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Artist Inspired By London Raves Opens Multimedia Solo Show At New Museum

Hannah Sawtell's work comprises an energy that could only have come from growing up in London raves and the Detroit DJ scene.

Degreasor In The Province Of Accumulation 12 (2012). All images courtesy of Vilma Gold Gallery.

It may not be immediately apparent, but Hannah Sawtell’s scaffolded images and digital no-mans-lands are rooted, in part, in her life as a Kandi kid in 80s London and, later, her role in Detroit’s electronic scene. “My past life and occupations infect all of my work,” she says in an interview with Rhizome. “I left school at 16 in the late 80's and immersed myself in the rave/music scene. At the time it was all mixed up: house/acid, hip-hop, indie, etc.; Manchester raves in flats and London underground venues.”

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“[…] At that time I worked in London record labels, record stores and as a DJ until the mid 90’s when I moved to Detroit where my partner and I ran an independent electronic music label and organised underground events.”

But where and how, exactly, does all that excitement permeate Sawtell’s art? One could argue it holds sway in her aesthetic voice, noting the vivid, digitized texture-scapes of her Degreasor In The Province of Accumulation series, and how some of its images would work well as backdrops of underground warehouse parties. Or one could connect her run as a record label owner with the overtly political, neo-Marxist values present in her work, which referee a tug-of-war between commodities, commodification, and the audience's role as end-user.

Since 2013, the artist has remained largely silent, but this month, the New Museum in New York is hosting her first-ever solo museum exhibition in the United States. Titled Accumulator, the exhibition began yesterday, April 23, and features new installations by Sawtell along with a new edition of Broadsheets, a printed series of political and critical writings she often distributes in tandem with her physical works.

Swap Meet (Ijen Mix) Optic (2012) via

Degreasor In The Province Of Accumulation 4 (2011)

Degreasor In The Province Of Accumulation 11 (2012) via

In any case, the results are gripping and unsettling, in a non-grotesque way. Even though the objects in her images and installations are inanimate and inhuman, they remain haunted by a uniquely 21st Century-sort of loneliness. Sawtell acknowledges this; she’s partially outlining the politics of our romance with and objectification of the internet’s non-traditional “spaces,” “communities,” and archived “possessions.”

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Vendor (2012)

These ideas guide 2012’s Vendor—an installation comprised ofa gymnasium of beam scaffolds which hold manufactured sheets of altered photographs. The selected images have no apparent connection, but they share a common thread. Emerging from a residency at Bloomberg News during which Sawtell photographed the live feeds of news monitors, the images were later paired with image artifacts sourced from the internet.

Vendor (2012)

Then, there's the Osculator (2013) installation, which faces a large screen against a five-paneled acoustic parabola receptor. The screen shows a looping HD video split into an animated, digital diptych. On one side, a green-checkered monster truck tracks around in a slow, continuous circle, while on the other, a modern dump-truck makes the same motion within a smaller circumference. The video’s soundtrack—an eerie, minimalist loop of static—creates a stark sonic atmosphere as it stagnates between the screen and adjacent acoustic panels.

Osculator (2012)

Still from Accumulator (2014) installation, via

Sawtell's new exhibition at New Museum runs until June 22nd. She’ll also be performing in Rhizome’s Seven on Seven event this May, during which seven technologists and seven artists will pair up to create new technologies and artworks within a single evening.

Like what you see? Follow Hannah Sawtell through the Vilma Gold Gallery’s website, and follow Johnny Magdaleno on Twitter: @johnny_mgdlno.

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