Creation Date
2016
Preview
Medium
shellac, graphite, and oil paint on toned paper
Description
Dimensions: 16 inches x 6 feet each
Rights
© Ashley Carlson, 2016.
Exhibit Images
Keywords
painting, drawing, mixed media, human figure, surreal, graphic
Artist Statement
“Out Here in the Stix…”
In my work, I depict the progression of time and investigation, as experienced through forms of technology and an individual perception. My work derives from a personal experience of living in a geographically isolated place. During the time I lived in this place, I observed the public emergence of the “World Wide Web” and the normalcy of a home PC occupying all households. This emergence brought with it the endless accessibility of information and not only bridged the gap of geographical isolation, but social and cultural isolation as well. The representation of obsolete forms of technology, insinuates nostalgia or the first memories of “operating” and harvesting information in a digital format; the first connections.
The individuals depicted in my work, are placed within an isolated desert environment. They do not interact with one another or their environment, rather, their attention is preoccupied with obsolete forms of technology. The supposed information they gaze upon is their access to the world, beyond their minimally exposed domain. The wires trailing throughout the environment, are the essential objects that connect and stimulate the curiosity of these individuals to other places and other people. The figures are faceless, lacking an identity, a representation of the anonymity of existing within an isolated place; and the anonymous nature of searching for information in the digital age.
My work creates a conflict between the Utopia of the natural, uninhabited environment and the destructive and anxious dystopic world. The individuals who live in this isolated place are segregated and distant from the epicenters of information bombardment. They have become engaged within a digital world which circulates the scholarly, extreme, biased, religious, progressive, social, regressive, political, unbiased and cultural information from virtually everywhere. The exposure and observation of digital information eliminate an aspect of “unawareness” or the “naivety” that spawns from isolation. Digital technology is the amalgamator of information and connection.