Tokonoma is an exhibition programme that launched in Oslo in 2018. The programme is presented at various sites in collaboration with artists and artist-run galleries and initiatives. Tokonoma is rooted in pooling resources and mutually beneficial intellectual and practical exchanges on both long- and short-term bases, and combines commercial activity with non-commercial modes of display. Martin White, Dust Biter, is Tokonoma’s inaugural show and is a collaboration springing from mutual friendship and a mutually beneficial desire to create a public moment.
Tokonoma and MELK is happy to present Martin White.
Dust Biter is a video work situated within the forms of audio-visual remix and Plunderphonics. It seduces the audience by translating Freddie Mercury’s body, breath, and voice into an intricate rhythm of pure energy, an orgasmic force to reboot our metabolism. Projected onto three screens that surround the viewers, the audience become immersed in the work.
Mainstream audio-visual culture is a principal substrate of contemporary politics. As John Oswald stated in his seminal 1985 work ‘Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative’: “A sampler, is … simultaneously a docu- menting device and a creative one, in effect reducing a distinction manifested by copyright.” Therefore, translating, transforming and circulating images and audio (through remix forms such as sampling and Vapourwave), has never been more politically important than it is at this moment.
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