Sunday, February 7, 2016

“Äppärät” at Ballroom Marfa

Charles Ray
(link)

We hear of videos documenting children attempting to turn magazine pages as if they were iPads, swiping at paper. We hear of these videos as if there are hundreds. As if children had become ethereal. Confusing the materials and their virtual counterparts. A virtual leather now. Your interface hovers over it. Virtual stone. The skeuomorphic book is a reflection of ours under the watery surface of glass. And thus physicality is linked to its virtual counterpart, and the cartoon to our meat. Digital men being cut apart still elicits disgust in the audience. We identify with concepts. Watching the concept of a man self eviscerate was more moving than watching the man. And so somehow sculpture became the way to obliquely talk about the virtual, and HD video the way to talk about the world.