Overlords by Tom Estes at The Biennale Projects VIP Opening Reception at The 54th Venice Biennale
Time: 6:00PM Sunday, June 5th, 2011
Location: The Biennial Project VIP Opening Reception at The 54th Venice Biennale, The Villa Giardino Segreto, Calle degli Ormesini, Sestiere di Cannaregio 1484 A, Venezia, Italia
The work 'Overlords' will also be displayed in a digital production to be shown during The Biennial Project's VIP Opening Reception for the opening week of the 54th Venice Biennale.
Description
Overlords was originally conceived as a video installation comprised of images of ‘Time Travel’ projected on to a book called ‘Local History and Antiquities’. The work was deliberately left incomplete. The photographs, taken during the works formation, are the only physical manifestation of the artist’s original intent.
Interpretation
The project was inspired by the recent diagnosis by some analysts that the economy has become distorted in favor of the super-rich. It has been argued that what we are witnessing is not a single economy at all, but rather the emergence of two, increasingly distinct and divergent types of economy. Though alarming, this is hardly unique; drawing attention to the divide between the wealthy and everyone else has long been standard fare of the political left. In this instance, Time Travel seemed a reasonable fit as the genre of Science Fiction itself has long served as a useful vehicle for ‘safely’ discussing controversial issues about how individuals are constrained, liberated or altered.
Analysis
For artist Tom Estes, fantasy and illusion are not contradictions of reality, but instead an integral part of our everyday lives. As it’s not possible to reference the laws of Quantum Mechanics without reference to consciousness, it seems a likely vehicle as quantum systems posit the existence of many different configurations at the same time.
Judgment
As the Quantum Physicist, Werner Heisenberg once famously said “the atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real: they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of facts.” So perhaps, in this instance, creating the work as a partial expression is an even more valid form of artistic agency
The work will also be displayed in as part of The Biennial Project's Boston Online Biennial 2011.
The Venice Biennale (Biennale di Venezia; also called in English the "Venice Biennial") is a major international exhibition of contemporary art that takes place once every two years in Venice. The 54th International Art Exhibition, ILLUMInazioni – or ILLUMInations, is directed by Bice Curiger who has stated “La Biennale di Venezia is one of the world’s most important forums for the dissemination and illumination of current developments in international art. Tom Estes' work 'Overlords received an Honorable Mention- as part of The Boston Online Biennial.
http://www.biennialproject.com/ContestWinners.aspx