SAEMUNDUR THOR HELGASON selected works 2015
Things to return to the store 2015 Saemundur Thor Helgason asked 10 companies if they would lend him audio-visual equipment and air-conditioning units for exhibition purposes. Dialogue with marketing divisions proved unsuccessful companies either refused or failed to provide product due to an internal process of unresolved decision-making. The products brought together by Saemundur depend on each other: the Samsung TV uses the Panasonic Sound system to play its audio and vice versa, resulting in a collaboration between otherwise competing entities. I went to John Lewis and bought a Dyson AM05 Hot & Cool Nickel, Samsung UE- 48JU6500 Curved 4K Ultra HD Smart TV, 48 with Freeview HD, Built-In Wi-Fi and Intelligent Navigation and a Panasonic SC-BTT505 Blu-ray Home Theater System. The products are displayed with their packaging in it s original condition. The cardboard boxes are displayed underneath perspex vitrines with the products placed on top. The Samsung 4K smart TV gathers its audiovisual material directly from a YouTube-playlist I assembled. The playlist is compiled out of 4K landscape videos shot by Samsung in Iceland, 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound demos, Panasonic SC-BTT505 promo and Dyson hot + cool adverts for the UK, US and Australian market. The work will be on display until Monday, then I will return the things back to the store. Text from DIS magazine: http://dismagazine.com/discussion/77496/things-to-return-to-the-store/ 2 3
Stills from mock-ups sent to the companies to demonstrate the proposed artwork see example: https://vimeo.com/127346377 4 5
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https://youtu.be/1i4qsvkhymc https://youtu.be/l0948ojy0s0 18 19
DEMO MODE 2015 shown at VANITY FAIR DEMO MODE at Project Native Informant together with Leslie Kulesh (Curated by Cory Scozzari) Project Native Informant has used the same Samung Smart TV for most of their exhibitions the last 2 years. As I am interested in the screen as already loaded with meaning, these previous works shown on this particular TV caught my attention. My Sony Xperia Z3 smartphone has a function where it generates Highlight videos of all the recent pictures and videos that I have made. It selects randomly footage and images, and edits in sync with a music score commissioned by Sony. These videos I share on Facebook as an ongoing automated work. Inspired by this feature on my phone, I thought that the Samsung TV at Project Native Informant was begging for a Highlight video of all the works that have been shown on it. Including works by Shanzhai Biennial, Morag Keil, Andrew Norman Wilson, Emanuel Röhss, Dafna Maimon, Edward Kay, Georgia Sagri, Joe Frazer, Julien Nguyen, Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, Richard Healy, Taocheng Wang, Than Hussein Clark, Ulrike Ottinger, Georgie Nettell, GCC, Petros Moris and Ruairiadh O Connell. I made up three preferences to select content for the video. The work: Likes itself as a TV. Likes the videos that have been played on it. Likes the space of Project Native Informant. These preferences I then used for selecting documentation images from the website of Project Native Informant. Since the work seeks for images of PNI, it excludes closeups of works where the architecture of PNI is not recognizable. For example, an image of a painting that only shows a white wall in the background would not be selected. The videos were gathered from the offline archive of PNI and some found online and downloaded. We bought the exact same model of the TV as a 3D rendered object on Turbosquid, a website that sells 3D objects for computer generated images often used for adverts or films. Leslie Kulesh had a space within my video to show footage relating to her own work. Every time the 3D rendered version of the TV would appear in the video, the backdrop would contain YouTube videos, chosen by Leslie Kulesh, of people demonstrating how to remove security tags from clothing. The audio from the YouTube clips would blend into the score that ran throughout the highlight video as a whole. more info: http://projectnativeinformant.com/?project= leslie-kulesh-and-saemundur-thor-helgason link to video: https://vimeo.com/129339715 22 23
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stills from DEOM MODE stills from DEOM MODE 26 27
VANITY FAIR DEMO MODE at Project Native Informant, Photograph by Leslie Kulesh 30 31
Roll-up banner (Samskipti) 2015 Photograph, digital print on vinyl, 150 mm x 200 mm. Photograph taken at Samskipti, a print company in Reykjavik, of a staff member and myself. The photograph is taken by a staff member at Samskipti and printed for free in exchange for their logo placed at the top of the banner. VANITY FAIR DEMO MODE at Project Native Informant, Photograph by Leslie Kulesh 32 33
Group photo 2014 Photograph, digital print, 1189 mm x 841 mm. Photograph taken at a print shop in Lewisham, London of the staff members and myself. The photograph is taken by the following customer. 36 37
Mediation as such (promo mix) 2015 The work unfolds from a steel box where the lid serves as a projection screen. All the parts of the installation fit into the box and can be stored away. When closed, the box can be made airtight with a vacuum nozzle located on one of its sides. The projector has an inbuilt media player reading files from an SD card. The files played are comprised of computer generated images, screen recordings and video footage. The imagery show the disparate components that the display consists of. Mediation as such (promo mix) demonstrates its own features and capabilities of displaying itself. Link to video: https://vimeo.com/122311719 38 39
stills from Mediation as such (promo mix) stills from Mediation as such (promo mix) 42 43
Group photo (meeting) 2014, Photograph, digital print, 600mm x 800mm. Photograph taken by Bára Friðjónsdóttir, bartender at Hlemmur Square, during a meeting of Benidorm, a self-organized group exhibition at the hotel reception of Hlemmur Square, Reykjavik, Iceland. From left: Þórdís Erla Zoëga, Sæmundur Þór Helgason, Sigurður Þórir Ámundason, Leifur Ýmir Eyjólfsson, Ásgeir Skúlason, Nikulás Stefán Nikulásson, Anna Hrund Másdóttir and Örn Alexander Ámundason. 46 47