DAVID BURROWS
WHAT THE FROG'S EYES NO LONGER
TELL THE FROG'S BRAIN

7 APRIL - 21 MAY 2017

This is what the frog’s eyes no longer tell. Light caught in the fibres of your optic nerve, some of which will not find its way to your brain, stimulate without being registered as pictures. This is what interests the snake (who wants to remain invisible). On the next level, this is what the frog’s eyes no longer tell the human’s brain. You are not a frog that sees only movement (and nothing else), starving to death even when surrounded by food that never moves and therefore is never seen. You are not a frog that sees local pattern independently of illumination, or until recently that is. This is what the piggy-bank thinks it knows about you (and will make a cash-cow from). On another level entirely, this is what the human’s eyes no longer tell the human’s brain: where you live, what animals and creatures are in you, who you’re real friends are and the difference between the stories you make up and tell yourself and those you don’t. You can no longer ignore this hole in your vision. You are a frog, cabbage, ghost, brain, rabbit, rat, calculating-machine, image, turtle, mouse, cloud or a hole. This is what interests the toads (who need somewhere to store and test their tech)…
Meanwhile, on the crossroads where the paths to binary trading (in the slipstream of big business) and The Land of Cockaigne meet, Mac and PC discuss their dreams for the future. They are done feuding. PC has a girlfriend now and is looking to make things great again but Mac has no time for the straight-laced-ways of PC and is still looking for the light.
For his second solo show at IMT, David Burrows presents images, assemblages, animations, sound and video referencing two cybernetic-cult classics: What the frog’s eyes tells the frog’s brain (1968) by Lettvin, Maturana, McCulloch & Pitts and the Get a Mac (Mac v PC) advert campaign by TBWA/Media Arts Lab (2006 to 2009).

INSTALLATION VIEW

Photo by Marta Esteban

INSTALLATION VIEW

Photo by Marta Esteban

PIGGY BANK (2017)

Video excerpt

INSTALLATION VIEW

Photo by Marta Esteban

PLASTIQUE FANTASTIQUE

Welcome BI-SON-OIL-MAN performance

David Burrows is a member of the collaboration that produces the performance fiction Plastique Fantastique, working with Simon O’Sullivan, Alex Marzeta & Vanessa Page and others. The group performed Welcome BI-SON-OIL-MAN at the opening night of the exhibition.

Learn more about Plastique Fantastique here