Neasden Control Centre at MU

Stephen Smith, also known as Neasden Control Centre, opened a solo museum show at the MU in Eindhoven on August 21st, 2010. Stephen’s work is, amongst other things, an amazing visual exploration and struggle between that which is analog and handcrafted versus our new forms of automated communication in this strange digital world. The museum has placed an entire gallery at his disposal and they promise “Man-size sound waves, meters jumping and clocks ticking, giant punch cards and endless white noise.”

Stephen does not polish up the edges and hide his processes, he lays them bare with his intricate collages that are never simply pieces of paper stuck to one other. These are spatial collages, sculptural collages, time collages, mental collages, all placed together in a way that just seems to make perfect sense. The kinds of art that make you feel like you have to create something yourself, and more importantly that you’re capable of it.

More With Less – Neasden Control Centre from stichting MU on Vimeo.

The museum said had this to say, “On the basis of this consciousness, he transports us into the ever more abstract reality of what communication means in the year 2010, and whatever preceded this. The whole promises to be a spatial collage with the characteristics of a rough draft, in which the visitor can stray through white noise, audiotape and everything in between.”