Niko Princen – Embedness

19 December 2015 – 27 February 2016

VIEW EXHIBITION: room.thecomposingrooms.com/06

Niko Princen’s first solo exhibition with The Composing Rooms takes form, not really as his, but as a retrospective of Marjonne, his mother.

Embedness is a dedication to her, a memorial. Though unlike a stone, the complexity and fragility of the subject inform the technicalities of the work. Embedded, floating images and video from Marjonne’s social media persona; her Instagram, Twitter, Pintrest, Tumblr, Vine and Deviantart, all of which has has been constructed by Princen, float scattered across the page, backgrounded by a .gif of the North Sea.

Unpacking embedness.net isn’t easy, its not merely a website but a host. Its an access point though is not entirely functional, already broken. Embedness is conscious of the limited time span of social media websites, the intimate use of them and their uncanny ability to constructed a representation of someones life.

Niko Princen (1979, Amsterdam) studied art at Hogeschool van de Kunsten Utrecht and at the The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His practice concentrates around the internet, wherein the human interaction and (mis) communication through the computer play a role. Princen works in front
of the screen as well as behind, sometimes melting the two together.

Exhibitions and performances include; Aurora – Dallas, Texas; On YouTube – Kunsthaus Langenthal, Switzerland; Offline Art: Are you still there? – Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt [all 2015]; CURRENTS, CURTAINS, CODE, Triennale d'art du Valais, Fully, Switzerland [2014]; Driving Fast Nowhere – Polansky Gallery, Prague; NOTES ON FORM – 032c WORKSHOP, Berlin; DVD Dead Drop 'BEST OF' – Museum of the Moving Image, New York [all 2013]; IN THE EVENT OF FIRE – Headquarters, Zürich [solo]; Hier beginnt die Welt curated by Raffael Dörig, Kunsthaus Langenthal, Switzerland; Nail Care – Times Bar, Berlin and A Material World curated by Carson Chan, PSM Gallery, Berlin [all 2012].