NEW SOLO SHOW: WATCHING BY RIPCACHE OPENS AT HEFT NEXT WEDNESDAY

WATCHING is a new body of work by the pseudonymous artist Ripcache, built from the raw material of contemporary telemetry. The series examines a world in which observation has become recursive and increasingly degraded – where machines not only surveil us, but also themselves, feeding on their own outputs and drifting into more and more inaccurate simulations known as ‘catastrophic forgetting’. Ripcache’s evolving iconography, from simple CCTV into the more amorphous, uncontrollable figureheads of AI and its jumble of internal systems, rematerializes AGI’s growing presence in daily life and our own responsive monitoring of, and dialogue with, this machine.

Heft is excited to present this new exhibition, on view from November 19 through December 13 at 300 Broome in the LES. Preview the artworks below, along with the RSVP link to the opening next Wed, 6-9pm.

Join us ahead of the opening from 5-6pm to celebrate the new edition of On NFTs, the largest art historical survey of NFTs to date, for a book signing with artist and author Robert Alice.

On NFTs (TASCHEN, 2024) includes 10 academic essays and illustrated profiles of 101 key artists working with NFTs today, including Emily Xie, Rafaël Rosendaal, Operator, and 0XDEABEEF. Attendees will have the opportunity to experience the book firsthand and obtain a signed copy, celebrating the first curated anthology to offer an extensive insight into digital art on the blockchain today.

See you at the gallery next Wed at 5 pm!

Next Saturday, November 22, 5-7pm, we invite you to join us for a conversation and reception to celebrate Heft Release X: Wanderer by Ashley Zelinskie and Jeres, created in coordination with the scientists at NASA / ESA Webb and STsCI.

Wanderer is a generative artwork that portrays the spectroscopy data from ten distant planets, as collected by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) during observations of these exoplanets transiting their host stars. The title references the Greek root of the word planet “planētēs”, meaning “wanderer”, a name given to the strange stars that moved across the sky.

The event will feature short conversations, moderated by HEFT director and founder Adam Berninger, between Ashley Zelinskie, Jeres, and astronomer Dr. Sarah Kendrew, lead of the science support team for the MIRI instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope. The discussion will inquire into the scientific and conceptual ideas that shaped Wanderer and its observation of distant worlds.

All are welcome! RSVP at the link below.