31 Aug Mathieu Briand | unheimlich at Gertrude Glasshouse

A-s1/16\WL/18  aka (Androyx series), 2018, Pla, white leather, electronic , aluminium , motors Hi-tech 9380th, battery lipo 7.4v, dimensions variable.

For the last two years Mathieu Briand has been working on a project call Androyx based mainly on three concepts : unheimlich, Uncanny valley, wabi-sabi.

Androyx’s have the appearance of human body parts the size of a child. They are autonomous. They behave more like a cat than a dog. You can’t control them. They evolve at will, in the space they occupy. They can be considered residents. Androyx‘s are not about the identical reproduction of the human, the perfect likeness or the impeccable imitation for maximum servitude and functionality, but rather about a psychological interaction. It is no longer a question of making ‘more human than human’ but of making ‘the human more human’.

Mathieu Briand is a Melbourne-based artist born in Marseille, France. Briand works in various installation forms with computers, electronic music, robots, video technology and sculpture to explore systems of simulation, play and perception. His use of new technologies requires active participation and engagement, playing with the viewer’s point of view and questioning the reality of his/her perceptions.

Briand’s work is situated somewhere between perceptive reality and a displacement of the imagination. He uses sound, physical forms, sensory environments and mixed media to create diverse and highly innovative artworks that invite the spectator into new zones of spatial and temporal perceptions. Briand leads us into his private world — a world made up of personal references, either experienced or dreamed up —and the tricks he uses are material objects and visual events alike. These references are brought together and distanced again, with multiple entrances and no known frontiers.

Briand has held large-scale solo exhibition at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon; REDCAT, Los Angeles; TATE Modern Turbine Hall, London; Art Basel Unlimited; TEA, Tenerife, Spain; La Maison Rouge, Paris; MONA, Hobart.  Briand has participated in group exhibitions in major museums such as Centre Pompidou, Paris, Bloomberg Space, London; Jumex Founation, Mexico; Walker Art Center, USA; Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE; ICC, Japan; Moca Tapei, Taiwan; Site Santafe, USA; Macba Barcelona, Spain; Carriageworks, Sydney.