Feral File 016 - On Screen Presence

On Screen Presence began as a frustrated retaliation against scrolling through thumbnails of decontextualized artwork. The exhibition offers live streamed presence of artists in their studio among tangible components in the production of their work. While still remaining just out of reach from corporeal intimacy, this selection of process art performances, which end with the creation of a singular work, are interactive. For a few minutes, viewers form a dynamic, active relationship with the artwork that at least temporarily veils isolated experience. Live engagement is ephemeral, leaving only the indexical recording of the process behind. Incidentally, a majority of these works also require a transient webpage. Both factors are reminders that this exhibition never truly solves but only explores the problematics of computer screen archeology, equally as vulnerable to the digital dark age. — Regina Harsanyi