Press

Alex Frost, who is probably best known for his self-portraits, has turned his attention to the latest in a long line of battles between competing media formats that has seen cassette tape pitted against the 8-track and VHS struggle with Betamax. Working in mosaic, Frost has made two large billboards commemorating the aspirant successors of the DVD, one featuring the HD DVD logo, the other bearing the Blu-ray mark. These humorous pieces, which add an over-the-top heroic edge to a rather tedious commercial squabble, also poke fun at lumpen community arts projects, and, since mosaic tiles are the pixels of ancient times, offer a subtle clash between handcrafted objects and digital bits and bytes. And, though Frost made his first mosaic in the late 1990s, this show might well be the chance to catch him on the cusp of a shift in practice: a companion show at Galerie Sandra Buergel, Berlin features more mosaics, this time glorifying Ryvita crackers and After Eight mints.