'As Real as a JPEG'

What would it look like if the digital world existed in a physical realm?

My work takes images from the digital world and recreates them through the physical processes of printmaking, installation and painting. My work is an act of physicality in order to re-inhabit this digital cyberspace in which we find ourselves. These acts describe our new merging reality, a world where online life is just real as that offline.

'As Real as a JPEG' reacts to this chaotic digital world with the slow processes of oil painting and printmaking. Such methodical and time-consuming methods contrast the digital and the instantaneous. Printmaking as a medium itself is always in flux, from plates to paper, to pixels. the digital means of sharing.

I am intrigued by the fact that our networked life allows us to hide from each other, even as we are tethered to each other. The technology has become like a phantom limb. In my most recent work, I have been painting from a series of digitally edited photos collected as part of my primary research into communication during lockdown.

Many artists have been useful references for my research. In the work of Yuting Cai there is a troubling oscillation between intimacy and distance that characterizes our new technological age and the screens to which we are glued. The use of digital editing software in the work of Kei Imazu has been an inspiration in how I disrupt my own photography. Sarah Sze’s use of light in her approach to installation has also been significant for my work.

The pandemic has highlighted our dependence on technology, as well as our many frustrations with it. The internet is a symbol of hope and connection, but also a reminder of distance and the anxious time we live in.

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In many ways, this project was a response to these "strange times" we live in.

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