John Gerrard

John Gerrard, (born 20 July 1974) is an Irish artist, best known for his sculptures, which typically take the form of digital simulations displayed using Real-time computer graphics.

Gerrard received a BFA from The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University.

During this time he made his first experiments with 3D scanning as a form of sculptural photography.

He undertook postgraduate studies at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and Trinity College, Dublin, and in 2002 was awarded a Pépinières Residency at Ars Electronica, Linz, where he developed his first works in 3D Real-time computer graphics.

In June 2009 he began a six-month guest residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam.

During 2012 he was Legacy Fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford, working on Exercise (Djibouti) 2012, a commission for Modern Art Oxford and the London 2012 Festival.

Gerrard's works concern themselves with the nature of contemporary power in the broadest sense, epitomising the structures of power and the networks of energy that characterized the massive expansion and intensification of human endeavour that took place during the twentieth century.

Many works have featured geographically isolated industrial facilities that are a hidden part of the global production network that makes the luxuries of contemporary life possible.

As Emily Hall wrote in ArtForum:

"[Gerrard's] fine balance of concept, content, and material suggest a theme and variations on the theme of the virtual. The computer-generated landscapes bring to mind, of course, virtual worlds, video games, special effects – that is, ways of producing unrealities. Here the format manifests something quite real, albeit at the periphery of most of our worlds – the discomfort of this admission is part of the work's impact – since for many of us, the arrival of food in our markets and the availability of oil are things we take on faith, if we think about them at all. Their existence remains provisional – more or less virtual – whether in life, on a gallery wall, or on a computer chip."

Gerrard's works are constructed as simulations or virtual worlds, using 3D Real-time computer graphics – a technology originally developed for military use, and now used extensively in the videogame industry (he currently uses Unigine 3D engine ).

Although making use of advanced digital technology, Gerrard's work has been noted for its resistance to being categorised as 'new media art'.

Gerrard himself regards realtime 3D as 'a post-cinematic medium in which one can manipulate and interact with time in new ways'.

He has also said that the works constitute a continuing reflection upon his own time: 'these melancholic realms are in some way a road movie of the Twentieth Century, a revisiting of the extraordinary comforts and freedoms that I've experienced.'

The eerie hyperrealism that characterises the medium, and Gerrard's choice of industrial subjects, has led some to compare his work with Charles Sheeler's 'precisionism'.

Gerrard's interest in minimalism and postminimalism is evident in the physical presence of his installed objects, which are presented either as large-scale projections that often push the boundaries of existing technology, or as compact 'artboxes', designed in collaboration with Inseq, an industrial design firm in Vienna.

The production of Gerrard's works is a highly labor-intensive, collaborative affair, which he has described as 'very similar to making films, in that a group of specialists is assembled under a director to make something ...

making these works is beyond the capabilities of any one person.'

Working initially from research documents, texts or striking images in the popular press, Gerrard uses the internet as a research tool, in what he calls 'image wandering'.

This subsequently leads to exploratory journeys, during which subjects are often discovered by chance.

Once a structure is selected for a 'portrait', the artist takes a comprehensive set of several thousand photographs of surfaces and surroundings.

These photographs are used in the studio as textures for a reconstructed, hand-built virtual 3d model of the structure, which in turn is then placed within a 'virtual world' that incorporates the passing of time and other environmental elements.

While they use the same software that is employed for intensively interactive gaming environments, the works offer the viewer no freedom of movement, and generally feature a slow camera path that orbits a silent, isolated scene.

In relation to this movement, Gerrard says that his understanding of this medium is 'profoundly orbital.

The works stage a world, in which certain set of behaviors have been put in motion.

One of them is what I call an orbital camera, a camera that moves, at walking pace, around the scene – the human presence: being there, the witness.

And then of course you have the orbit of the year which is linked to the real and which forbids an easy, instant consumption of the scene, because it takes a full year to unfold in full.

But then, crucially, this world, this reality, consists of one moment in time.

Not an instantaneous moment, but the time during which I documented the scene'

Recent works such as the Exercise series have increasingly featured simulated human figures, produced using Motion Capture, and have experimented with the use of algorithmic components to produce action within the work that is unforeseeable to the artist himself.

In early 2014, following denial of access by Google, Gerrard hired a helicopter and produced a detailed photographic survey of one of the key physical sites of the internet—a Google data farm in Oklahoma.

This survey was the starting point of the work Farm (Pryor Creek, Oklahoma) 2015.

The work features a simulated "twin" of the squat building flanked by diesel generators and powerful cooling towers, as seen from a virtual camera orbiting the facility.

As suggested by the title, the architecture of the server farm bears marked resemblance to Gerrard's earlier works depicting livestock facilities, Grow Finish Unit and Sow Farm, Gerrard states that he wants the work to pose the following questions: "What does the internet look like? What are the material qualities of the network? How is it powered? Do we consume this facility—or does it consume us?"

Critical response included:

We don’t question where these things come from, they just appear, but Gerrard wants to confront all of that.

He wants to unshroud the mysteries behind our Facebook feeds and push notifications.

[T]he effect […] is more painterly than cinematic.

It is like a 16th century Dutch still life moving in very slow motion.

The effect is mesmerising and disorienting, your understanding of the real and the record and the representation shaken and shifted.