“Talking About My Spontaneous Generation”
Becky Bolton and Louise Chappell
21 Aug → 12 Sept 2009

Talking About my Spontaneous Generation is a painting created directly onto the gallery walls in the 5 days leading up to the opening night. It will only exist for the duration of the show. It is a celebration and examination of the ‘Origin of Life’ theories, ranging from the quaint to the curious, the absurd to the plausible. The installation is a culmination of information and imagery spliced together to form a tangled, ‘google image’ interpretation of this age-old question.

Talking About my Spontaneous Generation directly references the ‘Origin of Life’ theories, but from a ‘Wikapedia’ knowledge stand point. Increasingly our relationship with information has become internet dependent, enabling an easy and often superficial, surface-skimming approach to knowledge gain.

This work is a culmination of information and imagery spliced together to form a tangled, ‘google image’ interpretation of the origin of life debate. This universal and age-old question is explored through bite-sized, often glib snatches of information, revealing our desire to pursue knowledge but within the dubious realms of easy internet ‘facts’ and the top 20 google image results.

This exhibition openly skims the surface of a profound subject and hopes to uncover something more about our changing relationship with research, self-education and the pursuit of knowledge. Perhaps for the first time in history, the majority of the developed world has ‘touch of a button’ access to information on any subject, yet we face a heightening sense of time deprivation. Through the intense detail of the work, the notions and value of time in this rapid-gratification-era, will also be considered.

Becky Bolton and Louise Chappell both graduated from the Glasgow school of Art painting department in 2005 and have been working together on collaborative projects for the last 4 years. They have exhibited in Europe, South America and the USA, and will be reunited in Melbourne to create ‘Talking About my Spontaneous Generation’. They are currently based in Melbourne and London respectively.

This project has been supported by the Scottish Arts Council.