»Character Building«: The many faces of Bex Ilsley
The UK based artist explores constructs of body and personality in virtual, physical, and psychological spaces. She 3D scanned her face and brought it to life in a billowing GIF. See more of her work at TRANSIT’s upcoming exhibition at Holzmarkt.
TRANSIT: How did you get started doing what you do? What inspired you?
Bex Ilsley: I started to think about digital art because I was already making it. It’s cliché but I have always wanted to be an artist, since I was small but I didn’t end up going to art school until my mid- twenties for economic reasons. While at art school, I used my Instagram account to post pictures of the sculptures and paintings I was working on. However, the online images of my older paintings and sculptures seemed to become works in their own right after upload — parts of a continuous feed. Others began to repost my images or re-use them as part of digital collages and memes. I saw how much of a journey away from the original physical object that was and I started to read some theory about that, ultimately deciding to put my own body through the same journey of flattening and commodification.
TRANSIT: What do you hope to accomplish with your work? What’s your ambition artistically?
Bex Ilsley: My personal ambition is simply to continue to build momentum with my career as an artist and to make work that reaches and resonates with more and more people each year. This is harder to maintain than it sounds! While supporting myself through art alone would be the ultimate goal but I accept that it isn’t always possible. I hope that my work can inspire — or at least become part of — interesting and important discussions about the future and about the impact that technology has on how we view and interact with ourselves and others around us.
TRANSIT: What is the work made of? Which tools did you use to create it?
Bex Ilsley: For me, this work walks a thin and blurry line between physical and virtual realities. The 3D scan exists as a .obj file which has been altered and animated for video and then further changed for print. It is based on my ‘real face’, it has journeyed through a series of virtual processes, to be returned to physical space as a flattened consumable object. The scan was taken using an Artec Eva and was edited using Meshmixer and Photoshop.
Bex Ilsley (b. 1988, Gravesend) lives and works in Coventry. Ilsley graduated from Manchester School of Art in 2016 and was one of the 2016 Woon Prize winners. Previous exhibitions include: Emotional Processing (solo), Warrington Museum and Art Gallery (2017); The Sacred Screen, Square Gallery, London (2017); In Dark Times, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (2017); and the Recent Graduates exhibition at the Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London (2016), where Ilsley live-streamed a performance for 37.5 hours). Ilsley’s work has reached an international audience and has been acquired into the collections of Miley Cyrus, and Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips). Her second solo show, as yet unnamed, will be presented at Goldtapped, Newcastle in July 2018.
TRANSIT | Digital Art Berlin produces cutting-edge digital art experiences — a special series of cultural events and exhibitions at the intersection of art and technology. With a focus on interactive productions and immersive event designs, we make digital art tangible.
NEXT EXHIBITION:
»Rendered Personas: Digital Perspectives on Image and Identity«
In the upcoming exhibition 10+ artists explore the shifting concepts of perception, representation, and truth in virtual and ‘real’ reality.
How do you frame your authentic self? Through your public image, digital self-portraits, or offline presence? Where do your proxy personalities intersect? Does your innermost core shine through the scaffolding of social media? Who are you, really?!
Interactive Installations. Digital Animations. Generative Art. VR. Artist Talks. AV Performances. Live DJ/VJ Sets.
Opening: Saturday January 27, 2018 // 5pm — midnight
Duration: January 27–30, 2018 // 5pm — 22pm
Venue: Artistenhalle @ Holzmarkt // Holzmarktstr 25, 10243 Berlin
▓▒░░ A big shout out to our friends at Grover. Without their generous support this digital extravaganza wouldn’t have been possible! ░░▒▓
