TOMORROW'S WORLD: Robin Tarbet

Robin Tarbet's practice is concerned with the physical materiality of everyday technology, and he approaches familiar consumer products from a wondrous and inquiring perspective. Tarbet assumes the role of a curious folk scientific explorer, which leads him to dismantle, dissect, and distort everyday technologies and appliances. Aesthetically he examines the architectural and conceptual similarities of the built environment to the increasingly technological yet mysterious worlds within. His work questions the stuff that is concealed on the inside of a computer, or whether there is anything to find behind the façade of the television screen. As far as searching for answers or technical understanding his approach deliberately adopts the material function of failure, inefficiency, and he utilizes the resistance of the objects in providing any new knowledge that can be applied. Tarbet's aim is not to reveal any secrets, but his curiosity is with uncovering an often eclectic and mysterious collection of real bits and pieces that with few visible moving parts or automated actions, work together to create the products desired function. It is with this real stuff that his own fascination with perceived reality, illusion and the unusual effects of scale and perspective combine. As an artist he substitutes his precise lack of mundane understanding with the notion of play, imagination and the potential for what could be, rather than what is.

Robin Tarbet (born 1981, Bath) studied at the Royal College of Art and is an artist and lecturer based in London. He is a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art Foundation Studies at Kingston University, and a Visiting Lecturer in Fine Art at Norwich University College of Art and Design.

www.robintarbet.com
www.robintarbet.blogspot.com