Enter the Matrix: An Examination of Patrick Pound's The Great Exhibition

<p>This thesis considers the practice of New Zealand-born artist, Patrick Pound (b. 1962) through an analysis of his survey show, Patrick Pound: The Great Exhibition, which was staged at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne between 31 March and 30 July 2017. The Great Exhibition demonstrates the complexity and multiplicity of Pound’s practice, exemplifying the interconnectedness of his thinking and his use of an algorithmic approach to collecting, curating and categorisation. His depth of art-historical knowledge plays out as an intricate puzzle. The scope of The Great Exhibition is vast and, while it might appear to mostly involve the arrangement of more than 4,000 vernacular photographs and found objects, alongside 300 items from the NGV’s collection, the methodologies of collecting and curation employed by Pound are multifaceted. I consider the constancy of Pound’s interrogation of authorship and meaning throughout his practice, which is integrally related to his use of vernacular photographs and found objects within The Great Exhibition. I examine our relationship with vernacular photography and how this is exposed in The Great Exhibition. The practices of artists such as Erik Kessels, Joachim Schmid and Marcel Duchamp provide context here. Chapter Three asks how The Great Exhibition fits within a wider context of exhibitions by artist-as-curators such as Fred Wilson’s Mining the Museum and Edward Steichen’s The Family of Man. This chapter also examines how computer algorithms can be applied as a framework for understanding The Great Exhibition’s curatorial logic. Pound’s complex system of sorting and categorising into matrices and intersections is considered in relation to writer Georges Perec and his understanding of Alan Turing’s conceptualisation of the ‘Automatic’ and ‘Oracle’ machines. My conclusion reflects on what can and cannot be learned from Patrick Pound’s The Great Exhibition.</p>

Enter the Matrix: An Examination of Patrick Pound's The Great Exhibition

<p>This thesis considers the practice of New Zealand-born artist, Patrick Pound (b. 1962) through an analysis of his survey show, Patrick Pound: The Great Exhibition, which was staged at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne between 31 March and 30 July 2017. The Great Exhibition demonstrates the complexity and multiplicity of Pound’s practice, exemplifying the interconnectedness of his thinking and his use of an algorithmic approach to collecting, curating and categorisation. His depth of art-historical knowledge plays out as an intricate puzzle. The scope of The Great Exhibition is vast and, while it might appear to mostly involve the arrangement of more than 4,000 vernacular photographs and found objects, alongside 300 items from the NGV’s collection, the methodologies of collecting and curation employed by Pound are multifaceted. I consider the constancy of Pound’s interrogation of authorship and meaning throughout his practice, which is integrally related to his use of vernacular photographs and found objects within The Great Exhibition. I examine our relationship with vernacular photography and how this is exposed in The Great Exhibition. The practices of artists such as Erik Kessels, Joachim Schmid and Marcel Duchamp provide context here. Chapter Three asks how The Great Exhibition fits within a wider context of exhibitions by artist-as-curators such as Fred Wilson’s Mining the Museum and Edward Steichen’s The Family of Man. This chapter also examines how computer algorithms can be applied as a framework for understanding The Great Exhibition’s curatorial logic. Pound’s complex system of sorting and categorising into matrices and intersections is considered in relation to writer Georges Perec and his understanding of Alan Turing’s conceptualisation of the ‘Automatic’ and ‘Oracle’ machines. My conclusion reflects on what can and cannot be learned from Patrick Pound’s The Great Exhibition.</p>

The Reports by the Juries: A Finding Aid for a Publication From the Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario

Produced by the Royal Commission for the Great Exhibition of 1851, the four-volume Reports by the Juries is illustrated with 154 salted paper prints from negatives by Claude-Marie Ferrier (1811-1889) and Hugh Owen (1808-1897) and document the exhibits and the Crystal Palace building. 137 copies of the Reports were produced and distributed internationally to individuals and countries that participated in the exhibition. This presentation set, which also includes the Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue, the Reports to the Crown, and a presentation set of exhibition medals, belonged to Sir William Crossman (1830-1901) of the Royal Engineers. A specially designed wooden cabinet houses the set. This thesis project is divided into two parts: Part I describes the process of researching and creating the finding aid; Part II is the finding aid itself, containing ten sections addressing historical background information, photographers' biographies, photographic processes, a complete illustrated catalogue of the photographs, an analysis of the photographs, provenance, and a preliminary list of other copies of the publication in public institutions.

Photography as exhibited in the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851.

The 1851 Great Exhibition of the Works of All Nations was the first world’s fair and the first time that photographs from around the world were exhibited together. To accompany the exhibition, the Royal Commissioners created a set of volumes that included an Official Catalogue and Reports by the Juries. These contain information explaining how the Exhibition was organized, descriptions of content, and annotations offered by experts in various fields. This thesis addresses the photographic information contained in the presentation set of these volumes held at George Eastman House’s Richard and Ronay Menschel Library. It includes a summary of the information pertaining to photography contained within these books, formatted into a concise and easily accessible reference source. In addition, it offers an analysis of some of this information. The topics include the formation of content, language and classification, photographic processes, and the controversy regarding the awarding of prize medals.

Photography as exhibited in the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851.

The 1851 Great Exhibition of the Works of All Nations was the first world’s fair and the first time that photographs from around the world were exhibited together. To accompany the exhibition, the Royal Commissioners created a set of volumes that included an Official Catalogue and Reports by the Juries. These contain information explaining how the Exhibition was organized, descriptions of content, and annotations offered by experts in various fields. This thesis addresses the photographic information contained in the presentation set of these volumes held at George Eastman House’s Richard and Ronay Menschel Library. It includes a summary of the information pertaining to photography contained within these books, formatted into a concise and easily accessible reference source. In addition, it offers an analysis of some of this information. The topics include the formation of content, language and classification, photographic processes, and the controversy regarding the awarding of prize medals.

The Reports by the Juries: A Finding Aid for a Publication From the Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario

Produced by the Royal Commission for the Great Exhibition of 1851, the four-volume Reports by the Juries is illustrated with 154 salted paper prints from negatives by Claude-Marie Ferrier (1811-1889) and Hugh Owen (1808-1897) and document the exhibits and the Crystal Palace building. 137 copies of the Reports were produced and distributed internationally to individuals and countries that participated in the exhibition. This presentation set, which also includes the Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue, the Reports to the Crown, and a presentation set of exhibition medals, belonged to Sir William Crossman (1830-1901) of the Royal Engineers. A specially designed wooden cabinet houses the set. This thesis project is divided into two parts: Part I describes the process of researching and creating the finding aid; Part II is the finding aid itself, containing ten sections addressing historical background information, photographers' biographies, photographic processes, a complete illustrated catalogue of the photographs, an analysis of the photographs, provenance, and a preliminary list of other copies of the publication in public institutions.

A Crusader Duel at the Crystal Palace: The statues of Godfrey of Bouillon and Richard the Lionheart at the Great Exhibition

This article examines the display of two sculptures of medieval figures at the Great Exhibition in 1851. Those sculptures – Carlo Marochetti’s Richard Coeur de Lion and Eugène Simonis’ Godefroid de Bouillon – both honoured figures remembered as crusaders, and are better known in their permanent bronze versions that stand today in London and Brussels respectively. However, it is often overlooked that both works appeared at the exhibition, with Marochetti displaying his work on behalf of England, and Simonis exhibiting his on behalf of Belgium. Their appearance in 1851 stimulated a multi-faceted national rivalry, evidently encompassing both the two sculptors and the respective heads of state, Victoria and Leopold I of the Belgians. Drawing from written evidence and visual culture, this article traces the shared history of the sculptures at the Great Exhibition, before exploring contemporary responses to their appearance there. Its findings contribute to scholarly debates over the status of the Great Exhibition as either a peace congress or the catalyst for international competition, as well as to discussions over the cultural impact of the medieval past in the nineteenth century.