SIMON DENNY: THE INNOVATOR'S DILEMMA
(Co-Curator, Catalogue Editor and Contributor)
The first U.S. museum survey of Berlin-based, New Zealand-born artist Simon Denny, this exhibition adopts the architectural typology of an industry tradeshow. Staging literal, physical platforms for content drawn from various recent bodies of Denny’s work, the show refers to the psychology and abstract language of technology and media companies, invoking "clouds" of big data and the constant pressure to "update” our lives. Deploying the aesthetics, packaging, and graphic interfaces borrowed from industrial and technological commercial displays, Denny highlights connections between the utopian goals of the new media economy and those of historical modernism.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, styled after a vintage 1980s computer manual, featuring two new curatorial essays and a new interview with the artist.