Overview

Three machines comprising Smoking Bolts occupy the walls of the Artspace gallery clearly marking new painting compositions that change progressively throughout the duration of the exhibition. These painting robots  are operated remotely by the artist in New Zealand and by Artspace staff to enact a trans-Tasman painting collaboration that reframes painting’s traditional mode of production. The machines leave a constant trace of their presence as a reference to the open dialogue between the artwork and contemporary technology. The title of the exhibition is derived from the culture of the heist, or break-in, where something valuable is snatched leaving nothing behind but the smoking bolts. 

About the artist

Since 2007 Simon Ingram has developed a way of working to build on and collaborate with abstract problems inherent to both the history of painting and a range of attempts to plot living systems and electromagnetic energy. Ingram is a Senior Lecturer at Elam School of Fine Art in Auckland. Recent exhibitions include projects at MoMA and Pulse NY, both New York; Frankfurter Kunstverein; Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz; The Great Poor Farm Experiment, Waupaca; The Suburban, Chicago; CCNOA, Brussels; Auckland Art Gallery and The Adam Art Gallery, Wellington.