last updated 9th Feb 2010
upcoming | current | recent:
upcoming:
Anthony Gross: 'Kane's Revolutions' (working title)
The sequel to 'Columbo Eats Columbo'
Commissioned by Beaconsfield as part of TestBed 1. In residence at Beaconsfield, 2 March – 21 March 2010
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Anthony Gross: ‘Columbo Eats Columbo'
2009, 28mins, single screen BlueRay 16:9, HDV and computer animation, with a stereo soundtrack.
Accompanied by ‘An A-Z of Columbo’ written by David Burrows.
Watch the film in full here (link opens a page which may take some time to load)
Existing between autobiography and tele-simulation, ‘COLUMBO EATS COLUMBO’ is a new film by
artist Anthony Gross in which the famed TV detective inhabits a space of live action and computer
animation. Brought in to investigate the fragments of a notional crime scene, Columbo visits locations at
The Old Police Station and other everyday spaces inhabited by the artist, with props, actors and crew
assembled from a network of contemporaries. The film plays with multiple references to the original TV
series as the rumpled sleuth (played here by Douglas Park) idiosyncratically examines the objects and
environments from Gross’ life.
Columbo’s quest however becomes one of the replicant, the self-aware computer, examining the conditions
of his own existence. Columbo narrates his memories of the investigation via tape-recorded sessions with his
psychiatrist. Disembodied and out of time, he has become a computer programme, his voice a nervous
psyche transmitted through current text-to-speech software. Standing at the brink of what Gross describes as a
shift in consciousness propelled by the arrival of computers into the mainstream in the late 1970’s, Columbo
becomes anxious as he fears the loss of the analogue world he inhabits.
Through examining the objects and environments of Gross’ part-autobiographical mise-en-scènes – including
modular sculpture, Rubik’s cubes, Victor Vasarely, redundant technologies, sci-fi futures and retro design –
the film becomes a dissection of the workings of nostalgia, filtered through the modes of documentary, fiction and
simulation. Portraying a life caught at the crossroads of what were to become two profoundly different orders –
the analogue and the digital – ‘COLUMBO EATS COLUMBO’ manifests from a uniquely contemporary
perspective. At the dawn of a new sensibility, a fictional avatar from a fondly remembered past prophesises
our present, proposing a possible state of total immersion soon to be achieved, but not quite yet, by new digital
technologies in coming years.
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'LED Eyes (Newton, Milton, Bentham, Harvey)', 2008.
3 month intervention on the Royal Academy facade, 6 Burlington Gardens, W1.
Like visionary timelords frozen in stone, with illuminated eyes they watch over modern times.
30th October - 19th January 2009. Glowing LED headsets are designed for four figurative sculptures on the portico of 6 Burlington Gardens.
Top: Installation shot at night 'LED Eyes -Newton' - photo Tai Shani.
Middle: Installation shot showing façade at night 'LED Eyes -Newton, Milton, Bentham, Harvey' - photo Tai Shani.
Above left: Installation of 'LED Eyes - Milton' by Gross (photo: Mark Essen). Right: 'LED Eyes - Bentham' showing customised LED units, straps and waterproof wiring.
Silk Scarf (Flaneur Edition) - collaboration with Jen Wu
Silk scarf, 42x135cm, with a motif of De Sade wafers caught in musical strings, chains, retro tear pattern and playing card border.
Edition of 30.
The scarf brings in elements of our collaboration and curatorial manifesto - that is, the push and pull of the poker game
(a device we use either as a stand-in for a group show or as actual games staged within the gallery - our motif), money as sadist,
and the blood, sweat and tears of the collaborative process. High quality hand finished silk scarf. Made in England. From an edition
of scarves commissioned by temporarycontemporary for Event Horizon from: Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Spartacus Chetwynd,
Brian Griffiths, Plastique Fantastique (David Burrows and Simon O'Sullivan), David Medalla, and Bob & Roberta Smith.
Event Horizon - Social Club (with Jen Wu - see 'curatorial')
The New Museum - Computer animation, 5min, 2008
The New Museum goes further than previous works in constructing a conventional cinematic structure out of computer
animated fragments. Mistakes of rendering, mismatched polygons and awkward body movements have been kept and
embraced. The result is the creation of avatars that have anxious psychologies – manic and obsessive. More... (full video)
Miss World
“Miss ill-conceived”, 2008, manipulated custom computer models
Installation of stretched canvas prints, bamboo structures - in progress.
A series of self portraits - like rubber masks - as Miss World.
Miss Inappropriate, Miss Misfit, Miss Faux Pas, Miss Louche, more to come.
'Sculpture Unit', at the V&A, London, Feb '09. Part of 'Year of the OX' curated by Jen Wu.
Installation using chromed injection-molded 'Sculpture Unit ' pieces with bamboo scaffold supports.
Single-screen projection of 'Sculpture Unit - Made in Shanghai'.
Bottom: detail of bamboo structure. Photo AES (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fridaylate/3257135289/in/photostream/)
Sculpture Unit More...
Object Passing
More... (streaming video)
Retrogeno
Installation view, ICA, London More...
Image: Sanjay Kalideen
Digital Forest
More... (streaming video)
From
Here to Eternity II
More... (streaming video)
From Here to Eternity I More... (streaming video)
1000 Years (Poolside)
More... (streaming video)
1000 Years (Empire)
Installation views, SpaceInvasion, Vienna and Camden Arts Centre, London More... (streaming video)
Production
More... (streaming video)
Band of One
.gif)
More... (streaming video)
Culture of One
More... (streaming video)
Animal Kids
More... (streaming video)
Muscle
AutoBody LA
More works and video works More... (under construction)
Website of artist Anthony Gross (b 1968), based in London. The copyright of all images, films and sounds on this website belongs to
Anthony Gross unless otherwise stated. No content may be reproduced in any form without prior permission.