My current work is about the inability to define, to stereotype, to group and to mark. It is about the challenges faced by a generation immersed in a virtual reality that consequentially affects the harsh reality of the world beyond the screen.
Screens protect us, they collect and connect us, collect dust. We sit in front of them for hours, all day, every day, televisions, music devices, phones, games consoles, computers, all things considered to be a necessity by the majority of individuals.
Who and what will people think of when they look back at the art being made 2012? I realised that when art historians and critics reference artists of the past, the artist’s work always relates in some way to that period in time, the events that occurred within that era. I decided not to focus on politics, on war, on problems that don’t actually tend to affect people on a daily basis, unless they’re directly involved. Now, imagine if the internet stopped working, imagine if no one on Earth could connect. Sure, those who live without electricity wouldn’t be affected, they probably wouldn’t even notice if they were living far enough from ‘modern’ civilisation but what of those living everywhere else.
There would be an uproar, an explosive mass of frustrated people without the ability to tweet about their outrage with regards to the situation. I realised that we’re not the plastic generation, we’re the wireless generation. We are human beings completely absorbed by the machine.
So, I decided to make art that I felt related to the machine. Although I knew the work had to be relevant to contemporary fine art practices I began by removing all other thoughts from my mind; I reduced all of my ideas until they disappeared. I emptied the recycle bin in my head and started again, new document.
