18 Jan 2012

Matt Sims: The Space In-Between at envoy enterprises, NY

In The Space In-Between, artist and musician Matt Sims collides concepts as diverse as Quantum Mechanics, temporal consciousness and Taxi Cab drivers.
Illuminating both the many universes of existence and the many states of self-awareness, The Space In-Between decides to permeate through the layers of reality that result in the interaction between these two diverse, yet interconnected worlds.

This multimedia exhibition itself is comprised of a variety of different earthly perspectives, including that of runners, cab drivers, and lucid dreamers, amongst others. These perspectives generate an inclusive worldview that illuminate a variety of alternate states of being.

In 'On Your Mark, Get Ready, Get Set, On your Mark,', for example, Sims evokes the futurist exploration of temporal visualization, blurring and superimposing video of a single sprinting competition over itself. This visualization compresses time into indecipherable simultaneity, creating the effect of multiple parallel universes overlapping into coexistence.

'Safe and Secure Delivery' zooms further into our daily existence, documenting the goings on of a Berlin Taxi Driver on a normal day of business. Both the disparity between the life of the driver and her many passengers are put into focus, along with the sudden unity of both existences upon entrance into the taxi cab. As such, the piece encourages a dialogue regarding shared experience and the nature of time relative to one's personal narrative.

Additionally, 'Séance #1' explores further inward, performatively manipulating random shortwave radio transmissions with effects processors in order to uncover a hidden world out of a mass of electronic information. This sonic world, aided by the limits of perception, dials into the viewer's subconscious by forcing them to create meaning.

The Space In-Between, as a whole, is Sims' attempt to illustrate the constant link between the internal and external states of the universe we try to make sense of on a daily basis. Sims renders the contours of awareness with a sensibility that is equal parts mundane and esoteric, physical and metaphysical, scientific and spiritual.



Mt. Sims (Matthew Sims) is a Berlin-based American performance artist / producer / musician whose assent began in Los Angeles in 2000. His exploratory performance art and video pieces concentrate on observing the underlying sequences and relationships between image, narrative, movement and music, while constantly mutating them into new forms.
Gaining comparisons from artist Paul McCarthy's food work to James Brown's hip work, his work explores the contemporary connections between media, consumerism, sex, and entertainment into a landscape of themes which touch on the darker side of human nature: Obsession, isolation, horror and madness.
In the past he has remixed songs for Depeche Mode and Madonna for whom he infamously compressed a speech by Charles Manson in order to construct different electronic drums, which he then introduced into the 'Nobody Knows Me', remix. Sims is also known for his collaborations with The Hacker, Bauhaus and Crossover. Most recently he collaborated on an opera with brother/sister duo Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer of The Knife.