Press Release Press Release
Ω= 1
Steven Pippin
18 September to 20 October 2013, Wednesday – Sunday from 11am – 5pm.
Preview: Sunday, 15 September 2013 from 3 – 5pm. (also 3 – 6pm Clare Goodwin | Unforced Errors preview at Cafe Gallery).
Steven Pippin (born 1960, Redhill, Surrey, UK) works with complex mechanical procedures and kinetic
structures, which he uses also as metaphors for social mechanisms. He studied engineering at Charles Keene
College in Leicester and sculpture at the Chelsea School of Art in London. During 1997-98, he was the
recipient of the prestigious DAAD Berlin scholarship.
This exhibition at Dilston Grove is the first time that Ω=1 has been publicly displayed in its current form
and could be regarded as an introduction to the work up to the present point but also to inform the viewer
of the next and final phase of the project. Developed over the past 10 years, the Ω=1 project has been
concerned with the possibility of placing a pencil into a state of perfect balance, and holding it there
permanently motionless.
The idea originated in 2003 when Pippin came across a metaphor that is repeatedly used in astrophysics
describing the current state of the universe. This metaphor simply uses a pencil balancing on its point to
illustrate the perfect harmonic state that exists in the relationship between space and time, now termed
spacetime. The work here on display uses a 2B unmodified standard pencil and crosses the boundaries of
existential philosophy with astrophysics. These combine into a delicate and complex feedback system that
can achieve the subtle balancing of the pencil to a point that comes close to a sensation of suspended time.
In 2006/7, the first system was completed and exhibited initially in Deptford, London and during the “night
of the long science” in Adlershof, Berlin (in a World War Two vertical wind tunnel), as well as one evening in
a monastery in Verona, Italy. At this point, Pippin deemed it necessary to go one stage further and
re-develop the upper sensors of the machine, replacing them with a new optical system so the pencil could
be viewed without any visual distraction whatsoever.
After another 4 years of research, discussion and development the replacement system was designed and
built using an optical telephoto lens sensor which could view the top part of the pencil, using the sky
(or artificial light) as a background light source, to locate its position in space. That replacement system
was finally completed in the summer of 2012.
A publication will be produced on the occasion of this the first official public exhibition of the work,
containing related photographs along with explanatory texts.
For press enquiries and image requests, please contact: admin@cgplondon.org | +44 (0)20 7237 1230
Dilston Grove, Southwark Park, London SE16 2DD admin@cgplondon.org +44 (0)20 7237 1230
CGP London – Cafe Gallery and Dilston Grove – is managed by the Bermondsey Artists’ Group which is an artist-led
organisation, a not-for-profit company registered in England no.3353857 and a Registered Charity no. 1073851.
Financially assisted by Arts Council England and Southwark Council.
Ω=1 (2003 – 2013)
Biography
b.1960 Redhill, England. Lives and works in London.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2011, "A Non Event (Horizon)," CEAAC, Strasbourg, France; End of Photography, Gallery Side 2,Tokyo; 2007
"A Singularity," Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Bignan. France; 2006 Ω=1 Trudelwindkanal, Berlin-Adlershof,
Germany; 2005 "GeoFlatscreen Prototype", GBE, NY; 1999 "New Constellation & Geocentric TV", Royal
Observatory, Greenwich, London; 1998 "Laundromat-Locomotion", SFMOMA, San Francisco; "Geocentric TV",
Carl Zeiss Planetarium, Jena, Germany; "Point of Sale", Comme de Garcon, Tokyo; "Surroundings", Museum
of Tel Aviv, Israel; 1995 "Negative Perspective", Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; 1994 "Addendum", Portikus,
Frankfurt/Main Germany; 1993 "Introspective", ICA, London.
Dilston Grove, Southwark Park, London SE16 2DD admin@cgplondon.org +44 (0)20 7237 1230
CGP London – Cafe Gallery and Dilston Grove – is managed by the Bermondsey Artists’ Group which is an artist-led
organisation, a not-for-profit company registered in England no.3353857 and a Registered Charity no. 1073851.
Financially assisted by Arts Council England and Southwark Council.
CGP London is financially assisted by Arts Council England and Southwark Council. Cafe Gallery is a modern
purpose-built space comprising three interlinked 'white room' spaces and Dilston Grove is a Grade II listed
building providing a cavernous raw space for large-scale installations and performance.
CGP London artist patrons
Ackroyd & Harvey, Andrew Kötting, Mike Nelson, Cornelia Parker, Iain Sinclair,
Richard Wentworth, Richard Wilson.
CGP London patrons
Breckman & Company, Paul and Louise Cooke, Lord and Lady Stevenson.
Listings information
CGP London: Dilston Grove: Ω=1: Steven Pippin
Southwark Park, London, SE16 2DD,
www.cgplondon.org
+44 (0) 20 7237 1230
Opening times
18 September to 20 October 2013
Preview: Sunday, 15 September 2013 from 3 – 5pm. (also 3 – 6pm Clare Goodwin | Unforced Errors preview at Cafe Gallery).
Exhibition open: Wednesday – Sunday 11am – 5pm.
Transport
Underground: Canada Water on the Jubilee Line and London Overground Line.
Buses: 1, 47, 188, 199, 225, 381, 395, P12, C10 all stop at Canada Water station.
Canada Water station is seven minutes walk from Southwark Park.
Car/Taxi: Enter Southwark Park via the Southwark Park Road entrance. Free parking in the park.
Rail: South Bermondsey.
Dilston Grove, Southwark Park, London SE16 2DD admin@cgplondon.org +44 (0)20 7237 1230
CGP London – Cafe Gallery and Dilston Grove – is managed by the Bermondsey Artists’ Group which is an artist-led
organisation, a not-for-profit company registered in England no.3353857 and a Registered Charity no. 1073851.
Financially assisted by Arts Council England and Southwark Council.
cgplondon.org