11 january 2022, Flor Linckens
Charles Sandison: “Some people paint, some people draw, I code – it’s a compulsion.”
Until 30 January, Baronian Xippas is showing the immersive solo exhibition 'Entropy' by Charles Sandison in their space on Rue Isidore Verheyden in Brussels. This British artist makes computer-generated software installations in which symbols, figures and words merge into concrete figures.
In his installations, Sandison creates a labyrinth of language in which swarms of letters and symbols float through space, at different and varying speeds. Although the fleeting movements seem random at first glance, the choreography of the movements has been carefully programmed using an algorithm, with an almost mathematical precision. The artist discovered his talent for programming at an early age: when he was just twelve years old. Sandison: “Some people paint, some people draw, I code – it’s a compulsion.”
Charles Sandison, Figure 1 & Figure 2, 2021, Baronian Xippas
In his work, the artist discusses a multitude of subjects, including our society — that is becoming increasingly complex and technologically dominant —, the human body, knowledge and (art) history, evolution and the spread of viruses. For instance, for the Peabody Essex Museum, he created a site-specific installation in which the words from an 18th-century sea captain's log merge with the historic trade routes, politics, and the history of the museum.
Sandison uses his work to visualise the complexities of human behaviour, communication and social structures, and in particular the paradoxes associated with them. He uses a symbolic language for that, which he projects on screens, gallery walls and building facades. He’s previously projected his works on the Royal Palace in Madrid and the Grand Palais in Paris. In his installations, the visitor often becomes the center of a linguistic universe.
His poetic depictions of binary code act as a kind of mirror, in which the artist questions the extent to which language — and thus our thinking — rests on binary opposites as well: good and evil, natural and unnatural, man and machine, life and death. A relevant question, because although our society is becoming increasingly polarised, we also see that binary notions are often disproved, for example in the context of gender.
Entropy, Baronian Xippas
Much of Sandison's work lies at the intersection of nature and technology. For his earlier work '1911', Sandison programmed all 44 million words from the famous Encyclopaedia Britannica from 1911. Shown on a monitor, you could see how the artist's algorithm ensured that the words imitated the movements of birds. For his most recent works, Sandison spent several weeks in a forest, where he projected his code onto rocks and trees. This creates a dreamy combination of computer code and nature.
Sandison studied at the Glasgow Art School and currently lives in Finland, where he works on a remote island. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including at the Venice Biennale in 2001. Several museums have collected his work, like the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Musée d'art Contemporain de Montréal, Fondation Vuitton in Paris, the Denver Art Museum and the Kiasma in Helsinki.
