Simon Hollington and Kypros Kyprianou are two UK artists. Bored with painting and more interested in science, they applied for some grant money to do experiments towards creating a stable force field. Incredibly, they were given the cash and, infused with the spirits of Nicola Tesla and Andrei Tarkovsky, they achieved their goal. Suddenly, and without apparent explanation, the artists disappeared. Their exhibition The Invisible Force Field Experiments – The Future Is Invisible at MOP Projects until Sunday August 21 is a presentation of their findings. The exhibition includes a DVD of their filmed experiments, two computers with their archives and a recreation of their lab – complete with left over ham sandwich [mysteriously preserved].
Simon Hollington & Kypros Kyprianou, The Invisible Force Field Experiments, installation view.
If only the truth were out there. The further you go out, the truth begins to resemble a lie. Facts are facts only until they are denied because a denial is the same as an admission and so, if it looks like the truth, it’s probably a lie. This is the fiction that Hollington and Kyprianou are dealing with. Their elaborate work –previously staged at the ICA in London and at The Forest pavilion at The Venice Biennale [it says on the handout] – purports to be a metafiction of classic sci fi tropes – scientific equipment, lab coats, hazard gear, low hums and taped off danger zones. It’s a nostalgic kind of sci fi that kooks into the Brit classics like Jon Pertwee era Dr. Who, The Stone Tapes and Quatermass and The Pit.
Simon Hollington & Kypros Kyprianou, The Invisible Force Field Experiments, DVD.
As a combination of these influences the work is good enough, but the real story behind this work is a lot more interesting. The cue is in the second part of the title The Future Is Invisible. Neither Hollington nor Kyprianou came to Australia for the show, instead telling a friend in Sydney how to set up the show, what props to buy and where to put them. The only part of the show that came directly from the artists are the DVDs and the CD-ROMS. The work is about invisibility and that’s where it connects to an entirely different order of art. We couldn’t help but think of that classic image of Yves Klein’s leap into the void and the persistent doubts as to whether that death defying feat was real or staged. The plucky Frenchman’s theories of the immaterial fit so neatly into what Hollington and Kyprianou are doing that we realised the whole SF thing is a diversion. It’s an entertaining diversion, but it’s also an elaborate smokescreen for a keenly presented absence.
