embryonic sculptures

source: zupi

As esculturas estranhas do artista inglês John Rainey nos faz refletir sobre questões existenciais, em particular uma sociedade onde os indivíduos tornaram-se cada vez mais familiares, mas com uma noção de identidade mutável. Uma das causas citadas para essa mudança em nosso sentido de ser é o desenvolvimento dos meios de comunicação de redes sociais, a partir de jogos on-line para twitter e facebook – oferecendo uma gama de motivos para entrar em mundos virtuais. Embryonic é uma exposição de peças feitas em porcelana, bem interessantes.
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source: designboom

english artist john rainey’s uncanny sculptures reflect on existential questions, in particular those posed in a society where individuals have become increasingly familiar with a mutable notion of identity. one of the frequently cited causes for such a change in our sense of being is the development of social networking media, from online gaming to twitter and facebook – providing a range of reasons to enter into virtual worlds and – in the process – to generate a flow of highly subjective information in the creation of a hyperreal self.

rainey’s investigation takes in how images, their reproduction and our synthetic identity are represented and transmitted by such media.
starting with a photographic image, he distorts and rescales it, using software to produce a hybrid representation, caught between the
digital and the physical. in the following stages plaster prototypes are produced by means of high definition 3D printers and rapid prototyping machines,
before being finally translated into porcelain. objects that emerge from his artistic process subvert classical form,
oscillating between two and three-dimensions. his use of vibrant colour corresponds to a desire to achieve an ‘aesthetic of synthetics’.

he refers to the resulting figures – variously humanoid or embryonic cyborg – as ‘sculptural hyperbodies and prosthetic others’.
his notion of a hyperreal body picks up on our increasing inability to differentiate between reality and its simulations.
his use of the term ‘prosthetic’ is metaphorical, used to designate a re-conception of human experience in the light of advanced technologies, such as those put forward in posthuman or cyborg theory. in these we are asked to consider the implications on human consciousness of a wide variety of contemporary possibilities and circumstances, from those arising from body part replacement surgery to the ability of modern media to instil curiously vivid memories of events that we did not directly experience.

the installation as a whole carries ideas of multiplicity, observation and self-editing, ideas familiar from our engagement with virtual worlds. arrested from another social space, rainey’s extraordinary sculptures exist as snapshots of our activities and practices within the virtual realm. this new body of work is supported by the arts council of northern ireland’s national lottery fund.
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source: marsdenwoo

John Rainey is interested in how the prevalence of the virtual and the simulated in our daily lives can cause our experiences of ‘reality’ and systems of living to become increasingly hyperreal. His uncanny sculptures reflect on existential questions, in particular those posed in a society where individuals have become increasingly familiar with a mutable notion of identity. His 2013 solo exhibition in the Marsden Woo Project Space, ‘Hyper Activity: Scenes From An Other Reality’, featured a major series of new works that carry ideas of multiplicity, observation and self-editing, all familiar from our engagement with virtual worlds. Arrested from another social space, his extraordinary sculptures exist as snapshots of our activities and practices within the virtual realm and speak of an altered form of human consciousness.

Rainey studied at Manchester Metropolitan University (2006-2009) and at the Royal College of Art (2010-2012). His work has been exhibited in the 2009 British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent; Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan, 2012; Santorini Biennale of Arts 2012, COLLECT Project Space 2012 and the 2013 Derry-Londonderry UK City of Culture programme, funded by The Culture Company 2013.