On Exactitude in Science is a two screen video installation featuring a synchronized presentation of Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi (1982) & Alan Butler’s Koyaanisgtav (2017).
On Exactitude in Science takes its name from the Jorge Luis Borges short story, Del rigor en la ciencia (1946). This passage describes an ancient, fictional civilization that creates a 1:1 scale map of their territory. Borges, who annotated this text under a pseudonym, in fact based the work on an extract from a Lewis Carroll work first published in 1889.
Using two video screens, this installation comprises the Godfrey Reggio motion picture Koyaanisqatsi (1982), presented in synchronicity with Alan Butler’s shot-for-shot remake Koyaanisgtav (2017). The work by Reggio was chosen by Butler as a cultural artifact, and a paragon of the most popular visual media of the 20th century, film. The original motion picture does not follow a formal screenplay as such, instead embodies a poetic, pictorial mode of documentary film-making. Using Koyaanisqatsi as a screenplay itself, Butler has stunningly transposed this work into a new form using the virtual worlds within the Grand Theft Auto video game series.
Always surprising and an impressive work by anyone’s standards.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Alan Butler’s work explores material and philosophical ideas about how imagery and meaning function in technologically mediated realities. His subject often ties together the cultural dogma that underpins visual languages, with algorithmic modes of being in western capitalist societies. Educated at LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore (2009). and the National College of Art and Design, Dublin (2004).
He is a member of the collective ANNEX who will represent Ireland at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2020.
Recent activities include solo exhibitions The Need To Argue In The Master’s Language, Visual Carlow, Ireland (2018); Down and Out in Los Santos, Malmö Fotobiennal, Sweden (2017); HELIOSYNTH, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin (2017); We Were Promised Anarchy, But What We Got Was Chaos, Solstice Art Centre, Ireland (2015); and group exhibitions Open World: Video Games and Contemporary Art, The Akron Art Museum (2019); Digital Citizen: The Precarious Subject, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, UK (2019), Weird Capitalism, Transfer, New York (2018); Back to the Future, C/O Berlin (2018); SITUATIONS/Posthuman, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2018); States of Play: Roleplay Reality, FACT, Liverpool, England (2018); As Above, So Below, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2017); Les Rencontres d’Arles, France (2017).
Alan Butler’s work is in the collections of IMMA – the Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Office of Public Works, Ireland, The Arts Council of Ireland, and Trinity College Dublin. He is represented by Green On Red Gallery, Ireland.
Under Phase 4 restrictions in Western Australia, each occupied space within PICA has a maximum capacity of 1 person per 2 square metres – please follow staff instructions and observe relevant signage throughout the venue confirming capacity limits. During your visit, you might be asked to queue, wait or come back later if necessary. We thank you in advance for your co-operation and patience, and for being COVID safe and aware alongside PICA.
