03/15/07
Irish Museum of Modern Art
Garrett Phelan
Trusted Servant
.all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reggae
Irish Museum of Modern Art
http://www.youtube.com/trustedservant
.all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reGGae was a group exhibition curated by artist Philippe Parreno and Rachael Thomas (Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, IMMA) at the Irish Museum of Modern Art from 29 November to 18 February, 2007. More than twenty artists, writers and thinkers were invited to participate in this project that focused on the notion of ‘process’. Parreno’s approach was to go beyond the real/physical space of the museum and as a part of this process Garrett Phelan has been invited and entrusted by the curators to close this exhibition with his project Trusted Servant.
On the 19th February, 2007 (the gallery closing date of .all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reggae), Phelan uploaded the video performance work entitled Trusted Servant, 2007 onto YouTube, a popular free video sharing website which lets users upload, view, and share video clips - a sub-cultural web endemic that has quickly become an unregulated virtual institution.
Primarily known for radio, video, drawing and alternative projects, in this instance Phelan becomes the gatekeeper of .all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reGGae. Trusted Servant documents an automated and manic performance of Phelan repeating pre-recorded broadcasts from his MP3 player, which have been compiled and edited from media sources – shortwave and longwave radio, cable link, newspaper articles and webcasts.
His working standpoint, calls into question the mainstream methods of endless ingestion of information and communication that influence the formations of our opinions in this ‘don’t stop age’. The removal of Trusted Servant from YouTube at Phelan’s conceptual discretion will mark the official end of .all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reggae.
To view Trusted Servant please go to
http://www.youtube.com/trustedservant
Trusted Servant also functions as part of Phelan’s current exploration into the Formation of Opinion (2003- ongoing). This work is the final part of a first phase entitled Reception of information, which includes the three drawing projects NOW: HERE, 2003, LUNG LOVE, 2004, GOD ONLY KNOWS, 2005 and a month long artwork entitled Black Brain Radio, 2006, an independent FM/online radio station. Philippe Parreno’s .all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reGGae catalogue text After Affects proposes a similar style of communication as technology, as an amalgamation of hidden, coded, obscure, specialized languages, that inscribe all forms of transmission.
.all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reGGae includes: Bas Jan Ader, Doug Aitken, Carles Congost, Keren Cytter, Thomas Demand, Cory Doctorow, http://www.garrettphelan.com/foo.htm
For further information please contact Nicola Lees, Assistant Curator: New Galleries, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on [email protected] or +353 1612 9927
A limited edition from .all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reGGae entitled Nails Sewer Legs, 2006, by Philippe Parreno and Liam Gillick is available. Please contact [email protected] for further information.
Please go to http://www.modernart.ie/en/index.htm for images.
