New exhibit “Exogeny #1″ brings Web 2.0 concepts to the world of art
Posted on August 2, 2007 • By Rachel Wagner
Category: Art and Culture, Featured |
Having made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) seven years ago to pursue an ill-fated romantic relationship, 34 year old Mike Marcus has nevertheless managed to procreate -virtually, that is.
On August 2nd, Marcus’ first exhibition, Exogeny #1, is set to open at the Nun Bet Gallery in Tel Aviv. Marcus explains that “the name ‘Exogeny’ refers to the cultural practice of intentionally breeding outside of one’s cultural or ethnic community.” And it’s no coincidence that this former-segregated-Diaspora-Jew-turned-left wing-Israeli-human rights activist has chosen such a controversial topic. Upon his arrival in Israel, Marcus says that he “didn’t know anything about Palestinians.” Seven years later he is picking olives with his West Bank neighbours. “My side, your side is nothing but an artificial construct,” says Marcus.
So, how does all this translate to ten 100 by 75 centimeter photographs of ‘digital children’?
All images copyright to Mike Marcus - all rights reserved
With a professional visual effects background and years of experience as a portrait photographer, Marcus understood that the time had come to fulfill himself as a visual artist. The idea for the project came while back home in London working on the visual effects of the latest Harry Potter film. He shot the initial portraits in a London nightclub known for its multicultural and alternative crowd. The creation of his cyber-realistic constructs, or ‘digital children’, was achieved by morphing his own self portrait with those of his subjects.
Marcus explains that “Each facial feature is neither from one nor the other, but a digital ‘genetic’ synthesis of the two.” This is accomplished through the application of a morphing technique that is used in film. The photographic images presented in the exhibition are captured exactly half-way through each morph, resulting in an image which is exactly 50% between the features of each subject - a perfect digital child. Marcus imagines a somewhat abstract yet not-so-distant future in which two strangers connected online through the world of social cyber networks, such as facebook and myspace, would be able to cement their virtual bond through the creation of such a digital child.
Despite the fact that Marcus’ work is inextricably connected with the world of web 2.0, the rise of social networking and computer technology, Marcus himself claims not to be a fan of digital art, at least at this point in its evolution. He blames, in part, the fact that the “web allows anyone to publish” for what he considers to be the form’s lack of “maturity”. In any case, there is no denying the fact that the photographs in Exogeny #1 are certainly somewhat ‘techy’, right down to the dark, futuristic and androgynous appearance of his subjects.
The next step for Marcus is Endogeny, in which he plans to photograph four Jewish subjects and four Palestinian subjects and morph them into 16 digital children. When that exhibition opens in January, will viewers still be focused on what his art means for the virtual world where we exist on our screens? Or will Marcus’ assertion that “the next Bob Dylan will be a visual artist” be shown to have some truth to it?
Exogeny, Nun Bet Books, 13 Idelson Street, Tel Aviv. August 2-17. Sunday to Thursday 10:00 - 19:00, Friday 10:00 - 14:00.
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Cool slide show! And it doesn’t work too slowly or anything, even on my slow computer. Very fun!