Seth Indigo Carnes Work | Artist Statement & CV | Return to Artist List
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Artist Statement
My background in history and media studies motivates work that is immersed and moving within the tensions of contemporary society: high / low culture, private / public, self / group, nature / machine.
Certain ideas resonate throughout my process: Vital awareness. Chaos as the score of reality. Language as disruption. The extended nervous system. Gesture. Intuition. Sincerity.
In much of my work, the recipient of its structure can also be its producer. I believe the path is the destination and I am only the beginning/continuance of authorship.
Work of the last few years explores representation, where the power of symbolic text meets image. Specifically, I am developing a concept of mutable text as interactive visual poetry.
All projects have so far been created physically, with steel, magnets, typewriters, and paint. A poem is written; its language is split apart, produced as magnetic text objects, then re- assembled on varying steel media. Time lapse films of installations show the effect of group manipulation on the text across time.
In focus is the transformation of moveable type, from earlier centuries where it was physically fixed on the printing press, to the present, where text in digital form is freed from the bounds of the physical sequence.
This work explores the dissolution of book and poetry as material objects, into a new states where nothing is fixed and the experiential line blurs between individual and group.
Future works will make use of custom coded software to create mutable texts, while continuing explorations at the intersection where text, symbol and photographic image intertwine.
My background in history and media studies motivates work that is immersed and moving within the tensions of contemporary society: high / low culture, private / public, self / group, nature / machine.
Certain ideas resonate throughout my process: Vital awareness. Chaos as the score of reality. Language as disruption. The extended nervous system. Gesture. Intuition. Sincerity.
In much of my work, the recipient of its structure can also be its producer. I believe the path is the destination and I am only the beginning/continuance of authorship.
Work of the last few years explores representation, where the power of symbolic text meets image. Specifically, I am developing a concept of mutable text as interactive visual poetry.
All projects have so far been created physically, with steel, magnets, typewriters, and paint. A poem is written; its language is split apart, produced as magnetic text objects, then re- assembled on varying steel media. Time lapse films of installations show the effect of group manipulation on the text across time.
In focus is the transformation of moveable type, from earlier centuries where it was physically fixed on the printing press, to the present, where text in digital form is freed from the bounds of the physical sequence.
This work explores the dissolution of book and poetry as material objects, into a new states where nothing is fixed and the experiential line blurs between individual and group.
Future works will make use of custom coded software to create mutable texts, while continuing explorations at the intersection where text, symbol and photographic image intertwine.
CV
Seth Indigo Carnes
Lives and works in New York City
Born Napa Valley, California, 1975
EDUCATION
1997 Bachelor of Arts, History. Pomona College, Los Angeles CA, USA
2006 Master of Science, Media Studies. NYU-Polytechnic University, New York, NY, USA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011
iheart intervention, Witzenhausen Gallery, New York, NY, curated by Jacob Witzenhausen
2010
Ouroboros, White Box, New York, NY, curated by Juan Puntes and Ali Hossaini
{cinema poesis}, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York, NY, curated by L. Brandon Krall
iheart intervention, Witzenhausen Gallery, New York, NY, curated by Jacob Witzenhausen
iheart variation 003, Roger Smith Hotel, New York, NY, curated by Matt Semlar
test dérive, Conflux Festival, New York, NY
Latatara, Online, USA-Estonia
2009
The Drop, New York, NY, curated by Alexandra Chang and Mie Iwatsuki
works on paper, NYArts Venice Pavilion, Venice, Italy, curated by Abraham Lubelski
Napa Valley Wine Auction, Napa Valley, CA, USA, curated by Erin Martin
Martin Gallery, St. Helena, CA, USA, curated by Erin Martin
2008
Guaranteed Good, Leo Kesting Gallery, New York, NY, curated by John Leo and David Kesting
iheart variation 001, Fountain Art Fair, Miami, FL, USA, curated by John Leo and David Kesting
2007
Emergency Room, P.S.1 MOMA, Long Island City, NY, curated by Thierry Geoffrey
Lund 2014, Lund, Sweden, curated by Caroline Lund
iheart poetics 001, Fountain Art Fair, Miami, FL, curated by Vanessa Liberati
2001-2006
Metataggers, Culture Cache Gallery, San Francisco, CA, curated by 47
Collab, 39 Hotel, Honolulu, HI, curated by Gelareh K
Breakdance Graffiti, Luggage Store, San Francisco, CA, curated by Kamau Patton
New York Digital Salon, World Financial Center, New York, NY
COLLABORATIVE WORKS AND PERFORMANCES
2004-2005 The Center Cannot Hold, with Daniel Perlin and Gary Breslin. Performed at "Peace, Not War" Madrid, Spain. "Pirineos Sur Festival", Pyrenees Mountains, Spain, The Tank, NYC
2002 Propagate, a film with Shepard Fairey
2001-2003 Saturation Engine, Saturation Station, and Flags, with Paul Miller / DJ Spooky and Abe Burmeister. Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, New York Digital Media Salon, Duke University
PUBLIC WORK
2009
iheart public 003, public mural, Highline Park, New York, NY
2008
iheart public 001, public mural, West Village, New York, NY
iheart public 002, public mural, Meatpacking District, New York, NY
MUSIC VIDEOS
2000 "Thin Line between Raw and Jiggy". Dice Raw feat The Roots.
AWARDS
2001 Honorable Mention, Computer Animation / Visual Effects, Ars Electronica. Linz, Austria.
PRESS
2009, Sarah Maslin Nir, "Removal of Graffiti Along High Line Vexes Some", The New York Times (October 20, 2009)
Seth Indigo Carnes
Lives and works in New York City
Born Napa Valley, California, 1975
EDUCATION
1997 Bachelor of Arts, History. Pomona College, Los Angeles CA, USA
2006 Master of Science, Media Studies. NYU-Polytechnic University, New York, NY, USA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011
iheart intervention, Witzenhausen Gallery, New York, NY, curated by Jacob Witzenhausen
2010
Ouroboros, White Box, New York, NY, curated by Juan Puntes and Ali Hossaini
{cinema poesis}, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York, NY, curated by L. Brandon Krall
iheart intervention, Witzenhausen Gallery, New York, NY, curated by Jacob Witzenhausen
iheart variation 003, Roger Smith Hotel, New York, NY, curated by Matt Semlar
test dérive, Conflux Festival, New York, NY
Latatara, Online, USA-Estonia
2009
The Drop, New York, NY, curated by Alexandra Chang and Mie Iwatsuki
works on paper, NYArts Venice Pavilion, Venice, Italy, curated by Abraham Lubelski
Napa Valley Wine Auction, Napa Valley, CA, USA, curated by Erin Martin
Martin Gallery, St. Helena, CA, USA, curated by Erin Martin
2008
Guaranteed Good, Leo Kesting Gallery, New York, NY, curated by John Leo and David Kesting
iheart variation 001, Fountain Art Fair, Miami, FL, USA, curated by John Leo and David Kesting
2007
Emergency Room, P.S.1 MOMA, Long Island City, NY, curated by Thierry Geoffrey
Lund 2014, Lund, Sweden, curated by Caroline Lund
iheart poetics 001, Fountain Art Fair, Miami, FL, curated by Vanessa Liberati
2001-2006
Metataggers, Culture Cache Gallery, San Francisco, CA, curated by 47
Collab, 39 Hotel, Honolulu, HI, curated by Gelareh K
Breakdance Graffiti, Luggage Store, San Francisco, CA, curated by Kamau Patton
New York Digital Salon, World Financial Center, New York, NY
COLLABORATIVE WORKS AND PERFORMANCES
2004-2005 The Center Cannot Hold, with Daniel Perlin and Gary Breslin. Performed at "Peace, Not War" Madrid, Spain. "Pirineos Sur Festival", Pyrenees Mountains, Spain, The Tank, NYC
2002 Propagate, a film with Shepard Fairey
2001-2003 Saturation Engine, Saturation Station, and Flags, with Paul Miller / DJ Spooky and Abe Burmeister. Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, New York Digital Media Salon, Duke University
PUBLIC WORK
2009
iheart public 003, public mural, Highline Park, New York, NY
2008
iheart public 001, public mural, West Village, New York, NY
iheart public 002, public mural, Meatpacking District, New York, NY
MUSIC VIDEOS
2000 "Thin Line between Raw and Jiggy". Dice Raw feat The Roots.
AWARDS
2001 Honorable Mention, Computer Animation / Visual Effects, Ars Electronica. Linz, Austria.
PRESS
2009, Sarah Maslin Nir, "Removal of Graffiti Along High Line Vexes Some", The New York Times (October 20, 2009)
iheart poetics 001 installation for Lund 2014, Malmo, Sweden, 2007, 8’X8’. First in a series of large-scale mutable text poetry works. An artist-authored poem is installed as fabricated magnets on a cold-rolled steel wall.
iheart poetics 001 installation, Malmo Sweden, 2007. Frames from a time lapse film from one full day; the poem morphs across time, through the hands of the audience, reset to its original form in a daily cycle during the exhibition.
iheart poetics 001 installation, Malmo Sweden, 2007. A child reworks the text.
iheart poetics 003 installation at The Drop, NYC, 2009, 8’X5’, Third in a series, featuring both large and small scale mutable text poetry works. An artist-authored poem is installed as fabricated magnets on hanging cold-rolled steel wall; the artist is also installed and creating poetic works within the installation, via typewriter, magnet paper and audience collaboration. Magnets, steel, music stand, chair, table, typewriter, magnet paper, scissors, mirror, rolling table, wood framed steel sheets, polaroids.
iheart poetics 003 installation, NYC, 2009. Frames from a time lapse film from one full day; the poem morphs across time, through the hands of the audience, reset to its original form in a daily cycle during the exhibition. The artist channels words and stories of passerbys into typed poem on magnetic paper, then cut up and placed onto smaller framed steel sheets. A polaroid photo is taken of collaborator and taped to wall beside the frame.
iheart poetics 003 installation, NYC, 2009. Examples of artist-created poems and their mutating forms.
iheart poetics 003 installation, NYC, 2009. A poem written with artist Chris Mendoza reading aloud from his journal while I selectively channeled text through the typewriter. I asked Chris to select a representative word for the A and B side of who he is, like a vinyl record. In Side B, he chose to stand in front of Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, an installation next to the poetics works in the show.
iheart intervention 001, Witzenhausen Gallery, NYC. April 2010. First in a series of intervention works at the Witzenhausen Gallery in Chelsea, NY, a gallery-sanctioned series where the artists showing are not aware until the opening that my work will be an unannounced part of the show. This first work is a typed poem by artist, on magnetic paper, cut up and placed on magnetic paint strokes on the wall. An intervention within the show of Herman van den Boom.
iheart intervention 003, Witzenhausen Gallery, NYC, June 2010. Two paintings, both featuring the same image, Manny Garcia’s AP photo Shepard Fairey used to create the HOPE poster, printed on canvas, once as is, the other with photo pigments disintegrated and repainted by artist. Stamped poetry on magnetic substrate, cut up and placed on magnetic painted canvases and large magnet paint stroke on wall. An intervention within the show of Pedro Bakker & Tania Camille Nasser.
iheart intervention 003, Witzenhausen Gallery, NYC, June 2010. Frames from a time lapse film from the show opening; the poem morphs across time, through the hands of the audience, reset to its original form at the end of the opening. An intervention within the show of Pedro Bakker & Tania Camille Nasser.
iheart intervention 005, Witzenhausen Gallery, NYC, October 2010. Twin thought bubble installation. Lasercut wood and magnetic paint. An intervention near the sculptures of Mitsy Groenendijk.
iheart intervention 005, Witzenhausen Gallery, NYC, October 2010. Word bubble installation. Lasercut wood and magnetic paint. An intervention near the photograph of Jowhara Alsaud.
iheart intervention 006, Witzenhausen Gallery, NYC, December 2010. Pins stuck into wall spell “art” and “COMMERCE”, with circular images cut from sections of artwork imagery featured in art fair, art auction catalogs and art magazine gallery advertisements. An intervention in the show of Margriet Smulders.
iheart intervention 006, Witzenhausen Gallery, NYC, December 2010. Closeup of M and E in “COMMERCE”. An intervention in the show of Margriet Smulders.
iheart intervention 007, Witzenhausen Gallery, NYC, February 2011. A repainted color field painting over large format MoMA poster for Mark Rothko’s “No. 10”. Paint colors are computer color matched to palette from an ad brochure for “540 W 28 +art” luxury lofts, next door to Witzenhausen Gallery in Chelsea. Stamped poem on painting sources all its text from words and phrases found within the brochure’s copy. An intervention in the show of Aldert Mantje.
iheart intervention 007, Witzenhausen Gallery, NYC, February 2011. Closeup of the painting. An intervention in the show of Aldert Mantje.
iheart intervention 008, Witzenhausen Gallery, NYC, July 2011. At play with vernacular photography. An intervention in the show of Bahar Behbahani, Jules Wood, Pépé Smit, Tal Shpantzer.
iheart intervention 008, Witzenhausen Gallery, NYC, July 2011. At play with vernacular photography. Photographs by artist placed in found frames. Embedded within each photograph is a singular letterform. One grouping spells "photo", the other "album". An intervention in the show of Bahar Behbahani, Jules Wood, Pépé Smit, Tal Shpantzer.
iheart intervention 008, Witzenhausen Gallery, NYC, July 2011. Photographs shown in raw form without frames. Embedded within each photograph is a singular letterform. One grouping spells “photo”, the other “album”. An intervention in the show of Bahar Behbahani, Jules Wood, Pépé Smit, Tal Shpantzer.