In his article, Surface, Image, Reception: Painting in a Digital Age, Alex Bacon draws attention to the similarity between the swipe marks our greasy fingers leave on touchscreens, and the gesturalism of Abstract Expressionists like Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell. I find this analogy so profound –these visceral traces on illuminated flatscreens –with traces of our DNA –become a new point of departure.
And it also invites questioning the other aspect of backlit technology –how chromatic vibrancy is so over-reached on these devices –has this affected our ocular spectrum of expectation?
This has formed a large part of my studio research over the last two years….