"Strange Victory"
Artist Matthew Bakkom has shown his work in exhibitions all over the world, including New York, Paris, Berlin and Dublin, but his newest solo exhibition at the Burnet Gallery in Chambers hotel on Hennepin Avenue has special significance for this Minneapolis native. "Having a show on Hennepin Avenue is an aspirational achievement for me," explained Bakkom. "Hennepin Avenue has such history. It's a landmark for the city that holds so many personal memories for me and public memories for all of us. Having a show here somehow connects you to all of that."
And making connections seems to be a recurring theme for Bakkom's latest solo exhibition, "Strange Victory." In the show Bakkom uses a scanner as an artistic medium to create connections between the artist and the audience, through time and space, the seen and the unseen.
"I'm struck by the scanner's capabilities," said Bakkom. "As an artistic tool, it's something new and unexplored. A scanner can actually take in vastly different and more detailed information than either film or photography. But just like those other instruments, the most important issue is what is within its range of comprehension, and how the artist can contextualize that for others.
"With the scanner the age old photographic challenge of where to place the camera in the world is inverted ... the challenge with the new technology is how to place the world on the scanner bed." In several of his pieces Bakkom deliberately presents what he describes as the "uncooked digital information" generated during the scanning process as a way of breaking down and representing the original image that makes the viewer pause and reassess the subject matter. "It's the technology's way of translating the data and it creates a very specific pattern that becomes a critical element of the piece itself," explains Bakkom.
In a few other pieces, Bakkom actually reveals and integrates the image of the scanner bed mechanism. "There's a certain sense of violence in showing the mechanism itself," says Bakkom. "It is this thing between us and the artwork, between us and the past which is so often invisible and by revealing it I create this connection between all these elements of subject and medium, audience and artist, past and present."
The largest portion of Bakkom's "Strange Victory" exhibition focuses on two different series of work, "Würzberg Variations" and "9 Basic Gestures." Bakkom's manipulation and use of the scanner and its digital data are perhaps most evident in "Würzberg Variations," a series of six pieces based on a photo of the historic Würzberg Residence, a baroque palace in Germany. Bakkom uses the scanner to create a broad band of digital data on the lower portion of the image that mimics the complex decorative patterns of the palace. He then further manipulates the reading of the object with Plexiglas and paint to create what he describes as a sculptural quality.
"That pattern is very special and important to me in context of the overall piece," explains Bakkom. "By manipulating the original image via the scanner and revealing the digital data, it serves as a catalyst to bring these elements from the past back into play in a contemporary sense."
"Basic Gestures" is Bakkom's first figurative work and was produced by using a scanner with a nine-minute exposure and the artist's own hand. "Historically, the majority of Western art is figurative," explained Bakkom. "It seemed important to explore that area. While all my art is obliquely personal, this is very specifically personal. I love the idea of "Waving With My Right Hand" in the gallery window facing Hennepin Avenue. In my mind it's a wave to all the parades and people that pass by on that street."
Show Dates/Hours
"Strange Victory" runs through Nov. 1, 2009.
The show's Opening Reception is Fri., Oct 2 from 6 to 9 p.m. and is open to the public.
