Baden Pailthorpe
Asset Pack
Sydney
27 Sep – 19 Oct 19
Selected Works
Dropdown IconInstallation Views

Baden Pailthorpe, Asset Pack, 2019.

Installation view, Sullivan+Strumpf, Gadigal Land/Sydney.

Baden Pailthorpe, Asset Pack, 2019.

Installation view, Sullivan+Strumpf, Gadigal Land/Sydney.

Baden Pailthorpe, Asset Pack, 2019.

Installation view, Sullivan+Strumpf, Gadigal Land/Sydney.

Baden Pailthorpe, Asset Pack, 2019.

Installation view, Sullivan+Strumpf, Gadigal Land/Sydney.

Baden Pailthorpe, Asset Pack, 2019.

Installation view, Sullivan+Strumpf, Gadigal Land/Sydney.

Baden Pailthorpe, Asset Pack, 2019.

Installation view, Sullivan+Strumpf, Gadigal Land/Sydney.

Baden Pailthorpe, Asset Pack, 2019.

Installation view, Sullivan+Strumpf, Gadigal Land/Sydney.

Exhibition Text
Asset Pack

In Asset Pack, 2019, Baden Pailthorpe intensifies his examination of the cultures of late capitalism by reinterpreting the material culture of digital marketplaces. In doing so, he recontextualises these objects and redefines their potential as artefacts of

our contemporary moment. Like an archaeologist unearthing speculative objects from the networks that increasingly define our lives, these artworks speak to the complex and unstable nature of society today.

Digital marketplaces define our contemporary experience - they represent billions of dollars of trade, yet are almost entirely immaterial. Data is the lifeblood of capitalism - from Russian disinformation campaigns targeting US elections, Facebook’s Libra digital currency, Chinese ‘click farms’, facial recognition datasets and robodebt algorithms - all of these converge to create complex forms of power and capital. Assets in this context are not only tradable commodities, they are the neo-relics of our age.

This exhibition is in itself an ‘asset pack’, since it becomes modular and deployable for any kind of exhibition space. It is a dark maze of seductive animations, liquid-cooled extreme gaming PCs, weapons, plants, dragons, partially destroyed scooters - all pumping, flowing, circulating and nourishing each other.

Sullivan+Strumpf acknowledge the Indigenous People of this land, the traditional custodians on whose Country we work, live and learn. We pay respect to Elders, past and present, and recognise their continued connection to culture, land, waters and community.

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