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Sara Hughes
Sara Hughes
Crash
acrylic on linen, 2006
4400 x 1900 mm
Sara Hughes
Crash
acrylic on linen, 2006
4400 x 1900 mm
Installation image Gow Langsford Gallery
Artist statement:
The work for the exhibition Crash at Gow Langsford Gallery in 2006 developed in response to reading William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition. The heroine of the book Cayce Pollard lives in a world dominated by data transmission, from cyberspace chat rooms embroiled in finding the source of an illusive internet film toher own pathological sensitivity to brand names. Her life is connected to the world via technology and she is caught up and carried along by a bombardment of digital information.
The painting, Crash, appears to pause or capture a split second of the endless data transmission that occurs in cyberspace. Resembling explosions or implosions of matter or information, it was my aim to engage the viewer in a space that had accelerated beyond the horison into a floating swarm of fragmented facets. The work utilises an iterating format of squares and cirlces, yet there is a subversive nature to these grids that have been stretched and squeezed out of their formal constrains. They allude to multiplications and mutations of data that are spreading and replicating in an endless transmission on the planetary web of computer networks. In a digital world obsessed with compression this work renders code 'super size'.
In the exhibition, I combined a large scale installation work and a series of paintings. Both made use of the same imagery yet the site specific wall work was made from intricately cut commercial vinyl and the paintigs are painted wuth a brush using many layers of acrylic paint. I deliberately wanted the works to mimic one another askig the viewer to look closely to see subtle differences and consider relationships between painting and new technology.
Sara Hughes 2006.
Sara Hughes
RAM
2004
acrylic on canvas
photo courtesy Vavasour Godkin Gallery
Sara Hughes
RAM
2004
acrylic on canvas, detail
Sara Hughes
RAM
2004
acrylic on canvas, detail
To read a commentary on this work by the artist, Sara Hughes, click here
To read an interview with the artist click here
To find out more about her Love Me Tender catalogue, produced by Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2003 click here
Representing Sara Hughes in Auckland, Gow Langsford Gallery. In Tasmania, Australia, Criterion Gallery
