Michael Bell-Smith
I Thought It Was a Pull, but It’s a Push
August 31st - September 27th, 2013
For his project at COR&P, Michael Bell-Smith presents I Thought It Was a Pull, but It’s a Push. The project continues his ongoing investigations into the systems of digital media production and the language of commercial design. The show centers around a video Bell-Smith created utilizing a strict template-based structure of his own design. Shuttling between various permutations of “content” within a visually dense looped structure, the video exists as a work of its own as well as an open-ended system for creating other moving and still image-based work. Embracing the framework of the one-click “defaults” found in graphics software used by amateurs and “creative professionals” alike, the work explores the potential for individual expression within the tools that dictate the language of our contemporary environment.
In conjunction with the exhibition, COR&P is publishing Claps / Applause, a 12” record created from 911 audio samples of “claps” and one audio sample of “applause.” The record functions both as a catalog of Bell-Smith’s recent research, indexing files from his own collection, and as a tool for creation and re-appropriation, recalling DJ tool records and cinema sound effects albums of the pre-digital age.
Opening
The opening reception for “I Thought It Was a Pull, but It’s a Push” will be on Saturday, August 31st from 6 - 8pm.
About the Artist
Michael Bell-Smith is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been exhibited and screened in museums and galleries internationally, including MoMA PS1, NY; Museum of The Moving Image, NY; SFMOMA, San Francisco; The 2008 Liverpool Biennial, UK; The 5th Seoul International Media Biennale; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, ES; The New Museum, NY; Hirshhorn Museum, DC; Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; MoMA, NY; and Tate Liverpool, UK. His work has been featured in Art Forum, Art in America and the New York Times.