'I'M SORRY DAVE'

Overview

First released in 1968, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey soon became a benchmark of science fiction, offering a speculative look into a distinctly dystopian future.

Across a sleek and clinical universe of Kubrick’s own design, the movie projected an artificial intelligence so sophisticated that it would, sooner or later, defy its creators; ‘I’m sorry Dave,’ HAL 9000 – the sentient computer – famously tells his human operator, ‘I’m afraid I can’t do that.’

Over 50 years since its release, and in spite of the unforeseeable extent of technological advancement, the questions Kubrick’s masterpiece first kicked up remain pertinent. The aesthetic world he constructed, meanwhile, is reflected back in today’s data centres, international space programmes and self-driving cars. To what extent, then, might the foresight and futuristic visual languages of imaginative artists have shaped subsequent innovations in design and technology?

The Ravestijn Gallery is delighted to present ‘I’M SORRY DAVE’ – an exhibition of works by Vincent Fournier (FR), Inez & Vinoodh (NL/US), Bownik (PL), Martina Sauter (DE), Koen Hauser (NL) and Philippe Braquenier (BE). Combining direct 2001 references – from Fournier’s image of a Space Odyssey costume to Inez & Vinoodh’s depiction of the iconic red Djinn chair – with a subtler series of associations, the featured works orbit playfully around the ideas and aesthetics that Kubrick’s film proffered.