The medium of collage, found abundantly throughout the exhibition, also produces an ironic commentary on the illusory nature of digital experience and visual design overall. [Figure 6.], in its intricate photomontage, displays the fractured nature of a (mostly) virtual experience. With its plethora of product thumbnails and other images of material objects; either not quite blending with or outwardly contrasting with the rest of the collage, altogether composing the figure of a mannequin in an intricately designed gown, the piece displays the narrative of its very creation. With the gown at center stage, this piece feels like the culmination of an individual's online shopping history entwined with a personal collection of images to create a garment which exists in different forms physically (material), digitally, and pictorially (imaginary) in the form of the final framed piece. In its due diligence, the piece also incorporates a sort of bibliography - accounting linguistically for a lot, if not all, of the images/objects in its composition - in the yellow portion at the bottom of the image.
Figure 7., in its rigid arrangement of images of natural disaster, feels (but not necessarily is) like a much more calculated use of the medium of collage. The human fingers pointing to the catastrophe in each of these images seem to highlight the fact that humans have had their hands in each of these occurrences. It also points out our fascination with these occurrences, itself resulting in the excessive documentation of them, as is on display here. The ruler at the bottom of the piece could be referring to the way we measure the destructiveness of these disasters, but perhaps also the measures we take in preventing them.
Gallery
