Item NMC/2019 - Genesis (What Can’t Light See?)

Genesis (What Can’t Light See?) (Version 1) Genesis (What Can’t Light See?) (Version 2) Genesis (What Can’t Light See?) (Version 3) Genesis (What Can’t Light See?) (Version 4) Genesis (What Can’t Light See?) (Version 5) Genesis (What Can’t Light See?) (Version 6) Genesis (What Can’t Light See?) (Version 7)

Key Information

Reference code

NMC/2019

Title

Genesis (What Can’t Light See?)

Date(s)

  • 2021 (Creation)

Level of description

Item

Extent

1 item

Content and Structure

Scope and content

Single channel HD video.

Inspired by an absurd and biblical story by Peter Gabriel, Genesis indulges in moments of ‘switch’ and explores our relationship to artificial light. At music concerts, audio-visual nodes are designed to mirror and exacerbate both the plural ecstatic experiences of bodies and increasingly the technology attached to them. Here, collective and personal images, technological and human bodies, become confused. The artefacts and appropriated characteristics of modernist design in the video form the edges of a world built on convoluted references, while the decidedly twee Englishness of Gabriel’s fable help reinvent electricity and light in moral terms. The wriggling motif of our friend the worm allows us to penetrate and embrace the darkness, emancipating our flesh from normative modern time, space and sensation.

‘Genesis’ was awarded the Ivan Juritz Prize for Visual Arts 2021 (Centre for Modern Literature and Culture at King’s College London and Cove Park) judged by artist Josephine Pryde, and the Postgraduate Chair’s Medal for Fine Art 2021 (Glasgow School of Art).

Camera assistance: Lydia Davies
3D modelling: Jay Mulholland

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General Information

Name of creator

(1997-)

Biographical history

Edward Gwyn Jones (b.1997, Stoke-on-Trent) graduated with an MFA from The Glasgow School of Art in 2021. He was awarded the Ivan Juritz Prize for Visual Art 2021, a Europe-wide postgraduate prize from the Centre of Modern Literature and Culture at King’s College London, and the Postgraduate Chair’s Medal for Fine Art 2021 from the Glasgow School of Art for his video work ‘Genesis (What Can’t Light See?)’. Working across video, print and programming he has since undertaken two residencies at Cove Park, been a visiting artist at UdK Berlin and worked with LUX Scotland. Previously, in 2019, Edward co-founded artist-led space and curatorial collective Soft Spot in Manchester.

Archival history

Custodial history

Donated by Edward Gwyn Jones, Feb 2023.

Physical Description and Conditions of Use

Conditions governing access

Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections are open for research by appointment. For further details, please refer to our Access Policy @ https://gsaarchives.net/policies

Conditions governing reproduction

Application for permission to reproduce should be submitted to The Archives and Collections at The Glasgow School of Art.

Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational use and condition of material.

For further details, please refer to our Reprographic Service Guide @ https://gsaarchives.net/policies

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Physical Description

Single channel HD video MP4 file.

Duration: 00:09:30

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Publication note

Edward wrote a retrospective accompaniment to ‘Genesis’ in volume 36 of literary journal
Textual Practice: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0950236X.2022.2070372?journalCode=rtpr20 and Josephine Pryde’s response to the work: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0950236X.2022.2073988

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Catalogued by Michelle Kaye, Collections Lead, Dec 2024.

Language(s)

  • English

Script(s)

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