HARVEST
A series and installation of invisible paintings, which produce social media reducted language as the viewer moves by them.
Harvest is a series of black oil paint on panels at a variety of sizes from 4” x 4” to 5’ x 5.’ Words become visible on the panels only from certain angles as the viewer moves past them. Harvest addresses modes of communication and the traces we leave both voluntarily and involuntarily throughout the world. The paint texture alludes to fingerprints on screens, to tracks, traces and marks.
Our identifiable fingerprints from touch and human residues are only part of the involuntary, detectable trails we make. Only when the screen is switched off do we see the very human traces that remain.
We touch our screens more than any human around us, from our angle the touch looks like a caress, from the screen’s point of view it is more of a confronting aggressive gesture.
The words painted relate to how our vocabulary is reduced, limited to over simplified clicks, emojis and likes. Communication data about us and our preferences is harvested for future purposes, raising questions about our privacy and selfhood, both physical and virtual.
On a psychological level, what happens when we are no longer able to relate to each other face-to-face? If we are more comfortable contacting and communicating through a screen, what happens to our emotions and physically lived experiences? There is a dividing protective glass barrier between us and the rest of the world, it offers a type of anonymity, separation and a comforting lack of consequences. It is very much easier and more comfortable to communicate through the screen.