OLADELE BAMGBOYE THE UNMASKING, PART II, 1999 is an interactive computer installation consisting of the following elements: An Apple iMac Computer in blueberry color and its IBM-compatible clone, the eMachine eOne in the same blue color (both on galvanized steel supports), a metallic grey table that holds a 3D object scanner and a 3D plotter, both linked to a computer controlling the digitizing process, and two lightboxes. Unmasking, Part II, questions the validity of a supposed original and the ideologies that maintain a hierarchy between that original and its many copies. The installation therefore comments in all of its aspects on the problems of such a hierarchy.
The eOne displays digital images of selected objects from the Egyptian Collection, San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas, artifacts that are considered unclassifiable and somewhat insignificant in the overall scheme of the museum's activity. The random display of the imagery on the screen subverts a sense of location, whereas the digitally modified color and surface imbue the objects with a new character. Itself now a defunct, archaic clone of a supposed 'original' design, the eOne further complicates the relationship between the many copies and the 'original'. It stands in defiance and in opposition to the iMac of the same color that faces it on the other side of the gallery. (The design of the eOne provoked Apple to sue eMachines. As a result Apple has successfully prevented the further manufacture of the eOne and other variants world wide, claiming an infringement of intellectual property rights.) The iMac, considered as the 'original' by many, displays two videos which, in contrast to those on the eOne, are charged with an acute sense of location. The first video clip, titled UNMASKING, explores relationships between two different collections of art: the Yoruba Art Collection at the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada (1992), and the Egyptian display at the British Museum in London (1998) during its relocation. The iMac therefore establishes an original state and hierarchy of location disputed by the eOne. The second clip documents the scanning process of the objects from the San Antonio Museum of Art and situates the technical equipment involved in the digital abstraction of those objects within the constructed 'originality' of the museum archive. A 3D object scanner, a 3D plotter and a computer that controls the digitizing process, form the third component of the installation. The audience is invited to scan their personal artifacts during gallery hours. The plotter reproduces the scanned objects in a variety of materials such as wood, plastic or wax. The result of a particular scanning session, performed in the San Antonio Museum of Art, is presented in two digitally derived photographic color light boxes. To create these light boxes the artist manipulated images from the 3D scanner in a 3D modelling program, recomposed them and combined them with a psychologically-charged background color and surface texture that evoke a history of the original object in combination with a new functionality. previous | next Catalogue | Resume