Cutup Collective, Untitled, Reordered Advertising Material, 300 x 600cm, © the artist. |
The Urban Site as Gallery and Message Board for City Dwellers |
Cutup Collective, Asbo Kid, Reordered Advertising Material, 180 x 120 cm, © the artist. |
Baltic Centre CutUp Collective's practice incorporates collage, film and installation. They focus largely on the creative potential of the city as a site and inspiration for interventionist art and disruption. At Baltic, they create an installation in the street using billboards, light boxes and reassembled bus shelter advertising posters. The exhibition alludes to the city's role in choreographing movements — both individual and crowd amidst scenes of protest, celebration and modern spectacle. Members of CutUp participate anonymously and live and work in London. Exhibitions include: 2007, Play: Experience the Adventure of Our Cities, Urbis Centre for Urban Art, Manchester; What Is It? An i-cabin project, Wysing Arts, Cambridge; 2006, Out Of The Ruins Of The Real, Seventeen, London; Stealth, Kulturhuset Mazetti, Malmö; Satellites: an i-cabin project, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; La Vida Te Espera, NIU, Barcelona; Art in the Office: new acquisitions, Arts Council England, London; 2005, CutUp Machine, Seventeen, London and CutUp Show, Kemistry, London. CutUp's billboards are created by slicing up adverts and collaging pieces into new images. They challenge advefrtising's invasion into every aspect of life and show the effects of the spectacular society. In the words of Jelly Helm (Vice-President — The Martin Agency, ex-creative director — Weiden & Kennedy), "When you build a system on a foundation of desire, dissatisfaction, envy and inadequacy, people buy things, yes, but it's no surprise that it happens at the expense of some damage to the psyche." The effect is overwhelming and confusing, the billboards transformed from commercial message bearers into public talking points. |
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CutUp Collective, Poblenau, Barcelona, 2006. |
