Liam Gillick - Data, Speech, Analysis, Flow, Pressure, Climate
Signed and numbered edition of 7 (+ 3 a.p)
The artist has used mathematical equations in his work in many contexts. Notably at the Istanbul Biennale in 2015, the Yinchuan Biennale, 2016 and extensively in his solo exhibition at the Gwangju Museum of Art in 2021. Additionally an important work was installed at Gare du Nord in Paris to coincide with COP21 in 2015 that deployed the key mathematics of Japanese American climatologist, Syukuro Manabe in place of existing advertising. In 2019 Mute Records released ∑(No,12k,Lg,17Mif), New Order + Liam Gillick, live recordings from a series of collaborative concerts in Manchester, Turin and Vienna that used an equation that described the relationship between the artist and the musicians as the title. Equations are an international language that can be understood across any linguistic border. They are tools - that exist to be used. They are only productive when information is plugged into them. There is an economy and beauty in equations that suggests a parallel visual language that exists as pure conceptual potential. An equation, theorem, principle. An expression of relationships. A set of terms as clear to a scientist or mathematician as a quote from a theorist might be to a contemporary artist. It is a construction that seems equally complex or facile depending upon your position in relation to specialization and the accumulation of knowledge.
This work brings together fragments of equations used by the artist in various contexts including The European Central Bank, Gallery Alfonso Artiaco in Naples, The Istanbul Biennale and Okayama Japan. Composed in a way reminiscent of Suprematist drawings, the work comprises four printed sheets displayed on a simple glazed notice board. The presentation reflects the pure aesthetics of research while the composition of the work relates to the history of art in tension with mathematics from the earliest stages of advanced modernism.
