'21st Century Nostalgia (YouTube)' (2011)
Yesterday I presented a new work for De Aanschouw.
De Aanschouw (trans. The Observation) is an old bulletin board on the outside of a pub, now transformed into a street gallery. Every week there is a new exhibition and the exhibitions are changed every friday night at half past nine in the evening, beers in hand.
I decided to use a clear image for street presentation. A contemporary image that is already in the collective memory but taken out of context: the YouTube logo, translated in a 3D pixeled sculpture/relief.
The YouTube logo is almost strictly confined to the internet screen. Putting it in the street and within the context of an 'art' presentation, questions about our viewing habits and recognition arise.
The pixeled sculptures I make originate in the principle of censorship, either positive or negative. In my recent work I am using the pixeled image also for showing phenomena in our surroundings that are bound to change or disappear (or already have done so).
Pixelation can be seen as a transformative stage of the slowly dissolving image, already blurred in eye and mind.
Although at the moment YouTube is one of the most popular and influential media we can almost be certain that in a not too far future, probably within a few decades, it will be a thing of the past.
It is intriguing to wonder what archeologists of the far future will dig up as visual remnants of the digital age!
