Kate Cooper

Preview: Thursday 27 April 2017, 6.30 – 9pm

A type of genetic alteration happens amongst cephalopods – squid, octopi, cuttlefish and nautiluses, where they have the ability to alter the genetic makeup of their cells, fine-tuning the information encoded by their genes without altering the genes themselves. To build a Computer Generated (CG) jellyfish and to render it takes approximately 42 hours and costs as little as $16. Purchased and animated, taken and situated, framed and rendered, creating spaces, voices, postures and positions; characters have the ability to be returned to and re-rendered. This space becomes a site of infrastructure, acting as a container to explore.

A solo exhibition of London and Amsterdam-based artist Kate Cooper whose work reflects critically on the rapid development of digital media, performativity of gender, and representations of femininity. Exploring the position of the female body in the history of digital image technology and the labour and politics inherent within commercial production, Cooper is interested in what new propositions of refusal, sabotage or autonomy this form of working might propose.

Having established an international presence, exhibiting across Europe and the US, Cooper has produced a new body of work comprising of computer generated material for her first solo exhibition within the UK. Produced specifically for VITRINE, Cooper responds directly with the gallery’s environment, tackling its public presence, the gallery wall, the jellyfish, CGI and machine learning.

The wall is an ubiquitous space – a place for an announcement, gentrification and both commercial and direct address. Computer generated bodies and hyperreal imagery exist within this ambiguous space of public presentation- not a billboard but perhaps a display. Like CG bodies, the gallery space itself is re-directed, hijacked and it takes time to adjust your eyes and tune into what you are looking at.

In tandem with her exhibition and the ideas within her practice, Kate Cooper will co-curate a series of events throughout 2017 with Chris Bayley (VITRINE). The first of these events will be a film screening in June to coincide with Cooper’s exhibition and the second and third events will be held in Summer and Autumn 2017. Each event focuses on various strands within Cooper’s practice and forms an additional site for discussion and debate. Dates TBC, email for more information.

Artist Biography

Kate Cooper (b.1984, Liverpool, UK) lives and works in London and Amsterdam. She is the Director and co-founder of the London based, artist-led organisation Auto Italia and is currently a resident at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam.

Solo exhibitions include Piece Unique, Cologne, Germany (2016); Care Work, Der Würfel, Neumeister Bar-Am, Berlin (2015); Experiments in Absorption, ABC, Berlin (2015); and Rigged, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2014).

Group exhibitions include Commercial Break, The Public Art Fund, (2017); Insomnia, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2016); Spending Quality Time With My Quantified Self, TENT, Rotterdam (2016); The elegance of an empty room (Film Screening), Kunstverein Hamburg (2016); Public, Private, Secret , International Centre of Photography, New York (2016); Glamour, CAG, Connecticut (2016); Secret Surface, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (with Auto Italia) (2016); The Long Progress Bar, Lighthouse, Brighton (film screening) (2016); How to live? Future images yesterday and today, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Mannheim (2015); Body Me: The Body in the Age of Digital Technology, Frankfurter Kunstverein (2015); Cookie Gate, Ellis King, Dublin (2015); Egress (with Colleen Asper) K,P!, New York (2015); Under the Clouds: From Paranoia to the Digital Sublime, Serralves Museum, Porto (2015); Liebe Deine Maschine, Kunstverein Hildesheim (2015); Humain Trop Humain, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (film screening) (2015); Jerwood/FVU Awards, What Will They See of Me? What will they see of me?, Jerwood gallery London, CCA Glasgow (2014); and Total Body Conditioning (Film Screening), Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2014). Forthcoming projects include Art in the Age of the Internet at ICA Boston in 2018. Cooper was the recipient of the BEN Prize for Emerging Talent, B3 Biennial of the Moving Images, Frankfurt (2015) and the Schering Stiftung Art Award, Berlin (2014).