Imposing a Speed Limit
Jennifer Hickey
Massimiliano Contu, The Talking City, 100x120cm, oil on canvas, 2004 (photograph by J. Hickey). Image courtesy of Berliner Kunstprojekt
Speed, vast expanses of space, anonymity, endless possibilities, adventure, transience. The term "superhighway" connotes all of these. It is a loaded term for describing technology’s role in contemporary society. How does a person organize and edit the dizzying amount of information available on the "superhighway?" What effect can one’s relationship with technology have on his or her relationships with others? Is this superhighway meant to celebrate the awe-inspiring achievements of technology, or does it characterize a world in which the individual is overwhelmed by the products of the Information Age?
These are precisely the questions that are explored in "Superhighway," curator Stefania Carrozzini’s recent exhibition at the Berliner Kunstprojekt. The exhibit brought together 12 international artists who examine, with keen, critical eyes, the individual’s and the artist’s place within society increasingly dominated by technology.
The show itself is an apt metaphor for the complexity, density and diversity of information associated with modern technology. From Franca Maschio’s representational oils on canvas to Christina Cary’s video work, the exhibition includes a comprehensive sampling of media, among them: sculpture, mixed media, installation, and photography. The volume of work, sculpture leaning against the walls, paintings hung in claustrophobic clusters, overloads the viewers’ senses. "Superhighway" leaves the viewer with the task of organizing and prioritizing the information presented.
Despite their differences, the artists’ works are unified by an underlying tension, a sense of energy and anxiety. The collective question seems to be, "Yes, each of us is hurtling down this superhighway, but where are we headed?" Giacomo Cavina’s digital banner, My day! My day!, for example, suggests that man is getting lost within the technological web he has created. A lone figure peeks out from behind computer monitors, waving his arms to differentiate himself from the android-like figure in the foreground and the metallic confusion that surrounds him. Similarly, in Massimiliano Contu’s The Talking City, the viewer is struck by a lone figure. She is an every-woman: nondescript and anonymous with her unadorned red dress and simple auburn hair. Yet she asserts her individuality, physically pitted in confrontation against a metropolis of neon advertising and Big Business. The angst in her expression betrays her knowledge that this city is ultimately inescapable; to leave her balcony is to be swallowed by its chaotic pace, lost in its maze of towering lights.
Ultimately, "Superhighway" seeks to remind its audience of the humanity that remains the foundation for our fast-paced, information-saturated society. All the data and facts we amass as knowledge cannot replace the wisdom that is acquired from human experience. At times the exhibition risks being understood merely as conveying nostalgia for simplicity, but the works reveal a degree of acceptance, as well. The artists seem to seek a balance between using and being used by the technology that surrounds them. In their work, creative expression is held up as a fundamental, "human" form of communication that serves as a mediating force between the individual and the superhighway.
