Yuri Pattison
Ruhr Ding: Schlaf | Wassework Witten, Urbane Künste Ruhr
5 May - 24 June 2023
In the multimedia installation dream sequence by the artist Yuri Pattison (born in Dublin, lives in Paris), water assumes a central role in its metaphorical dimension, but also as a carrier of measurable data. A complex setting unfolds in what used to be a multilevel pumping station of a Ruhr River drinking water treatment plant. An LED display hanging from the ceiling shows a generative moving image work, rendered within a game engine, that follows the path of an imagined river from its source to the sea. It is accompanied by the initially elusive sound of a ‘Disklavier’ (MIDI reproducing piano) in the space. These elements are complemented by a physical floodplain model.
The composition of these individual facets of the work is created by live data from two monitors: In real time, data relating to water quality are recorded at a filter station on the Ruhr – close to the pumping station building – and transmitted via a data processing system. In this way, the data influence the rendered landscape and the river course, but also the sound of the piano and the amount of water in the floodplain model. A second device measures the air quality of the exhibition space, which is influenced by the presence of the visitors. These data are channeled into the overall system as well.
With a research-based approach, Pattison’s anti-illusionistic, poetic work approximates the elusive realm between the virtual and the physical and brings along questions related to our present time: How do new digital technologies impact our everyday lives and our perception of space, time and reality? And vice versa: How do people see themselves as influencing a seemingly immeasurable abstract dimension such as that of climate change.
The project dream sequence for Ruhr Ding: Schlaf was created in co-production with the Temple Bar Gallery + Studios (Dublin) and with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland and Culture Ireland.
