Mark Napier @ bitforms gallery

New media art pioneer Mark Napier returns to bitforms gallery with a solo exhibition of new, interactive artworks, running from October 22 through November 26. Empire, a series of interactive installations, explores power in a post-national world through an unlikely merger of monumental architecture and software. Napier’s home-grown software puts a scale model of the Empire State Building in a three-dimensional environment. Both fragile and unbreakable, the virtual monument can be destroyed and recreated in a moment.

"I’m a little obsessed with the Empire State building." Napier says. "I love the beauty of the building, but I’m also struck by how prominent it is since the towers collapsed. I see it as a symbol of power, both economic and cultural. Empire is about a virtual monument, my personal take on the real building." In this computer-generated space, a ghostly scale model of the Empire State building wobbles, bends, and tilts. Using a mouse, the viewer can lift, throw, bounce, squeeze, bend, and break the building. Every motion of the building leaves a trail behind. Like thin wisps of paint, these traces coalesce as smoky backdrops starkly contrasting with the building’s facade. With programming techniques borrowed from high-end computer games, Napier creates a unique environment and a rich visual vocabulary.

Mark Napier is my ball and chain. He has his first US show in 2 years at his art HQ, BITFORMS gallery.

The opening is today but all throughout the whole run, Mr. Man will be holding Thursday night salon's at the gallery --by invitation only. Drop me a line if you'd like to drop by.

He's a very private guy, so this is your opportunity to get to know everything you always wanted to know about software art but never dared to ask. Also, it's your opportunity to check out the guy that dares to share my bed every night ... well at least on those nights I've won my battle with insomnia.

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