Covo STL Plays Host to Drone Selfies at Oui Gallery Opening

The drone selfies are reminiscent of infinitely recurring mandelbrot style patterns - despite being the exact opposite of that - but I can't explain it, properly. Yet that is exactly the apex where art and technology collide.

Oui.Gallery, a new project from the brains behind St Louis’ Art Hack Day, have announced their first exhibition which will held at Covo STL this friday (March 2nd).

The exhibition entitled Order (2018) will focus on… wait for it.. drone selfies.

A geographer by schooling and a cartographer by trade, local art hacker Aaron Owens says, “Map makers now use drones to document the exact topology of a landscape through imagery. In my series, Order, I used a drone and open source software to more closely examine the overlap of people and the environment in areas around Saint Louis paying particular attention to those landscapes of consistent change such as the edge of the Mississippi River.”

It will be the local artist’s first art show where he will be displaying four selected large-scale aerial drone photographs depicting the interaction of people and nature in the Saint Louis region. Additionally, a longer form video piece by Owens will be unveiled at the opening reception at COVO Saint Louis from 6 to 8 PM on Friday, March 2.

What is a #drone #selfie?@owensaaron made one on the Mississippi River.

A post shared by Oui.Gallery (@ouigallery) on

As you can see from the Instagram post, the drone selfies are reminiscent of infinitely recurring mandelbrot style patterns – despite being the organic forms being the exact opposite of mathematical visualizations.

True to form, it’s noteworthy that this exhibition promises to follow the art hacktivist philosophy of reclaiming symbols of the city’s past and holds true to the Art Hack Day organizers’ conviction that culture should replace technology in St Louis.

Which is to say that it’s no coincidence that drone selfies created by a cartographer should be the launch theme for Oui Gallery, as mapping and geospatial data is becoming one of the fastest growing startup sectors locally, with downtown St Louis playing host to startups like Boundless and Strayos and the promise of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) relocating their headquarters here too, to reclaim their historical home.

“This is a show of firsts,” said Redelle Lee, Co-Founder of Oui.Gallery. “This is artist Aaron Owens’s first art show. It is also Oui.Gallery’s first project and the first art show at the newly launched COVO co-working space in Saint Louis. It is also Oui.Gallery and COVO’s first collaboration. We are excited to set a monthly pace to introduce emerging artists to Saint Louis and the world.”

The opening of Aaron Owens’s Order (2018) at Oui.Gallery @ COVO Saint Louis (401 Pine St) is free and open to the public during the opening reception on Friday, March 2 from 6 – 8 PM.

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