By Marie Chatel
“The challenge is finding new works outside the usual ‘overly commercial’ venues,” noted collector Alain Servais of the FIAC’s 2018 edition, which showed both high quality works and standardization of tastes, resulting from the usual top sale targets as well as covering expenses on booths. Within this context, digital media represents a more daring take for galleries but could bring a well-needed breeze of fresh air. Yesterday, Christie’s test-and-trial sale of Edmond de Belamy showed ultra-responsive markets (price sold: USD 432,500 — estimate: USD 7,000-USD 10,000) positing media arts as fruitful yet under-explored territories with all the assets to attract ambitious, experienced collectors. But what to look for? Well, let us take you through our best finds within the corridors of FIAC.
This art form which first emerged as part of “tech-y” communities in the 1960s is still defining its marketplace and this clearly shows through. Whenever a piece of art involves IT, galleries describe process-making as coincidental to their artists’ work, and while some admit to the need to dig for information, others prefer undocumented answers with embarrassing confusions between CAD and image editing software. With little consideration to the very nature of creative enterprise, it’s easy to forget fair’s highlights like Cindy Sherman, Paul McCarthy, and Anish Kapoor do use digital art forms, for — yes — the media does not limit to screen and wires but also englobes all use of software during conception. Nonetheless while the overall knowledge and presence could be improved, digital creation is here, and galleries do show interesting artifacts.
Haegue Yang — Galerie Chantal Crousel
Chantal Crousel interestingly staged Haegue Yang (South Korean, b. 1971)’s digital wallpaper Field of Teleportation— a collage of cropped photographs from bonsai barks, Shinto grave markers, and other realistic elements, combined with the artist’s graphical compositions of surfaces vibrant in colors. With interest in spatial relationships, Yang adjusts her wall drawings to fit specific settings — an approach which makes the most of digital media, as it explores both notions of reproducibility and customization in printmaking.
Oliver Laric — Metro Pictures
Metro Pictures showed a compelling panel of digital art, and Oliver Laric (Austrian, b. 1981)’s work contributed to this success. For his anthropomorphic sculpture, Hundemensch, Laric first analyzed drawn figures from prehistory to the 19th century, then designed and assembled human and dog body parts on a 3D model before casting in resin. At the back, Laric’s print, TBC, shows a panel of the artist’s computer-generated compositions as he re-imagined past artifacts with a contemporary twist. Laric challenges notions of accessibility and reproducibility through three-dimensional scanning and printing, notably wishing for people to order customized versions of his sculptures.
Tatsuo Miyajima — SCAI The Bathhouse
Life (rhizome) no. 18 was the only piece of electronic circuitry at FIAC this year, and one of quality. Tatsuo Miyajima (Japanese, b. 1957) developed the artwork’s code “Ikegami” in collaboration with an AI engineer from the University of Tokyo. The model moderates an interface where electronic units are connected to their neighbor’s, generating a constant sequence of numerical patterns. Digits from 1 to 9 appear alternatively in flashes of red, yellow, blue, and green. The process takes part in what Miyajima refers to as a universal language, highlighting themes of change, time flow, and connectivity.
Louise Lawler — Metro Pictures
Another of Metro Pictures protégés, Louise Lawler (American, b. 1947) proposed one of her prints on adhesive paper which are “adjusted to fit,” meaning images are expanded or compressed to match a specific site of display. Lawler addresses the questions of reproducibility that applies to the photographic medium, allowing for a unique creation to be printed and arranged many times — a digital-friendly approach remindful of Sol LeWitt which requires collectors to re-print the artwork when changing its location. This picture also shows the artist’s signature style that involves photographing and restaging other artists’ works, in this case, a sculpture of Donald Judd re-purposed as a regular shelf.
Julian Opie — Kukje Gallery
Hidden at the back of Kukje Gallery’s booth, we found this small format digital pick: Joggers. 5. Coloured. As always in the wall-mounted films of Julian Opie (British, b. 1968), the work’s digital quality (moving image, screens, stripe color display) contributes to his discourse on contemporary societies. The artist pictures passers-by in the streets of London as they go about their daily routines, here running with all the gears and tech — an arbitrary event for the display of public signage. Opie’s style is instantly recognizable for his black outlines, flat yet colorful surfaces, and graphical simplifications from recorded scenes.
Alain Bublex — Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Valois
As Galerie Vallois prepares for the launch of Alain Bublex (French, b. 1961)’s solo show later this fall, the Parisian art dealers presented three of his new pieces for FIAC. The artist who traditionally worked with photo-collage now moved to digital painting, reaching a more pictorial and personal feel through flattened-out, smooth textures. His new series, American Landscapes, dwells from animated cartoons to transcribe the roads, wood-cladding houses, townships and other periurban environments from the first Rambo movie, First Blood. Depictions, cleared from any individuals, posit the importance of landscapes within the American imagery.
