Jeremy Couillard, My Time in the Cult of Melting Ancestors, 2013, single channel, 19 min
Jeremy Couillard (b. 1980, Livonia, Michigan) is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. A graduate of Michigan State University (B.A., 2004) and Columbia University (M.F.A., 2012), Couillard has created a series of acrylic paintings, kinetic sculptures, installations and 3D animated videos, or, rather, a brand new aesthetic where various elements from digital culture converge and collide. Consider, for instance, My Time in the Cult of Melting Ancestors premiered at Louis B James gallery in NYC on April 21st 2013 to accompany an elaborate body of paintings, installations, and sculptures. The press release of the show was a pean to Super Mario Bros. Here's an excerpt:
"Mario is the first hero created in the computational realm. At his core he is binary numbers, code, and logic gates. He is electrons travelling through a Ricoh 2A03 8-bit processor. Through all of us he was brought to life by manipulating an early Christian symbol of the cross and two red Japanese suns on a controller hooked up to a minimalist grey box reminiscent of Robert Morris plugged into a glass tube of deflection coils and electron guns. Children sat in dark rooms engaged in the first of many computational cultist rituals under the glow of the cathode containing images of the plumber hero who could be almost telepathically controlled. Soon Mario embarked on a myriad of adventures to new worlds: riding egg-eating baby dragons; battling robed ghosts, naked ghosts, and other increasing complex enemies. Then Game Boy came out: the first portable computational mythology. Soon after, Mario discovered the mathematical third dimension, began jumping through paintings to enter his worlds. He climbed mountains, went to new planets and galaxies, discovered computational gravity, and began to collect crystals along with coins. " (Louis B. James Gallery)
Jeremy Couillard, Black Hole Memory, 2012, single channel, 6 min, created with the CryEngine
Video games aesthetics permeate his works, although the references are often indirect, rather than explicit. Couillard is not appropriating games. Instead, he is creating his own art games, or rather, worlds. In a sense, his practice is comparable to terraforming. Moreover, his art is also playable, that is, meant to be experienced in a game environment, rather than purely contemplated, from a safe distance. For instance, his 2012 video Black Hole Memory was developed with the CryEngine and could be eventually incorporated in the game. As the artist wrote:
"I haven’t played Crysis in years, don’t have it anymore, but I guess you could add this level and play it. Here is a dropbox link that will work for awhile. There is no spawn point in the level, though so I guess you would need to add that. Also you may or may not need my custom objects that I added. If anyone really wants to play this level and can’t get the file to play, let me know I’d be happy to get it working." (Jeremy Couillard)
Several themes reappear in his works. One in particular: Couillard is fascinated by the idea of repetition, by the notion of reincarnation. The eternal return of the same. In the text that accompanies his 2012 single channel video Over and Over Again, he wrote:
"[I]’ve played so many video games and watched thousands of movies. It’s hard to know what memories happened to me and which come from other places. For example, I have these reoccurring dreams about an ancient ruined city on top of a grassy hill. There are collapsing arches and columns the color of sand. Decayed castles and homes. Sometimes I hike up the hill to get to them or sometimes I’m in a car. Every time I get near them, though, I wake up. Maybe it has something to do with a past life or maybe it has something to do with sitting in front of a Thomas Cole painting or watching Indiana Jones movies over and over again." (Jeremy Couillard)
Jeremy Couillard, Over and over again, 2012, single channel, 9 minutes and 53 seconds
8-bit nostalgia and glitch aesthetics dominate Something in the Way (2010)...
...Which is connected to this project, A Love Poem to Technology (2010).
In short, Couillard is a world-maker.
LINK: Jeremy Couillard
Submitted by Matteo Bittanti (thanks to Jonathan Monaghan)
