‘When We Were Kings” docu and gallery walkthrough

Evans opening yesterday was awesome!! Thx to everyone for showing up! The VIP private preview ‘gallery walkthrough’ is public now! :) Text and links to all pieces below! Enjoy!

When We Were Kings

A solo SPEED SHOW of new and updated Internet based pieces by Evan Roth.
Curated and hosted by Aram Bartholl.

8:00 – 10:00 PM, July18, 2011
90 Bowery, New York, NY
speedshow.net/when-we-were-kings

When We Were Kings is a reference to an era that began with the wide-spread adoption of the Internet. It is the celebration of a time that is seemingly coming to close, when the architecture of the web treated everyday citizens the same as the kings. Intentionally scheduled back to back with an opening at the Museum of Modern Art (where Roth is showing two pieces), When We Were Kings is an experiment of Eric Raymond’s Cathedral and the Bazaar metaphor as applied to the public exhibition of art.

Break The System!

I only know a few artists who have been that influential for a whole generation of Internet aware artists and art aware coders in the recent past. I always admired Evan for his radical openness. It takes a lot of guts as an artist to open up and share your artist practice to such an extent. Creating tools, generate and share open source code that enables everyone to make and distribute art online or in public space is Evans mission. His work is full of hacks for the browser and the city! They range from clever interventions on an airplane, to digital tools that change they way of thinking for a whole generation of writers.

Evan’s philosophy, the crossover of pop culture and open source, plays an important role not only within F.A.T. Lab. Hackers meet rappers! Richard Stallman and Andy Warhol posing as best friends – back in the days photoshop! It already feels to me like these two fields have age-old tradition of co-operations. Thanks to Evan’s high skills in picturing this philosophy he successfully branded a young generation of art aware coders and Internet aware artists with his ideas. No one else knows so well how to play the click-masses for crowd sourced projects or hits the nerve better with participatory projects on the meme stream.

In the tradition of pop-art Evan deconstructs the web with great precision in its visual language and underlying code. He rearranges and combines these elements of mainstream internet and meme culture to visual iconic pieces. Or instead of breaking these systems Evan applies taxonomies to disclose the hidden rules of them. The alphabetical order of html tags or precise analysis of graffiti tags are driven by the same concepts. When We Were Kings is the first solo exhibition by Evan Roth in the speed show format.

Keep breaking the system Evan! – Aram Bartholl July 2011

All pieces by Evan Roth:

When We Were Kings – 2011, HTML5, JavaScript, triptych, unique edition*
A commemorative reconstruction of the original best friend of the bored at work network.

Inverted HTML – 2011, HTML, JavaScript, unique edition*
Inverted HTML alters a web page by changing the orientation of all of the comment tags, in effect swapping all that was hidden with all that was visible.

Domain Seizures – 2011, HTML, JavaScript, triptych,
A looping display of domain names that have been seized through the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations directorate.

Bad Ass Mother Fucker – 2011, HTML, JavaScript
A looping demonstration of the artist’s current ranking as the number one search result for the term ‘bad ass mother fucker’ on Google.

Personal Internet Cache Archive Triptych – 2011, HTML
(May 6, 2011, May 20, 2011 and July 11, 2011) unique editions*
An ongoing study of archived images collected passively through the artist’s everyday Internet usage.

White Glove – 2011, HTML5, JavaScript, Flash, unique edition*
The motion data of Michael Jackson’s white glove from his landmark 1983 performance of Billy Jean.

All HTML – 2011, HTML, unique edition*
One sentence contained within every HTML tag in alphabetical order.

Graffiti Taxonomy: Paris – 2011, HTML, Flash, unique edition*
Analysis of Paris city wide graffiti tags.

Boxes, Banners & Skyscrapers – 2011, HTML5, JavaScript, unique edition*
Composition using found Internet advertisements of industry standardized pixel dimensions.

Banners & Skyscrapers – 2011, HTML5, JavaScript, unique edition*
Composition using found Internet advertisements of industry standardized pixel dimensions.

Untitled NSFW No.1 – 2011, HTML5, JavaScript, PHP, unique edition*
Formal study using animated gifs and absolute positioning.

Untitled NSFW No.2 – 2011, HTML5, JavaScript, unique edition*
Formal study using animated gifs and javascript.

GPL As Subject – 2011, HTML, unique edition*
A self reflective open source General Public License

Alphabetical Order – 2011, HTML, Flash, unique edition*
Individual graffiti letters are isolated in sequence from a single location.

Hypnotized By Puffy – 2011, HTML, Flash, unique edition*
Puff Daddy’s vocal contribution to The Notorious BIG’s classic rap anthem, Hypnotize.

URL Performance – 2010, HTML, Flash, unique edition*
http://asdflkjhasdflkjhasdflkjhasdflkjhasdflkjhasdflkjhasdflkjhasdflkj.com ‘Try it yourself!’

Inbox Victory – 2010, HTML, PHP
1) Answer all of your emails. 2) Open your web cam. 3) Take a screen capture photo in front of your defeated foe.

Cache Rules Everything Around Me – 2010, Video, 9:36, edition of 5*
Animated gif mashup video collage

See You See Me – 2009, Video 6:25, animated gif, edition of 5*
A series of video shots in Airport security results in a collection of x-ray distorted frames as animated gif.

How To Keep Mother Fuckers From Putting Their Seats Back – 2008, Video, 0:35, edition of 5*
Micro intervention on an airplane

* Pricing available upon request at speedshow AT speedshow.net