For this last edition of ARCO Madrid, we were especially excited to present the artist from the gallery Peter Halley as a special guest in our Artist Project space, with a solo show that connects his past stages with his most recent work. In this exhibition, ARCO visitors were able to analyze in detail the artist’s most emblematic piece, which we will talk about in depth in this blog: «Exploding Cell» (1983).

The first steps towards digital art

Firstly, it is essential to know that «Exploding Cell» is the artist’s only moving image work. In fact, Halley‘s skill in creating this animated work has made him a pioneer of digital art at a time when it was unthinkable to consider any other type of art than manual. Let’s remember that the first PCs, as we know them today, were born in the 1980s. Therefore, Halley demonstrates with his ingenuity and his revolutionary artistic proposal for that decade, characterized by being premature in the technological field, that the horizons of art are inscrutable.

«Exploding Cell» in the Artist Project space at ARCO Madrid

What does «Exploding Cell» represent?

«Exploding Cell» shows, in a two-minute animation, a horizon of cells lined up from left to right. Below these appear a black duct illuminated by a glowing gas that escapes through a chimney before the cell turns red and explodes, leaving a considerable amount of ash that flickers with a stroboscopic effect. Aware of the social context of the time, this work has been enshrined as an allegory for the threat of nuclear destruction caused by the greatest geopolitical conflict of that era: the Cold War.

“The idea had something to do with Cold War politics and the threat of nuclear destruction. Initially, the exploding cell had to do with the end of civilization. But the exploding cell narrative quickly became part of my work. As time went on, the narrative became less and less important to me, and eventually I began to focus solely on the icon of the explosion. The more I think about it, the more I become convinced that the explosion is also a central image of our culture. It goes back a hundred years to the beginning of modern warfare and terrorism. I have used the image of the explosion over and over again in my digital wall prints, in contrast to the cells and prisons that appear in my paintings.”

Peter Halley

Considering the story behind this animation, the cells seen in «Exploding Cell», as the artist explains, represent confinement, but also allude to order, a classical order that does not change. On the other hand, the explosion that gives its name to the title of the work is synonymous with change and refers to a transformation between a harmonious state and an altered one. This juxtaposition of concepts presents two opposing attitudes, confronting each other in order to win. The dichotomy between order and change is the contrast that Peter Halley wanted to reflect in this digital artwork in order to show in a simpler way the horrors that a strategic war like the Cold War plunged both East and West.

An award-winning work

Such is the prestige of this work that during this edition of ARCO Madrid, «Exploding Cell» has been recognized with the ARCO/Beep Award for electronic art. This award aims to promote research, production and exhibition of art linked to new digital technologies or electronic art as such. The ARCO/Beep Award has already generated a collection of more than 120 works by 86 different artists, becoming an initiative that is an international reference.

XIX ARCO/Beep Award of Electronic art

If you want to know more about «Exploding Cell» you can download below the dossier about the work, or you can contact us and ask for more information about it.