At the heart of Post hoc is a spoken word list of vanishings, extinctions and disappearances.
Post hoc is an inventory of loss in the form of an unfathomably long list, read each morning on NTS Radio by an artificial intelligence entity named Amy. The vast list spans an incomprehensible range of subjects. This strange amalgam of types of things momentarily gains form — ghostly reminders of what once was — that is now gone. Fossilised on the NTS radio waves, Post hoc is a vast tomb of things that our present moment sits on top of.
The list read over the airwaves confronts the notion that in the very act of naming, power and ownership are exerted over things in the world. Naming also becomes a tool for conjuring: through a speech-act each entity is called-up to the present moment, from vanished wonders of the world to disappeared sounds; extinct languages to things that melted. The project reflects on what disappears from our visibility and brings into focus the cost of a constant demand for progress and the resulting losses and extinctions. READ MORE
Post hoc, cell-site at
North Arsenale, Venezia
Over the course of twenty-five years, Dane Mitchell has developed a long-standing interest in invisible forces. This has seen the development of processes, strategies and enquiries into subjects and materials ranging from spirit forces, weather, breath, glass, fragrance and forms of sonic transmission.
DANE MITCHELL represented Aotearoa New Zealand for the 58th Venice Biennale. His work has been included in major exhibitions including, Venice Biennale (2019); Bangkok Biennale (2020); Biennale of Sydney (2016); Liverpool Biennial (2012); Gwangju Biennale (2012); Singapore Biennial (2011); Thailand Biennale (2018); Busan Biennale (2010) and 29th Graphic Arts Biennial Ljubljana (2011). He has had solo exhibitions at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland; Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Christchurch; Institut D'Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne; Mossman, Wellington; RaebervonStenglin, Zürich amongst others.
Post hoc, tapered anechoic chamber,
Palazzina Canonica, Venezia
Published on the occasion of the 58th Venice Biennale, the publication explores Mitchell’s speculative, conceptual practice, specifically focussing on Post hoc. While privileging a poetic subjectivity that creates space for doubt, Post hoc is affectively and politically charged: it requires viewers and listeners to actively engage and determine their relationship to insistent and profuse loss and obsolescence, and the promise of its continuity. Mitchell's employment of misunderstanding or unconventional scientific forms productively challenges assumptions.
DANE MITCHELL:
POST HOC
2019
Mousse Publishing
Milan
English
143 pages
Hardcover,
210mm × 290mm
ISBN:9788867493692
€25 / $28 +postage
Edited by:
Zara Stanhope and Chris Sharp
With texts by:
Zara Stanhope, Chris Sharp,
Heman Chong and Stephen Turner
CONTACT:
OR VISIT:
Dane Mitchell’s Post hoc was first presented in 2019 as the Aotearoa New Zealand National Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. Supported by Creative New Zealand.
© Dane Mitchell