André Hemer

André Hemer's ongoing research into contemporary hybrid perception and representation manifests itself in a new body of work created during his 6-month residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn, New York. Digital scans of paint objects made with an open scanner en plein air at sunset on the roof of the studio building are the foundation for this work. This unique image-capturing process creates a lexicon of light, texture, color, atmosphere and location recorded with both LED scan light and the aura of this magic hour.

Back in the studio, Hemer organizes his archive of outdoor efforts, editing the scanned images and eventually printing them on canvas, looping full circle to rematerialize an art artifact that still exists in its original "paint-blob" form. Onto the printed canvases Hemer adds analog layers—brushing acrylics,

daubing oils, and spraying paint on digital reproductions and the original paint objects that are now attached to the surface, creating further slippages between image and object.

In Making-Image, Hemer appropriates matter, deconstructs and reconstructs it, and paints on the composite results. This labyrinthine process allows each painting to become an ontological database in and of itself, a self-referential amalgamation that expresses a fundamental condition of our multidimensional existence. As we project onto and interpret the poetics of this metadata, our own desires convince us to gaze a little longer, a little deeper. We become drawn to and transfixed by digital signs standing in for, and with, the real thing.

Making-Image

January 6 - February 10, 2018

Press Release