[ISEA2015] Artist Statement: Matthew Hebert (eleet warez) — Warm Ups (For Allan Kaprow)

Artist Statement

Wood, Electronics, Text (2014)

Allan Kaprow produced an extensive series of books to complement his activity-based projects. These books took the form of instructions and were meant to help people create their own versions of the activities being described. Warm Ups (for Allan Kaprow) refers to Kaprow’s work in which activities create warmth in different ways. In my reinterpretation of the work, the user engages in modified versions of several of the interactions found in Kaprow’s Warm Ups. The viewer is asked to perform these actions and then respond to cues from the piece, therefore completing the piece through their performance.

  • Matthew Hebert has been working under the studio name eleet warez since shortly after completing his undergraduate studies in the mid-90s. The name is borrowed from hacker culture and suggests the technical sophistication, improvisational spirit, and freewheeling appropriation that is essential to his work. Matthew Hebert’s work has been exhibited at venues including The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, The Berkeley Art Museum, The Milwaukee Art Museum, The Museum of Craft and Folk Art; The Albuquerque Museum; The Chicago Cultural Center, and Core77 in New York. He is currently Associate Professor of Art at San Diego State University.

Text with images (PDF) p. 26-27