AN art show exploring the systems that support power will open in a Scottish gallery later this month.
Titled ALL SYSTEMS... go, the group show at the Cooper Gallery in Dundee will feature moving image works that “capture moments that demonstrate the systems and conditions that support the contemporary power infrastructures operating in our world”.
Taking its name from the phrase used to launch the space missions of the 1960s, the exhibition, which will include a new performance by international artists Liam Gillick and Anton Vidokle, looks at the military, art and culture. It includes work by recent Glasgow Art School graduate Dominic Watson, who juxtaposes a Henry Moore sculpture and rock’n’roll to question perceptions of taste and artistic influence.
The repetitive marching of a military tattoo is also captured in the black-and-white film of Miranda Pennell to highlight the role of the individual within a crowd. Meanwhile, another piece by Gillick and Vidokle straddles the line between cultural criticism and soap opera.
Curator Sophia Hao said the title phrase conjured up the idea of an irreversible act, but has become banal. She said: “Wherever it is uttered, ‘all systems go’ implies that there is no turning back and no escape from what has been initiated. Detouring into the unexpected, moments of negotiations and rehearsals of powerThe three works in this exhibition disrupt and make transparent the ‘black sites’ lurking in all structures of power.”
The show runs from January 21 to February 27.
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