Andrew Pepper

2001

Gallery 286, London, UK.

This solo exhibition included a site specific installation "Sight Lines" as well as a number of new wall and floor works sown along side pieces from the 1980's and 90's

"Sight Lines" spanned one wall of the gallery space and was made up of 9 rusted metal plates, each containing a small, circular, hologram.  

The plates hang from the gallery ceiling and are each illuminated by one of the spotlights normally used to display reflection holograms on the wall.  In the location were visitors might expect to view holograms, on the wall at eye height,  thin digital photographs of each metal plate are displayed.

The hanging structure prohibits close access to the wall images.

Exhibition dates: 

2003-4

UK Spaces: Holographic drawings, volumes and site specific installation.

Butler Institute of American Art, Beecher Center Wing, Youngstown, Ohio, USA.

Known for its encouragement of art and technology, the Butler Institute of American Art has mounted several solo and group exhibitions of artists who incorporate various aspects of technology within their practice.

Pepper's eleven month show included 13, 10 x 8 inch reflection holograms, produced over the previous 15 years.

A site-specific installation ‘Sight Lines Wall’ was also installed and ran along several meters of the exhibition space in the Butler’s Beecher Wing, part of their Center for Technology in the Arts.

‘Sight Lines Wall’ has developed from work first shown in Pepper’s solo exhibition at Gallery 286, London, UK. Here Pepper describes some of the background relating to the London installation.

Because the technology and optical/illusionistic effect of holographic images there is a overwhelming unfamiliarity (when compared to more traditional forms of art). Holograms tend to be framed and hung in straight lines on gallery walls. This method of display offers the viewer a reassuring point of reference (and method of presentation).  Perhaps it makes it easier to engage with,  or 'accept' holography as a viable visual process.

In “Sight Lines” the holograms have been taken off the wall and placed horizontally, just above the floor. Prior to being installed in the gallery the hanging metal surfaces have been allowed to rust, out in the open, arranged in a straight line. There is an ‘environmental’ and physical continuity between each metal surface and the pattern of rusting it has received. Each of the small circular holograms contain images of liquid, the shadows of which exist just above the surface of the glass which holds the holographic emulsion. Like the pattern created by the rust, these shadows could not be predicted. The liquids used on the metal and during the recording of the hologram have ‘drawn’ their own marks over the surfaces.

This reference to ‘drawing’ is a common and reoccurring element in Pepper’s work. The metal sheets are the dimensions of half a sheet of A4 paper, an accessible size found all over Europe. Something people write on, draw on, photocopy on, laser print on. Here the size has been divided along the longest length to produce a shape onto which long lines could be drawn. Each hologram has been chosen to complement the pattern of marks on the rusted metal sheet. They are ‘subdued’. green/brown, red and an integral part of each metal rectangle, not simply surrounded by a ‘frame’ to make them convenient to display.

 Exhibition dates: 25th May 2003 - April 2004

2011

Garden of Light

Gallery 175, Seoul, Korea.

A group exhibition selected by Juyong Lee with work by: Andrew Pepper, Setsuko Ishii, Paula Dawson, Julius Pileckas, Juyong Lee, Jaeeon Byun, Ray Park, David Warren, Sunhee Joo, Bokyung Jung, Martina Mrongovious, Boyang An and Pearl John.

Holography suffers from a pretense - being something it is not.

The spectacle of its cleverness is often softened through its presentation to the viewer, framed to make it more like 'traditional', acceptable and familiar visual works.

Some of my earlier pieces have attempted to interrogate that 'acceptable' mode of display and place holographic images, raw and unframed, in spaces and environments where other methods of support become integral to the installation.

Vertical Liquid Supported strips down the visual mechanics of holography to its basics. The image of the shadow of liquid protrudes slightly beyond the surface of the rectangular glass plate - a tentative insurgence into the viewers' domain (your space).

There has been human intervention in the form of a swiped finger mark curving across the centre of the piece which disturbs the liquid and recording process, moving it slightly 'away' from an analytical demonstration.

These marks are manifest entirely through the technical process of holographic recording. Shadows of liquid cannot exist, unsupported, in 'our space', yet they have an elegant familiarity reminiscent of marks on fogged and condensated windows. The rectangular holographic plate is exposed in its entirety, unframed, and held vertical by use of an industrial 'G' clamp.

The clamp is 'worn' and has been used to support other materials during domestic and sculptural constructions. Here it 'holds' the glass sheet so that it can be viewed from a variety of angles and positions. Unlike many holographic works, there is no desired 'viewing zone'. At points the liquid shadows are visible but they fade away from view as an observer moves round the piece. Looking at the piece from the back, or from directly above, is as valid as when the content of the hologram is visible.

Ways of looking should not always be held ransom to the medium we are asked to look at.

Andrew Pepper
September 2011

Installation view at Gallery 175
Image Juyong Lee

Exhibition dates 1st - 18th November, 2011

On 23rd September a new site was launched.

The original site went online towards the end of 1997 and has gone through a few minor redesigns and updates since then.

The new version has been completely reengineered, redesigned and reloaded with new and updated content.

A more extensive catalogue of works in holography and installation is included as is a comprehensive exhibitions list with many solo and group shows highlighted.

Video has also been included and some specific works have been documented specifically for the new site.

I hope you enjoy having a look round and find things you may not have seen before.  If you are wondering how it all works there is a help page here.

Do let me know if there is anything you feel isn't right - or that you would like to see on the site in the future.

Thanks for taking the time to have a look round.

Andrew Pepper