Simon Denny a Millennial Subversive
Look beyond the traditional spaces and what emerges are a group of Generation Y artists who are arguably more avant garde than ever, like New Zealander Simon Denny, 33. The Guardian enters a world of corporate hijacks, Instagram breakdowns and fake frat parties to discover where all the “art punks” have gone.
Denny, who’s had shows at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Venice Biennale and recently the Serpentine in London, takes management jargon and advertising slogans (“Failure is just one step to success”) and recontextualises them. The results, which often look a bit like a strange trade fair, aim to expose the foundations of the companies that shape our world.
“This generation of artists are much more interested in investigating the textures and fabrics of the system we are actually under,” Denny says, “rather than presenting nostalgic alternatives that are outdated or unrealistic. It is about occupying the worlds of technology and the corporate world, getting close to them and their people.”
The internet hasn’t only changed our lives and jobs, Denny says, it has also changed the very definition of an artist. “A few years ago,” he says, “if you were a creatively minded person, you might have become a sculptor or a painter. Now you are equally likely to become the founder of a tech startup, channelling your creative ideas and risk into what is, ultimately, a business.”
Does that undermine an artist’s credibility? Denny believes not. “A lot of young startup people are viewing their companies as an artwork,” he says. “I think the creativity involved in painting, say, and that of tech are getting closer. The incredible risk – with vision and values – that artists once represented is now embodied in these tech companies. That has a real resonance for me. People can make a beautiful business or a beautiful venture.”
In a group exhibition on at Hong Kong’s K11 Art Foundation (KAF) until 24 April, Denny and 11 Chinese artists present HACK SPACE.
According to the foundation’s site, “HACK SPACE is a new iteration and expansion of Denny’s exhibition Products for Organising previously held at the Serpentine Galleries. The exhibition takes at its core the theme of hacking space – the idea that place, territory and infrastructure can be radically adapted in unorthodox ways to solve problems.”
Original article by Hannah Ellis-Petersen, The Guardian, March 16, 2016.
