Lot 318
  • 318

Seth Price

Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 GBP
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • Seth Price
  • Eight Photographs
  • seven digital c-prints and archival inkjet print
  • each digital c-print: 29 by 38.5cm.; 11 3/8 by 15 1/8 in.
  • archival inkjet print: 48.5 by 33cm.; 19 by 13in.
  • Executed in 2007, this work is number 3 from an edition of 5.

Provenance

Friederich Petzel Gallery, New York
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Condition

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Never simply exploiting the potential of the internet as a new tool that can be appropriated, but offering a critical consideration of its effects on our mental and physical experience of this new digital space, Seth Price is at the very forefront of current artistic practices. At the core of his work is a profound exploration of the mechanics of consumption and circulation, which the artist explored in his widely-distributed book Dispersion. Throughout his multi-faceted practice, in which ideas are disseminated through sculpture, video, photography, installations and writings, the artist not only deals with the distribution of art itself, but also with the effects that new modes of consumption have on our lived experience of visual culture and its materials.

The present work, Eight Photographs, is based on digitally generated stock footage of a rising wave that is used as temporary backups during corporate presentations, and which Price has also appropriated as the source footage for Film, Right (2006). Having digitally manipulated these images with highly saturated colour effects, they have taken on a new life as a defamiliarised, strangely mutating shapes that refer to a natural phenomenon but no longer have a recognisable relation to it. Price has compared the infinite potential of digital technologies to the emergence of plastic in Europe and North America in the 1950s, where the unprecedented adaptibility of the material inspired an explosion of consumer products. “Of course, as Price points out, endless formal mutability or a plethora of choice can become confusingly open-ended, and, making the link with contemporary digital anxiety, he argues that the use of digital tools gives a plasticity to content with recorded material being constantly reused and manipulated. When the tendency is for everything to open out in all directions, at all times, the problem is trying to establish a meaningful relationship between any two things” (Polly Staple, ‘The Producer’, Frieze, October 2008, no. 118, p. 246). This critical reflection on the rapidly changing digital and online landscape makes Seth Price’s practice one of the most important engagements with the internet in contemporary art - and indeed beyond the confines of the art world.