Untitled 1, 2

Hand embroidery on digitally printed linen, 2019, approx. 185 x 135 cm each

These hand embroidered pieces on digitally printed linen represent a conversation between imagery derived from neural-networks and painstakingly slow needlework that speaks to the tension between sensuality and automation; bodies and machines; instant gratification and that which is nourishing long-term. In Untitled 1, uncanny creatures devised by an AI (Google's Deep Dream) float in a digitally manipulated milieu of clouds and sky, a vividly coloured and textured giant Medusuzoa is embroidered over the sublimation print.

Untitled 2 is, in a way, the reverse: the ubiquitous cloud logo -- such a powerful symbol of digitalisation in the world today -- has been fed into the same image-generating AI, producing a version of the logo revised by the very kind of technology it seeks to represent, while hand-drawn clouds and virus cells are embroidered in varigated thread over the top. Untitled 1 and Untitled 2 are the results of searching in the technicolor slime for visual metaphors that might capture the embodied digital in all of its allure and threat.



Acknowledgements
Untitled 1 and 2 were developed with support from the Cultural Department of the City of Munich.
Exhibition photography by Maxine Hicks.
Exhibitions
ICONICITY, Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery, curated by Gretta Louw, Stony Brook, New York, 2019. link