ANIMATED ENVIRONMENTS
Part 3: Steven Pippin
6 October - 24 November 2012

A video projection in the ground floor toilet and a photograph suspended half inside and half outside the building are just two of the unusual works that Steven Pippin presents at Siobhan Davies Studio for this, the third exhibition in the Studio's Animated Environments series curated by Charles Danby.

Pippin tests both the limits of physical space with this installation and pushes the photographic process, literally to breaking point, in his ongoing series Non Event, destroying cameras in order to extract new types of photographic images.  These are the 'final images' made as camera shutter and gun are triggered simultaneously, with the bullet penetrating both the camera and the film on which the image is taken.   Presented as mechanical objects, a vitrine housing a selection of Pippin's 'modified' cameras is installed under the stairs on the ground floor, highlighting the playful pragmatism of his process and practice.

A video of the earth rotating is projected into the toilet bowl of one of the ground floor toilets, a provocative comment on the world. This new work titled Deep Recession (2012) relates to Pippin's 'geo-stationary' works of the early 2000s in which he projected films of the earth rotating onto varying forms of suspended and rotating screens; thus the earth appeared to be stationary, yet in orbit, rotating without actually moving.

Pippin clearly delights in these kinds of incongruity, as played out in the work Petrified (Inside / Outside) (2012) located on the first floor of the studio. This is a diptych photograph split physically in half by the building's large glass window and visually divided by new and old photographic technologies. Half of the image is analogue, the other digital; it represents two viewpoints of the same moment in time. The digital half observes and records, from a distance, the destruction of the analogue camera.

Also on the first floor, hung on the glass wall and viewed from the studio's balcony, are the photographs Ozone Hole / Midlife Crisis (2011) one showing a hole in the ozone layer, the other, the back of Pippin's head.  The comic aesthetic similarities of the head and the ozone hole are reinforced by a museum style text explaining the content of the images.

Pippin's previous works have often involved the extreme alteration of domestic and public items to function as cameras (bathtubs, wardrobes and washing machines).  Here the whole building becomes a 'playground' contingent on the collapsing and reconfiguring of viewpoint, image and time.  Pippin's works are points of balance and counterpoint; the camera observes and is observed, is machine and object, image-maker and image.

For further press information contact Pauline or Theresa
pauline@theresasimon.com  theresa@theresasimon.com  020 7734 4800


Listings information
6 October - 24 November 2012
Admission free

Siobhan Davies Studios
85 St George's Road, London SE1 6ER
T: +44 (0)20 7091 9650
Nearest tube: Elephant & Castle, Lambeth North
www.siobhandavies.com
Admission free

Exhibition opening hours
Mon-Thu 10am-8pm
Fri-Sat 10am-5pm
Sun 10am-2pm

Podcast
Steven Pippin will record an introduction to his work that will be available for visitors on MP3 players and will be downloadable from www.siobhandavies.com/pippin once the exhibition is open.

Lecture and Talk
Steven Pippin will talk about contemporary photography in light of its changing technologies, discussing the relationship of the camera to its subject matter. He will also be in conversation with series curator Charles Danby. Two of Pippin's films, Laundromat Locomotion (1997) and Non-Event will be shown before and after the Lecture/Talk. This event is part of South London Art Map's Last Fridays.

Friday 26 October, 7pm
Tickets £7 and £5, book on 020 7091 9650

Exhibition Tour
Steven Pippin will give a guided tour of the exhibition.
Fri 9 November, 2-3pm
Free, book on 020 7091 9650



Notes to Editors

About Steven Pippin
Steven Pippin is a sculptor and photographer. After completing a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he took a foundation course in art at Loughborough College (1981-2) and then studied sculpture at Brighton Polytechnic (1982-5) and the Chelsea School of Art, London (1987). He worked in Berlin on a DAAD scholarship in 1997-8, and in 2011 was the first Artist in Residence at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) Germany.

About Animated Environments
Animated Environments is a series of three individual exhibitions curated by Charles Danby for Siobhan Davies Dance that have been supported by Arts Council England.  Animated Environments Part 1 was Guy Sherwin's Movements in Light (16 September - 24 November 2011), Part 2 was Graham Gussin (4 May - 1 July 2012). The series examines the active potential of images as still frames within the fields of photography, film and live event.

About Siobhan Davies Dance
As the only contemporary dance organisation in the UK with an award-winning public building led by a working choreographer, Siobhan Davies Dance embraces its physical environment as part of its activities with an innovative programme specially curated for Siobhan Davies Studios.  Founded and led by the pioneering choreographer Siobhan Davies, Siobhan Davies Dance reaches over 100,000 people each year by presenting her work, commissioning talented choreographers and offering a thought provoking programme of curated events, exhibitions, talks and participatory activities investigating the connection between dance and other art forms.



With thanks to Arts Council England and the Siobhan Davies Commissioning Fund