THE DX PROJECT
2008
Resin, clay, steel, paint, wire, CB radio equipment, aerial, car battery, welding mask, crowbar, starter pistol, cables, audio sockets, taxidermy snake, found chain link fence, barbed wire, metal sign, wood, castors, screws
200 x 360 x 400 cm
DXing is the hobby of receiving and identifying foreign radio broadcasts or making two-way contact with far away stations in amateur radio.
D means distance, and X represents the unknown. DXers are typically concerned with picking up stations that are generally not listened to by the public, from air traffic to the military and cellphone companies. The aim is often to build at home, from everyday materials, a station capable of reaching far across continents. In this sense, the DXer is romantically absorbed in the fantasy of what the equipment can do rather than what information he gains from picking up the stations. The homemade element of the work and the rebellious nature of the pastime are core principles of the hobby.
It was a precursor to the internet, where users could reach out and connect with a mysterious outside world in real-time. The haunted quality of the experience is amplified by the analogue buzz, squelches and the drone of far off voices.
The ‘The DX Project’ uses hurricane fences cut down from a disused football field in Hackney welded onto a steel frame. These constructions were used as armatures, and highly detailed forms were then sculpted onto them using self-drying clay; after curing, the sculptures were covered in resin and painted. They combined a variety of inspirations from detailed Dutch 17th-century paintings to coral reefs, film noir props, crystals, anatomical victorian diagrams and illustrations from geological textbooks. Combining these forms and images gives an impression of a far off land, with dreams burnt onto the sculptures. Far off lands, the DXer may be contacting.
The installation is littered with objects that imply possible narratives. A welding helmet encrusted with barnacles, a crowbar is huddled next to a pistol, and a car battery powers a truck radio. Each object lends a narrative slant to a post-apocalyptic aesthetic. A stuffed snake lies at the centre, throwing the black sculptures into stark relief. Its frozen nature echos the stillness of the scene as a whole.
The fences on wheels each acted as movable paintings, a cross between readymades ripped from the real world, homemade antennas, geometric paintings and sculptures in the tradition of Rodin’s Gates of Gell.
The fences were taken from a disused football pitch in Hackney. The work transformed the fences into a Memento mori, lamenting a lost part of Hackney disappearing through gentrification.
These separate elements were connected using CB radio cables and attached to a central antenna. The fences could all be moved to ‘tune’ the radio to different stations. They would find their own composition based on what mysterious sound they could be called on to manifest.
