New works by Angeles Cossio & Jeff Thompson
July 1 - August 28, 2011
Drift Station Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Angeles Cossio and Jeff Thompson. The meeting point of two practices, n/En- explores the transformation of simple source materials into complex structures that store information, whether through the drawn mark or an algorithmic process.
In mathematics, the character n is used to denote a specific but changeable quantity, especially in permutations or repeating systems. Jeff Thompson's software and sound works are built on similar deterministic structures. Every Nokia Tune is a "data sculpture" – a set of computer hard drives – on which are stored every combination of the Nokia Tune ringtone's notes, a total of 6,227,020,800 mp3 files. Similarly, works like All Audio Files, In Order, a 23-day sound piece that plays the smallest, atomistic parts of all the audio files found on Thompson's computer in numerical order, use pre-existing material for a kind of algorithmic remixing.
Similarly fuzzy in its scale, the prefix en- expresses an entry into a specified condition: encrusted is the moment of becoming covered with a crust, encased the transformative point between free and closed in. Angeles Cossio's drawings, sculptures, and videos take simple materials such as charcoal or Epsom salts and convert them into fixed mark and crystalline structure. Thick paper holds an accumulation of sharp blows from a charcoal pencil that leave smudge-like marks and deep indentations, while other drawings are the result of a felt-tip pen barely touching the page. In both cases, the act of becoming or transforming is primary. Similarly, in Cossio's sculpture and video projects, traces of drug-store chemical processes leave astonishing residues and nearly invisible marks.
