Farm (Pryor Creek, Oklahoma) 2015

In early 2014, following his denial of access by Google Inc, John Gerrard hired a helicopter and produced a detailed photographic survey of one the key physical sites of the internet - a Google data server building in Oklahoma, also known as a ‘data farm’.
This survey was the starting point of Farm (Pryor Creek, Oklahoma) 2015. It features a simulated ‘twin’ of the squat building flanked by diesel generators and powerful cooling towers.
The work extends the ‘Grow Finish Unit’ series, which focuses on architecturally similar, computer-controlled park production units in the Midwestern USA.

Producer: Werner Poetzelberger
Programmer: Helmut Bressler
3D Modeler: Max Loegler
Project Photographer: Travis Hall
Installation Development: Jakob Illera
Game Engine: Unigine

more details

Exhibitions

Farm at UCCA, Beijing, 2016

9 June - 7 August, 2016
John Gerrard 'Power.Play'
Curated by Philip Tinari

UCCA (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art) Beijing to bring 'Power.Play' a first solo exhibition of John Gerrard’s work to China.

Gerrard’s first exhibition in China features three recent, major works.
Farm (Pryor Creek, Oklahoma) 2015, is a digitally modeled composite of one of Google’s server centers in Oklahoma.
Exercise (Dunhuang) 2014, a reconstruction based on satellite imagery of a system of roadways located mysteriously in the middle of the Gobi Desert, which then becomes the site for a lengthy elimination game played among avatars modeled on factory workers in Guangzhou.
Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada) 2014 is a painstakingly accurate, virtual portrait of a functioning solar farm, widely admired for its dramatic presentation in the Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, in late 2014.

www.ucca.org.cn

Farm and Sow Farm at Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2015

'Art In The Age Of...Planetary Computation'

22/05/2015–18/08/2015

'Art In The Age Of…Planetary Computation' is the second iteration of the 'Art In The Age Of…', a three-part presentation series that investigates future vectors of art production in the 21st century.
'Art In The Age Of…' runs throughout 2015 starting with 'Art In The Age Of…Energy and Raw Material' and continues in September with 'Art In The Age Of…Asymmetrical Warfare'.

www.wdw.nl

Response

Selected Press

Farm (Pryor Creek, Oaklahoma) 2015 in the media

art-agenda.com
Adam Kleinman: 'John Gerrard’s ‘Farm’', 18 March 2015

apollo-magazine.com
Imelda Barnard: 'The View from Earth: John Gerrard at Thomas Dane', 5 March 2015

timeout.com
Eddy Frankel: 'John Gerard: Farm', 20 February 2015

uk.blouinartinfo.com
Nicholas Forrest: 'INTERVIEW: John Gerrard on his "Slippery" Sims at Thomas Dane Gallery', 17 February 2015

creators.vice.com
Kevin Holmes: 'An Artist and a Helicopter Capture Google's Off–Limits Data Farm', 13 February 2015

wallpaper.com
Nick Compton: 'John Gerrard: ’Farm’ at London’s Thomas Dane Gallery explores the unfathomable proportions of modern technology’, 10 February 2015

financialtimes.com
James Pickford: 'Internet artist bring ‘the cloud’ to earth', 6 February 2015

theguardian.com
Jonathan Jones: 'Where the internet lives: the artist who snooped on Google’s data farm', 4 February 2015