Revenge of the geeks
Is this any good? Lia Halloran exhibits her paintings in New York right now, and since that is a little bit too far away for me to pop in on my lunch break I don’t have the advantage of seeing her work first hand.
Clearly there is something a bit odd going on here. All of Halloran’s pictures seem to deal with questions that were dominant in the art world during the 1920s and -30s. At the same time the aesthetics of her work could be taken from a flashy web design, or even a cd cover.
About a year ago I tried to analyze the current role of internet aesthetics but I seemed to have missed the most important part: how the new geek taste invades other areas of public life. Halloran’s art is by no means the first example of this, but it is a very obvious one. It’s hard to believe that this was in fact painted, and not photoshopped.
But is it any good? Well, it’s not exactly my cup of tea yet, but I’ll give it a chance to grow before I make up mind…
posted by Emil Lindahl Persson at 6:19 AM
2 Comments:
As I'm impressed by what can be done digitally but prefer something grabbable when it comes to materials I think it's terrific that someone combines the two. It's funnt that there's often a special style connected to digital works, which is so apparent in most things created this way. Logotypes, advertisement, website-art etc. It's such a majority of what's done as well. I don't experience the same when it comes to "grabbable" art, I suppose we have the advertisement to blame/thank.
12:43 PM
Technology often seem to define the aesthetics, and for probably for a good reason too. In most cases it's better to work with the material rather than against it.
But, I agree, the exceptions are often among the most interesting art, in my opinion. Take Gunnel Wåhlstrand, for instance! It's hard to see the real point of "remaking" photos in ink - expecially when that artistic tradition has long sinced peaked with Richter and Bell in the 1970s - but the pure tension between the material and the subject depicted makes it exciting.
1:07 AM
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