Output details

'Control Mechanisms' - Moorland Productions Exhibitions (2008-2013)

‘Control Mechanisms’ is a body of original artworks, developed in 16 international exhibitions and events (2008 – 2013).

Key questions addressed include how socio-political content (themes of surveillance and control) can be embedded in artworks which are both referential and metaphorical (representational and abstract); how Della Volpe’s insights into the nature of ‘concrete abstractions’ can be developed into original artworks without ‘illustrating’ theory; and how a collaborative art practice (Hay & Alagapan) might operate, to offer artistic advantages and insight.

One key output is the Nová Sín Gallery, Prague Exhibition, comprising 21 paintings, digital prints and 1 sculptural/sound installation.[Items 1,2,3]

Iterations in Malta, Dublin and Tbilisi (Artisterium), develop the work in different contexts, adding new elements and approaches. [4,5]

Methodologically, the collaboration involves multiple overlapping stages: from research and ideas generation, production/installation of the work, to curation and textual/catalogue production. For this iteration, Hay generated the underlying concept and produced c.70% of the work, with input by Alagapan.

Conceptually, the work develops themes in Della Volpe, Foucault, Virno, Virilio, Kafka and others, particularly critiques of the omnipresence, within neo-liberalism, of surveillance and societal/behavioural control structures. Specifically, it draws on Della Volpe’s conception of ‘concrete abstractions’, to unite abstract concept with concrete form. Formally, the work reflects the appearance of RFID tags (literally ‘control mechanisms’), and the concentric geometry found in the work of Frank Stella, Peter Halley, British constructivism, Japanese Zen gardens and Jeremy Bentham’s ‘Panopticon’.

The work is intended as an original integration of philosophical critique with abstract paintings, prints, installation and soundworks. It combines aspects of critical and post-structural theory with traditions of US and UK abstraction using the dominant metaphor of the ‘control chip’ RFID.

The shredded document installations (Sofia, Prague, Brno and London) are an original artistic creation. [1,4]