ANDY BOOT
C C
28.11.2014 - 14.02.2015
C C
28.11.2014 - 14.02.2015
Press release
The letter C has a pleasant and simple form — basically a round shape or circle,
opened on one side. Its doublet, CC, in common contemporary use, is a
function in e-mail programs to co-send to multiple recipients. The name derives
from the old analog technique of the carbon copy, referring to a usually blue pigmented paper that was used to copy a handwritten or typed action, an individualized and simple method of reproducing. Considering the existing abbreviations in digital media, CC could also stand for the Spanish/Italian double affirmation “Si, Si,” either showing deep approval or disregard.
opened on one side. Its doublet, CC, in common contemporary use, is a
function in e-mail programs to co-send to multiple recipients. The name derives
from the old analog technique of the carbon copy, referring to a usually blue pigmented paper that was used to copy a handwritten or typed action, an individualized and simple method of reproducing. Considering the existing abbreviations in digital media, CC could also stand for the Spanish/Italian double affirmation “Si, Si,” either showing deep approval or disregard.
Andy Boot is a stoic artist, with a finely tuned and reduced output, in which
time and again patterns loom large. A pattern is a discernible regularity,
where forms, symbols, and colors repeat in an anticipated manner. What underlies
the pattern, what shapes its character and interval, would be its grid. A
bigger part of Boot’s work circles around those patterns, or symptomatic surfaces
say — forms, symbols, shapes, and colors appearing on the skin of things,
and the reasons that bring them there.
time and again patterns loom large. A pattern is a discernible regularity,
where forms, symbols, and colors repeat in an anticipated manner. What underlies
the pattern, what shapes its character and interval, would be its grid. A
bigger part of Boot’s work circles around those patterns, or symptomatic surfaces
say — forms, symbols, shapes, and colors appearing on the skin of things,
and the reasons that bring them there.
In his current show at Croy Nielsen, Boot deals with patterns carried out by
scrap-like objects. The patterns, building the chorus of this show, appear on
printed metal sheets. They are rooted in the customized backgrounds of Geo-
Cities, a former Web host for personalized homepages. GeoCities peaked at the
end of the nineties, in sync with the dot-com bubble, was acquired by Yahoo!,
and collapsed in 2009, by which time Myspace and, finally, Facebook had already
taken over. Many of the sites came in a digital, collage-like 90s look, garnished
with GIFs, and still haunt the Web today as retro chic. For its time,
GeoCities had a symptomatic, simplified logic, divided into sections or “neighborhoods,” with themes of professional and private everyday associations, that were reinterpreted, such as “Capitol Hill” as a political section, “Vienna”
as the classical music area, “Pentagon” and so on.
scrap-like objects. The patterns, building the chorus of this show, appear on
printed metal sheets. They are rooted in the customized backgrounds of Geo-
Cities, a former Web host for personalized homepages. GeoCities peaked at the
end of the nineties, in sync with the dot-com bubble, was acquired by Yahoo!,
and collapsed in 2009, by which time Myspace and, finally, Facebook had already
taken over. Many of the sites came in a digital, collage-like 90s look, garnished
with GIFs, and still haunt the Web today as retro chic. For its time,
GeoCities had a symptomatic, simplified logic, divided into sections or “neighborhoods,” with themes of professional and private everyday associations, that were reinterpreted, such as “Capitol Hill” as a political section, “Vienna”
as the classical music area, “Pentagon” and so on.
Some of the patterns used as backgrounds for the sites mirror the themes; other
ones are just abstract, colorful, and pixelated. An arbitrary selection of six
of them are to be found in the show, taken from an actual online archive showing
a cross section of former sites. Flipping through this — of the millions of
sites, only hundreds were archived — some of them have a professional intent,
e.g., private car rentals. Many of them are quite random attempts, ranging from
Black Ninjas, Winnie the Pooh, and a high amount of fantasy related contents or
just blog-ish personal introductions involving cats and dogs.
ones are just abstract, colorful, and pixelated. An arbitrary selection of six
of them are to be found in the show, taken from an actual online archive showing
a cross section of former sites. Flipping through this — of the millions of
sites, only hundreds were archived — some of them have a professional intent,
e.g., private car rentals. Many of them are quite random attempts, ranging from
Black Ninjas, Winnie the Pooh, and a high amount of fantasy related contents or
just blog-ish personal introductions involving cats and dogs.
Boot manufactured sculptures with fine fabric-like, metal grids, quite carelessly
bowed and dipped into concrete rectangles. We see groupings and constellations
of these handbag-sized objects, like roughly crafted hints on classic
pop cultural clichés of a “matrix,” where animated things evolve from woven
digital grids. But for a more analog observer, the objects could also just remind
you of tissue boxes changing shape every time you pull.
bowed and dipped into concrete rectangles. We see groupings and constellations
of these handbag-sized objects, like roughly crafted hints on classic
pop cultural clichés of a “matrix,” where animated things evolve from woven
digital grids. But for a more analog observer, the objects could also just remind
you of tissue boxes changing shape every time you pull.
Benjamin Hirte
Andy Boot, Benjamin Hirte, Croy Nielsen, Berlin
http://www.croynielsen.de/CN_AB2014.html