ZXX | ROYAL HIBERNIAN ACADEMY, 2016

Artist Statement

My work is concerned with painting in the age of artificial intelligence. An age, in which, our visual understanding and appreciation are continually being upgraded, as technological advancements evolve. At the same time, I strive for my work to reflect the society in which it is produced. 

ZXX is a logical development of my Augmented Reality and Standard Deviation bodies of work. It sees me trying to take control of their corrupted elements and deviations while reflecting my continuing concerns about the processing of information. 

The name ZXX comes from a system the US Library of Congress uses to denote a book’s written language. In this context, ZXX means “No linguistic content” which I intended as a metaphor for Abstraction. Another use of ZXX, as the name of a covert typeface designed by a former NSA agent Sang Mun can be interpreted abstractly. His idea was to produce a typeface to avoid optical character recognition as used in surveillance. Around this time Edward Snowden came to the world’s attention when he revealed the shocking extent of numerous global surveillance programmes. In this climate ZXX became more enticing as a title. It seemed in tune with the zeitgeist while at the same time reflected people’s growing desire to hinder the surveillance. 

The beauty of ZXX (15) is that it has grown in the interim years since it was painted. The sense I was trying to convey was one of an organic network transmitting and receiving ideas. These transmissions were sometimes accurate, sometimes corrupted. The image goes beyond the confines of the canvas, alluding to the ever-expanding Internet and surveillance. The work is all the more relevant to me now as I feel my concerns were justified. A current interpretation of an ever-expanding organic network and democracy-suppressing surveillance universally rings true.