Steven Pippin (b. 1960, Redhill, England; lives and works in London and Berlin)

New Consternation, 1999 (2007)
End of Photography (2011)
De Vere sequence (2010)

Since the late 1980s, Steven Pippin has been radically exploring the theme of image reproduction. His interest in photography, in particular, is mainly focused on analyzing its potential and limitations. Even when cut or divided, his cameras are still capable of functioning and producing photographs that are no longer clear reproductions of external reality, but rather tautological images that testify to their own transformation.

In the series End of Photography (2011), Steven Pippin presents a number of photographs taken at the exact moment when a bullet, fired directly at the lens, is about to destroy the camera. This act entails not only the camera’s rupture and exposure to light, but also a transgression of the limits inherent in the photographic medium itself. Through a controlled explosion that becomes the subject of the camera’s final photographic record, the work brings together the real instant of destruction and the fictive time of photography. De Vere sequence, (2010), is a series of six photographs, created using a DeVere 4x5-inch folding camera, which capture the exact moment when six 9 mm bullets are fired one after the other through the bellows. The photographs thus become progressively more blurred, almost to the point of disappearing.

New Consternation, 1999 (2007), is a model of the solar system, or orrery, except that here the earth has been replaced by a television set and the moon by a man sitting and watching. Forever in a viewing orbit, the artist highlights how our attention is captured and focused on the projection of images on the TV screen, while life flows and passes by.

Steven Pippin completed a degree in Mechanical Engineering before going on to study sculpture at Brighton Polytechnic (1982–85) and Chelsea School of Art (1987). In 1999 he was shortlisted for the Turner Prize. Selected solo exhibitions include Centre Pompidou, Paris (2017); Dilston Grove, London (2013); Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (2013). Selected group exhibitions include Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2021); Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur (2021); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2014); New Museum, New York (2013). Pippin’s works are held in museum collections including Tate Gallery, London; MoMA, New York; Guggenheim, New York; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.

One of Bologna’s major commercial galleries, Galleria Enrico Astuni promotes internationally recognised masters alongside leading artists of the younger generation. Its programme brings together historicised artists such as Carla Accardi, Suzanne Lacy, David Medalla, Maurizio Mochetti, Maurizio Nannucci and Gianni Piacentino, as well as internationally recognised contemporary artists including Shaun Gladwell, Christian Jankowski and Øystein Aasan.

The gallery follows a curatorial approach focused on creating dialogue between historicised practices and those of younger generations. Alongside its main programme, it continues to develop ASTUNIpublicSTUDIO, an exhibition programme dedicated to emerging artists under 40 and focused on new trends in contemporary art.