Press Information
Intelligence is the second of two consecutive exhibitions
by Richard Grayson for Matt’s Gallery. The dual projection video work Messiah was shown before Christmas, and Intelligence, a three screen video installation with sound, is currently being screened.

Intelligence uses the Birth Charts of some of the individuals who have helped shape the current situations in the Middle East. These include George W Bush, Tony Blair, Yasser Arafat, Osama Bin Laden, Ariel Sharon, Condoleezza Rice etcetera. The charts have been drawn from the web and each chart is accompanied by a commentary which is itself computer generated. There are computer programmes available which will give you a detailed and seemingly personalized commentary when you input the date, place, time and location of birth. From this data, the positions of the stars and planets and their relations are generated. In astrology, each relation and placing has a specific meaning or significance. The computer systematically combines these to produce a document that promises insight into some of the deep motivations and character traits of an individual and shows all the signs of empathy. “Remember, computer readings are more accurate than you think” is the legend on the Merlin pop-up. If you believe in Astrology, this may be true, and if you do not subscribe to this belief system, it will seem unlikely. There is an analogy here to be made for the use of technological forms of data gathering in the Iraq war. In the eighth century Baghdad was one of the great libraries of Astrological lore and was a point from which it was re-introduced into the west in the early medieval period.

This exhibition was generously supported by The Henry Moore Foundation, Arts and Humanities Research Board, Arts Council England and Australia Council for the Arts

Biography
Selected Solo Exhibitions 2006 Suspicious Fires, Yuill/Crowley Gallery, Sydney 2005 Intelligence, Matt’s Gallery, London 2004 Messiah, Matt’s Gallery, London and Yuill/Crowley Gallery, Sydney; The Messiah, Kunstlerhaus Gethanien, Berlin 2002 A Diary, A History, A Walk up the Hill, Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide; Ways the World Ends, Yuill/Crowley Gallery, Sydney 2000 Negative Space (things I don’t understand), Yuill/Crowley Gallery, Sydney 1999 1000 accidents/Ahistoryofreading, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Ahistoryofreading Artspace, Sydney 1998 A Famous Struggle/VariousThings Explained, Contemporary Art Centre, Adelaide Selected Group Exhibitions 2009 International Artist in Residence: New Works 09.01. curated by Trevor Smith at Artpace, San Antonio, Texas 2008 Obscurum Obscurantis Tallin Arthoone, Estonia 2007 A Number of Worlds Resembling Our Own Smart Project Space, Amsterdam; Navigations Per Forma Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin 2006 Happy Believers 7th Werkleitz Biennial, Halle Germany 2005 Art Unlimited Basel; Project 3 CACSA Adelaide; Electric Renaissance Culture-Centre Halle; Gott sehen - Das Überirdische als Thema derZeitgenössischen Kunst Kunstmuseum des Kantons Thurgau, Kartause Ittingen, Switzerland 2004 Cartographies Performance Space, Sydney; Planet B Magazin 4 Vorarlberger Kunstverein and Bregenzer Kunstverein, Bregenz Selected Exhibitions as Curator 2007 Scary Movie Contemporary Art Centre, Adelaide 2006 This Will Not Happen Without You (Basement to Locus 1979 - 2007) (Arts Council touring exhibition) John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle and Belfast University; A Secret Service (Hayward Gallery touring exhibition) Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill and The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester 2002 Sydney Biennale (The World May Be) Fantastic Sydney, Australia