinction) at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she also completed her MA in Computational Arts (with distinction) in 2013. She also holds a BA in Audiovisual Multimedia from the University of South Africa.

She has exhibited internationally in London, New York, Buenos Aires and Berlin as well as major cities in South Africa. In the past year she has been shortlisted for five significant international art awards.
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source: vimeo

Nelmarie du Preez (b. 1985) is a South African artist, currently based in London, working in the fields of performance, photography and computational arts. Her practice revolves around issues of socio-political identity stemming from the self-other relation. She engages with various notions of otherness and other-ing and the limited representations thereof.
Du Preez is a graduate from MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. She recently also completed her MA in Computational Arts at Goldsmiths (with distinction). She has exhibited internationally in London, New York and Berlin as well as major cities in South Africa (Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria). In 2012 she completed her Advanced Diploma in Visual Arts with highest distinction. Du Preez holds a BA in Audiovisual Multimedia as well as BA in Theology and Pshychology.