Paul Weston’s solo show Conduit lingers in the noise and static of watching. Channeling media archeology, Weston turns to television to reflect on how media never really leave us (even in an era of techno-virtual upgrades). Like the historicized past and the hyperreal present, the objects in Conduit may appear out of sync – some are pristine as if fresh out of the package, others have accumulated a residue of black gunk. The latter sculptures resemble clogged arteries, marking the consequences of addiction or the passage of time. People watch television as a way to flee or divert the moment – to waste time, fill time, kill time. After decades of viewing, our biographical narratives and memories are colored by the televisual. Our referents are sitcom characters, “You look just like that girl on TV!” Our mantra is “just do it.”
In the 1979 film Being There, the first time Chauncey Gardiner (a naive, middle-aged shut in) experiences riding in a car, he looks out the window and earnestly observes, “This is just like television, only you can see much further.” Most of us intuitively understand that everyday media consumption, all of the hours of screen time, affect our mental states and perceptions. We can be there without being physically or emotionally co-present. Weston’s work illuminates how even when we power down, we exist in an eternal state of afterglow, somewhere between on and off.
PAUL WESTON was born in 1964 in Kent, England, and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He has shown his work at Space Gallery, Thread Waxing, Jack The Pelican Presents and other spaces throughout the United States. Some might know him from his side projects, INSTIGATOR and the band Pink Sock.
In the 1979 film Being There, the first time Chauncey Gardiner (a naive, middle-aged shut in) experiences riding in a car, he looks out the window and earnestly observes, “This is just like television, only you can see much further.” Most of us intuitively understand that everyday media consumption, all of the hours of screen time, affect our mental states and perceptions. We can be there without being physically or emotionally co-present. Weston’s work illuminates how even when we power down, we exist in an eternal state of afterglow, somewhere between on and off.
PAUL WESTON was born in 1964 in Kent, England, and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He has shown his work at Space Gallery, Thread Waxing, Jack The Pelican Presents and other spaces throughout the United States. Some might know him from his side projects, INSTIGATOR and the band Pink Sock.