Y2K ︎DUNCAN POULTON & NICK SMITH ︎
Y2K ︎DUNCAN POULTON & NICK SMITH ︎
FILM SCREENING AND ARTIST TALK
Cygnet SQ, SE2 9EF
FREE / Drink and Food Available
THURSDAY 23 FEB / 19:00 -21:00
As the clock ticked past midnight on the 31st December 1999 Global catastrophe may have been averted, but did something worse come in its place?
Y2K is an ongoing collaborative project by British artists Duncan Poulton & Nick Smith. Drawing on each of the artists’ respective archives, Y2K presents a screening of selected materials that includes home video recordings, news clips, TV Ads, self-help books, and early internet ephemera.
This material has been remixed and collaged by the artists to form a new audiovisual work that explores the artists’ shared interest in the ‘millennium’ as a significant cultural landmark and turning point - one that marked simultaneously the beginning, and the end, ‘of the future’.
From the boom of the internet and the post-digital age, the expansion of neoliberalism and globalisation, the ‘millennium’ encapsulated the future present potential of Western modernity, but also its anxieties and failures.
The screening will include a talk and Q&A with the artists about the Y2K project.
Duncan Poulton is an artist based between London and Brighton. His practice takes as its starting point the collection of forgotten online content which he combines into still and moving image collages. Working exclusively with found materials, his works address a visual culture of overabundance and ambivalence, exploring the compression of histories and meaning engendered by the internet.
Recent solo exhibitions include SET Lewisham, London; Fabrica, Brighton; and Outernet, London. Group shows include Ars Electronica, Linz; Bloc Projects, Sheffield; MOSTYN, Llandudno; Coventry Biennial; Art Licks Weekend, London; QUAD, Derby; MIT Museum, Massachusetts; Eastside Projects, Birmingham; arebyte, London; CICA Museum, South Korea; and Transmediale, Berlin. He is an alumnus of Wysing Arts Centre’s alternative learning programme The Syllabus, and his work has been featured on WeTransfer and in Elephant Magazine.
Nick Smith is artist based in London. His practice explores the complicated relationship between class, politics, histories and the built environment through moving and still image making. Working predominantly from an archive created from his photographs, videos and visual research collated working both as an artist and property inspector.
Recent solo exhibitions include OUTPOST, Norwich; OUTPUT gallery, Liverpool; Harlow Museum, Essex; Photofusion, London; and Concord Space, LA. Group shows include Cornerhouse, Manchester; QUAD, Derby; KARST, Plymouth; Leeds University; APT Gallery, London; and Campbell Works, London. His work is held in the Henry Moore Archive and in the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive. He holds an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art, 2012 and a BA in Fine Arts (4D) from Central Saint Martins, 2007.
Y2K is an ongoing collaborative project by British artists Duncan Poulton & Nick Smith. Drawing on each of the artists’ respective archives, Y2K presents a screening of selected materials that includes home video recordings, news clips, TV Ads, self-help books, and early internet ephemera.
This material has been remixed and collaged by the artists to form a new audiovisual work that explores the artists’ shared interest in the ‘millennium’ as a significant cultural landmark and turning point - one that marked simultaneously the beginning, and the end, ‘of the future’.
From the boom of the internet and the post-digital age, the expansion of neoliberalism and globalisation, the ‘millennium’ encapsulated the future present potential of Western modernity, but also its anxieties and failures.
The screening will include a talk and Q&A with the artists about the Y2K project.
§
Duncan Poulton is an artist based between London and Brighton. His practice takes as its starting point the collection of forgotten online content which he combines into still and moving image collages. Working exclusively with found materials, his works address a visual culture of overabundance and ambivalence, exploring the compression of histories and meaning engendered by the internet.
Recent solo exhibitions include SET Lewisham, London; Fabrica, Brighton; and Outernet, London. Group shows include Ars Electronica, Linz; Bloc Projects, Sheffield; MOSTYN, Llandudno; Coventry Biennial; Art Licks Weekend, London; QUAD, Derby; MIT Museum, Massachusetts; Eastside Projects, Birmingham; arebyte, London; CICA Museum, South Korea; and Transmediale, Berlin. He is an alumnus of Wysing Arts Centre’s alternative learning programme The Syllabus, and his work has been featured on WeTransfer and in Elephant Magazine.
§
Nick Smith is artist based in London. His practice explores the complicated relationship between class, politics, histories and the built environment through moving and still image making. Working predominantly from an archive created from his photographs, videos and visual research collated working both as an artist and property inspector.
Recent solo exhibitions include OUTPOST, Norwich; OUTPUT gallery, Liverpool; Harlow Museum, Essex; Photofusion, London; and Concord Space, LA. Group shows include Cornerhouse, Manchester; QUAD, Derby; KARST, Plymouth; Leeds University; APT Gallery, London; and Campbell Works, London. His work is held in the Henry Moore Archive and in the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive. He holds an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art, 2012 and a BA in Fine Arts (4D) from Central Saint Martins, 2007.