Curated by
Elizabeth Fisher,
Kelly Lindner,
Feng Liu,
Sheri-Lyn Shepperd,
Jill Winder

The Volatile Real is a response to the proliferation of images generated by the mass media and the digital age of the last ten years. Where endless reproductions have become a substitute for reality, the possibility of representing the “real” has exploded. Media such as photography, video, film, and digital images are not only the essence of the mass media, but are tools of contemporary artists as well. This exhibition explores the tactics of seven artists and their use of these media to deflect, assimilate, and recreate the “real.” Within the work, reality is assumed to be inherently unbelievable, a realm where fact and fiction constantly intermingle. Present and future merge. Parallel realities are constructed. Truth is camouflaged. Slick, polished images attract and seduce. Looking becomes a form of consumption.

In this exhibition, some artists tread the line between fiction and reality by recording their participation in banal events and everyday activities. Others confront the ambiguous experience of reality by constructing alternate and fictional worlds. Artists also employ cutting edge technology to produce their own inviting dreamworld fantasies that offer up a new, glamorous ultra-modern aesthetic. Finally, many of the artists have appropriated various uses of digital imaging to create futuristic realms of visual simulation.

Work by Matthew Barney, Nikki S. Lee, Sophie Calle, Feng Mengbo, Tracey Moffatt, Pipilotti Rist, Mariko Mori.