Bringing “the ephemeral world of the internet into physical spaces”, Andy Boot creates paintings and sculptures to reveal the complexity of the line between lived and online experiences. Drawing on art history, modernist concerns of materiality and form through the contemporary lens, Boot incorporates scratch-and-sniff stickers into his paintings and wire mesh replicating the background of GeoCities – a now-defunct web-hosting service –into his sculptures. Chance and coding, or decoding, intertwine in the artist’s work: in his work i.e. e who remained was M (2012) Boot threw noodles at the canvas to produce patterns, a process inspired by Spaghetti Spam which is a code used to camouflage spam emails. Whether suggesting an alternative realm of viewing, inspiring digital nostalgia or subjecting himself to the uncertainty of chance, Boot demonstrates the emotive complexity of our relationship with the Internet and its disembodied physicality. 

Written by Goldsmiths CCA

Croy Nielsen

Vienna

Sydney

New York City

Frieze

Turin

Artissima

Galerie Emanuel Layr

Madrid

Maisterravalbuena

Brussels

Rodolphe Janssen

London

Sprovieri

Seventeen

Berlin

Paris

Marcelle Alix

ALASKA Projects

De Markten

Belvedere 21

Frankfurt am Main

Salon Kennedy

Heidelberg

Heidelberg Kunstverein

Andy Boot

consumed

Untitled

Paris (cybertrips) 2

Inviolable