A major new foyer commission as part of Moving Targets, Arnolfini’s summer programme
“Day-Glo symbolized the shift from natural to synthetic. We weren’t buying cotton any more but Bri-Nylon. It was a great time, people were discovering things with technology. Bri-Nylon you could wear to school and your mum didn’t have to iron it.” Poly Styrene
Gillian Wylde’s installation is a frantic collage of images and text interspersed with video projection, flat screens and sounds, taking over Arnolfini’s foyer and overflowing into the Café-Bar and Bookshop.
Gillian Wylde – The Day The World Turned Day-Glo from Arnolfini on Vimeo.
While influenced by the punk processes of the late 1970s, the installation also mimics an internet browser, with multiple windows and programmes open at the same time. Throughout the summer, local performers will activate the space through choreographed movements, readings and actions.
The project’s title is taken from a song from X Ray Spex’s 1978 album, Germ Free Adolescents and front woman, Poly Styrene’s reflections on punk’s relationship to developments in technology and synthetic materials. Taking this as a starting point, the installation explores ideas of a ‘punk process’ and punk aesthetics in relation to the seismic shifts of the post digital/internet world: a world of internet browser doings, google searches and Wikipedia factualities.
Taking a low-fi approach similar to amateurism or ‘cut and paste’, the artist explores tensions and hidden or disobedient desires, questioning dominant narratives around punk, to consider race, gender and sexuality, present-ness and resistance.
Limited edition poster by Gillian Wylde
Rude Electricity Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
Digital Poster Print, edition of 30. Signed and numbered by the artist. Now available to buy at Arnolfini Bookshop for just £25.
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