Conny Blom - From Above

Conny Blom is a visual artist based in Sweden. He took his MFA at the Valand School of Fine Art in Göteborg, Sweden in 2007, and has already had a long row of relevant exhibitions. During 2007 he participated in the 2nd Moscow Biennale (Matter & Memory Show), and in 2008 he has for example exhibited at Casino Luxembourg, (in Luxembourg) in the exhibition P2P together with amongst others Jonathan Monk, Rodney Graham and Nedko Solakov, and at Centre d’Art Contemporain La Synagogue de Delme in France, with Daniel Buren, Simon Starling, Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, and more, in the show La Marge d’Erreur.

In his work Conny Blom deals with defining issues of our modern society, our living conditions and the rights of the individual versus the society and the economical forces. Balancing between the poetic and the subversive, Blom uses material from pop culture as well as iconic pieces of contemporary art to comment, question and subvert established hierarchies. By focusing on the otherwise overlooked, the in-between, and the unseen, reediting it into new aesthetic experiences, Blom provides new perspectives and brings into light previously untold stories. For more info about the artist: www.connyblom.com

At Vžigalica Gallery 3 of Blom’s projects will be shown.

“4:33 Minutes of Stolen Silence” An obvious reference to John Cage’s classic “4:33”. The piece is entirely based on pauses within recorded, copyrighted compositions of rock, jazz and classical music. Silence that when enhanced proves to be far from silent. When the surrounding sounds have been cut away, it is possible to raise the volume to hear things hidden behind the background hiss; unintentional noises, lingering notes or perhaps even voices.

“Desensitizer” The video piece “Desensitizer” is a collage of many thousands of stills from violent movies, every still depicting a scene of brutal killing. Together, frame after frame, they form the doubtlessly most violent piece of film ever. 24 murders per second. Individually indistinguishable for the conscious mind, but together a numbing, flickering odyssey through movie violence. A challenge for anybody who believes or does not believe in subliminal perception, and likewise to believers and non believers of the effects of video violence.

“From Above” If a TV receiver is set to an unused frequency it will pick up the cosmic background radiation, and display it as static flicker. In the photo series “From Above” a section of the sky is portrayed at a specific time, using both a camera and the information from a TV receiver.

The digital void is absolute. The black is only black. In the analogue world there’s static, and where’s there’s static there’s the possibility of the “other”. A space open for interpretations, or perhaps even communication. The element of chance allowing a channel to the other side, the dead, or even God. The study of EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), the pseudo scientific research focused on tracking down voices in ethereal static, is still thriving in this digital age, and ever since the success of the recent string of Japanese horror movies like “The Ring” (Ringu) where ghosts use television sets and other technology to reach out from the spirit world, there has been a boom of material about this phenomenon on the internet. But in the digital world there is no static flicker. If there is no signal the screen is blank. The negation of information. When the window to the world of televised dreams has closed you’re left face to face with your own reflection. Your gaze is repelled, denied to penetrate the shiny surface, and ultimately sent back straight at you. Desires unsatisfied. The voyeur confronted with himself.

”...it is possible to construct an apparatus which will be so delicate that if there are personalities in another existence or sphere who wish to get in touch with us in this existence or sphere, this apparatus will at least give them a better opportunity to express themselves than the tilting tables and raps and ouija boards and mediums and the other crude methods now purported to be the only means of communication.” Thomas Alva Edison

“Television is a gift of God, and God will hold those who utilize his divine instrument accountable to him.” Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of the modern television.

Conny Blom - From Above
Kuratoren: Petja Grafenauer, Veljko Njegovan
Ort: Vzigalica Gallery