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Press Release Press Release

Ω= 1

Steven Pippin

18 September to 20 October 2013, Wednesday Sunday from 11am 5pm.

Preview: Sunday, 15 September 2013 from 3 5pm. (also 3 6pm Clare Goodwin | Unforced Errors preview at Cafe Gallery).

Steven Pippin (born 1960, Redhill, Surrey, UK) works with complex mechanical procedures and kinetic

structures, which he uses also as metaphors for social mechanisms. He studied engineering at Charles Keene

College in Leicester and sculpture at the Chelsea School of Art in London. During 1997-98, he was the

recipient of the prestigious DAAD Berlin scholarship.

This exhibition at Dilston Grove is the first time that Ω=1 has been publicly displayed in its current form

and could be regarded as an introduction to the work up to the present point but also to inform the viewer

of the next and final phase of the project. Developed over the past 10 years, the Ω=1 project has been

concerned with the possibility of placing a pencil into a state of perfect balance, and holding it there

permanently motionless.

The idea originated in 2003 when Pippin came across a metaphor that is repeatedly used in astrophysics

describing the current state of the universe. This metaphor simply uses a pencil balancing on its point to

illustrate the perfect harmonic state that exists in the relationship between space and time, now termed

spacetime. The work here on display uses a 2B unmodified standard pencil and crosses the boundaries of

existential philosophy with astrophysics. These combine into a delicate and complex feedback system that

can achieve the subtle balancing of the pencil to a point that comes close to a sensation of suspended time.

In 2006/7, the first system was completed and exhibited initially in Deptford, London and during the “night

of the long science” in Adlershof, Berlin (in a World War Two vertical wind tunnel), as well as one evening in

a monastery in Verona, Italy. At this point, Pippin deemed it necessary to go one stage further and

re-develop the upper sensors of the machine, replacing them with a new optical system so the pencil could

be viewed without any visual distraction whatsoever.

After another 4 years of research, discussion and development the replacement system was designed and

built using an optical telephoto lens sensor which could view the top part of the pencil, using the sky

(or artificial light) as a background light source, to locate its position in space. That replacement system

was finally completed in the summer of 2012.

A publication will be produced on the occasion of this the first official public exhibition of the work,

containing related photographs along with explanatory texts.

For press enquiries and image requests, please contact: admin@cgplondon.org | +44 (0)20 7237 1230

Dilston Grove, Southwark Park, London SE16 2DD admin@cgplondon.org +44 (0)20 7237 1230

CGP London Cafe Gallery and Dilston Grove – is managed by the Bermondsey Artists’ Group which is an artist-led

organisation, a not-for-profit company registered in England no.3353857 and a Registered Charity no. 1073851.

Financially assisted by Arts Council England and Southwark Council.

cgplondon.org

Ω=1 (2003 2013)

Biography

b.1960 Redhill, England. Lives and works in London.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2011, "A Non Event (Horizon)," CEAAC, Strasbourg, France; End of Photography, Gallery Side 2,Tokyo; 2007

"A Singularity," Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Bignan. France; 2006 Ω=1 Trudelwindkanal, Berlin-Adlershof,

Germany; 2005 "GeoFlatscreen Prototype", GBE, NY; 1999 "New Constellation & Geocentric TV", Royal

Observatory, Greenwich, London; 1998 "Laundromat-Locomotion", SFMOMA, San Francisco; "Geocentric TV",

Carl Zeiss Planetarium, Jena, Germany; "Point of Sale", Comme de Garcon, Tokyo; "Surroundings", Museum

of Tel Aviv, Israel; 1995 "Negative Perspective", Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; 1994 "Addendum", Portikus,

Frankfurt/Main Germany; 1993 "Introspective", ICA, London.

Dilston Grove, Southwark Park, London SE16 2DD admin@cgplondon.org +44 (0)20 7237 1230

CGP London Cafe Gallery and Dilston Grove – is managed by the Bermondsey Artists’ Group which is an artist-led

organisation, a not-for-profit company registered in England no.3353857 and a Registered Charity no. 1073851.

Financially assisted by Arts Council England and Southwark Council.

cgplondon.org

CGP London is financially assisted by Arts Council England and Southwark Council. Cafe Gallery is a modern

purpose-built space comprising three interlinked 'white room' spaces and Dilston Grove is a Grade II listed

building providing a cavernous raw space for large-scale installations and performance.

CGP London artist patrons

Ackroyd & Harvey, Andrew Kötting, Mike Nelson, Cornelia Parker, Iain Sinclair,

Richard Wentworth, Richard Wilson.

CGP London patrons

Breckman & Company, Paul and Louise Cooke, Lord and Lady Stevenson.

Listings information

CGP London: Dilston Grove: Ω=1: Steven Pippin

Southwark Park, London, SE16 2DD,

www.cgplondon.org

+44 (0) 20 7237 1230

Opening times

18 September to 20 October 2013

Preview: Sunday, 15 September 2013 from 3 5pm. (also 3 6pm Clare Goodwin | Unforced Errors preview at Cafe Gallery).

Exhibition open: Wednesday Sunday 11am 5pm.

Transport

Underground: Canada Water on the Jubilee Line and London Overground Line.

Buses: 1, 47, 188, 199, 225, 381, 395, P12, C10 all stop at Canada Water station.

Canada Water station is seven minutes walk from Southwark Park.

Car/Taxi: Enter Southwark Park via the Southwark Park Road entrance. Free parking in the park.

Rail: South Bermondsey.

Dilston Grove, Southwark Park, London SE16 2DD admin@cgplondon.org +44 (0)20 7237 1230

CGP London Cafe Gallery and Dilston Grove – is managed by the Bermondsey Artists’ Group which is an artist-led

organisation, a not-for-profit company registered in England no.3353857 and a Registered Charity no. 1073851.

Financially assisted by Arts Council England and Southwark Council.

cgplondon.org

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