Untitled Document

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Working Lunch by John Hanson and Richard Paul
At http://www.variablemedia.org from 6th July 2003.

Variablemedia is pleased to announce it's latest project, 'Working Lunch' by artists John Hanson and Richard Paul. Beginning July 6th 2003, this project will develop at the www.variablemedia.org site over a period of two months. 'Working Lunch' finds John Hanson and Richard Paul delving further into their collaborative investigations based on Dudley Stationery, last seen in their exhibition 'Terry's Studio' at Hoxton Distillery, London and in 'Photospin', project space at The Photographer's Gallery in London, UK.

In 1998 Dudley Stationery was one of the UK's leading distributors of office supplies - by 2002 it was no longer in operation. John Hanson and Richard Paul return to the 1998 printed catalogue to try and discover if there are any clues to the company's demise hidden in the images. Richard Paul was one of the photographers who worked on this catalogue - perhaps he knows more than he is letting on.

'Working Lunch' presents the web site's visitor with an opportunity to click through multiple possible sequences of still images and quicktime movies. Each single image, scanned from the defunct Dudley publication, contains one or more 'hotspots' (hidden clickable links); an interactive technique popular since early CD-ROMs. Regular updates to the site will change the location of the starting point through these image sequences. The addition and subtraction of images and movies will create further possible routes and alternative interpretations.

Hanson and Paul give a knowing twist to the seemingly simple codes of printed catalogue imagery. They put forward an alternate reading; suggesting the presence of covert narratives that were originally concealed in the apparently mundane (and apparently misjudged), series of printed images.

Hanson and Paul are both based in London. As well as working collaboratively both artists have individual practices and exhibit their work regularity across the UK. Recent exhibitions include 'Spaceman' at the MOT gallery, Hackney, London and 'Chockerfuckinblocked' at the Jeffrey Charles Gallery, Whitechapel, London. They are the co-ordinators of the artist run gallery space, Hoxton Distillery.

Variablemedia was created by artists Michelle Deignan and Simon Goodwin as an Internet space for artists to explore process and temporality. The www.variablemedia.org site hosts a continuing series of artists' "site specific" web projects. Artists occupy the site's space for a period of between one and three months. This space is available for them to change, update and add to during their project's run.