Heath Bunting

Love him or hate him; you can not ignore him. He is a force to contend with; a tidal wave in the ocean of net.art; a bookmark in the library of urls; substance in the sea of superfluous surfers, and a one in a crowd of zeros. A highly disciplined advocate of a transgressive social and political anarchy, Bunting is a complex and controversial figure; an outlaw to some, a dictator to others, he has singlehandly carved out a position that some claim to be naive, others dismiss as contradictory, but few have so compellingly persisted in asking hard questions and refusing to provide easy answers.

Often compared to the late great Leonardo, I prefer to reanoint him the Pablo Picasso of the late twentieth century. Not only does Bunting bare a slight physical resemblance to the Spanish master, but both artists share a similar lust for life, both display masterly control over whatever tool they choose to weld, whether it be a brush, a piece of chalk, a keyboard or code, and both have stood firmly by their political beliefs in the face of harsh adversarial conditions.

Now for the first time in digital history, serious art collectors have the rare opportunity to purchase an early and critically acclaimed artwork by Bunting: Own, Be Owned or Remain Invisible. This work must be placed into the early oeuvre of Bunting, that of his white on white period of the mid 1990s. Relying on an astonishing economy of means, the work articulates and critiques the emergent social space known as the net as a complex intersection of narcissistic expression and public display, a battleground between the institution and the individual as well as prophetically foreseeing the rapid movement towards its inevitable commercialization.

This reflection on the commodification of social space is neither cynical nor resigned but rather reveals an ambivalence typical of a new generation of artists, in which, much like a cross section of Buntings work in general, brief powerful moments of agency and resistance erupt in new and unexpected forms.

Own, Be Owned or Remain Invisible (www.irational.org/_readme.html) is undeniably one of these eruptions in the history of net.art, and thus can not conceivably be excluded from any significant collection of cutting edge contemporary net.art.

(Natalie Bookchin)

This work is now offered for 1900$
go to ART.TELEPORTACIA office for details and contract