Bios Revision

Hermetic-Gothenburg (Icelandic, b.1970)

Geothermal Investigation Circuit

Interiors from the book, ‘Amusement Facilities: Karaoke Rooms, Game Parks, Amusement Complexes’ by Shotenkenchiku-Sha (1993)

These interiors were designed between 1985-1992

Image 1: Game Park ‘Wonderland’ 

Image 2: Karaoke Rooms ‘GNOS’

Image 3: Aqua Splash Garden & Dyna Vox

Image 4: Game Park ‘Endeavour’ 

Images 5 & 8: Amusement Park ‘Paradiso’

Image 6: Amusement Building ‘Dr. Jeekahns’ 

Christian Rex Van Minnen

A controversial young art duo included in the show breaks new ground with Can’t Help Myself (2016), a gigantic robot equipped with a single arm upon whose end a shovel-like object is attached. It is the brainchild of Beijing-based artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. Described by the press release as “guard” of sorts, the robot’s duty is to contain a pool of dark liquid resembling blood as it starts to seep away. The more the substance oozes, the more frantic the robot grows, shoveling the liquid in a move that leaves behind smears and traces of red.

“If you cross this pass, make sure not to anger the mountain demon” - Arjun the town elder. 228 colors custom palette, 100 frames, 270^2 px scaled to 1080^2 px. Audio recorded with the Roland JV-2080 equipped with SR-JV80-05 World, SR-JV80-02 Orchestral and SR-JV80-16 Orchestral II.⁠

Blending StyleGAN2-ADA models trained on Flowers, Skulls, and Faces.

Suzanne Treister 1991-1992 Fictional Videogame Stills

In the late 1980s I was making paintings about computer games. In January 1991 I bought an Amiga computer and made a series of fictional videogame stills using Deluxe Paint II. I photographed them straight from the screen as there was no other way to output them that I knew of apart from through a very primitive daisy wheel printer where they appeared as washed out dots.

The effect of the photographs perfectly reproduced the highly pixellated, raised needlepoint effect of the Amiga screen image. Conceptually this means of presentation was also appropriate in that it made it seem like I had gone into a videogame arcade and photographed the games there, lending authenticity to the fiction.

The first seven works on this page form a series titled, ‘Q. Would you recognise a Virtual Paradise?’

Many of these works were shown in London at the Edward Totah Gallery in March 1992 (view installation) and later that year at the Exeter Hotel in Adelaide, Australia. In 1995 the ‘Q. Would you recognise a Virtual Paradise?’ series was shown in London at the Royal Festival Hall in the exhibition It’s a Pleasure, curated by Leah Kharibian.

Recent venues: Somerset House, London, 2018 view installation ; Akron Art Museum, Ohio, USA 2019 and tour; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, 2019/20 view installation

Hello, have you seen my wife? Her name is Ms.Piggy, and I got a letter from her, which came from here. This is her hometown I think, Swinelent Hill.