In false joy, OK YEAH COOL GREAT investigate the effect of aesthetic treatments when they are applied to pre-existing images.  Using geometric blocks of colours and translucent overlays, the images are no longer photographically referential, but are instead controlled by the applied aesthetic interruption. Furthermore, the presence of a projected video-still attempts to bring this same interruption into the viewer’s physical space. Taken from the Sofia Coppola film Somewhere, the film-still exists between photograph and moving image.  The two yellow circles that have been applied to this projection float within the projected space that exists between viewer and screen. OK YEAH COOL GREAT aim to propose an overlap between photography, light and aesthetic space.

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH OK YEAH COOL GREAT

 

1. As a practicing artist what are the issues\concerns you have been consistently addressing within your artwork?

 

Working as a collective, the main issues/concerns we have consistently addressed in our artwork pertain to ideas around aesthetic interventions and the nature of the image.  Our work is awarded freedom due to our collaborative practice as OK YEAH COOL GREAT: an underlying, and ever present concern.

 

2. Do you classify your art as being one thing more than the other e.g. photography, film, painting, sculpture, music or installation and do you see an expansion into other mediums in the future?

 

Primarily we work within the medium of photography.  However, we also create work that deconstructs the image, and have previously used sculpture, video and works on paper to illustrate these ideas.  In this exhibition we have re-employed the use of an alternative, but not unrelated medium: the projected video-still, questioning the nature of the photograph, and its relationship with light, aesthetic space and notions of ‘looking’.

 

3. When you think about making new work do you always consider applying a degree of historical content or do the works weigh more heavily towards a more personal investigation?

 

Our work is not interested in personal investigation; instead it is informed by the desire to combine ideas from popular culture with theoretical enquiry.  Most notably in this exhibition we draw upon the Sofia Coppola film Somewhere for its use of minimal scripting and de-saturated colour.  We were interested in using this film as the aesthetic space within the film reflects closely the aesthetic interruptions within our own images.

 

4. When you look back through this body of work do you see any answers unfolding within this investigation?

 

This work presents a continuation of our exploration into the aforementioned themes of aesthetic space, and the nature of looking. It is not our intention to create artwork that results in answers: as our aim is to investigate rather than define.   However, as we use each exhibition to stimulate future avenues for our practice, questions are always asked.