#Portal

#Portal consists of sculptural and pictorial elements, comprising two large, gilded polythene sheets draped over a frame-like structure. This sculptural element of #Portal is composed of golden frames reminiscent of doors or archways, the outline of one lit with pink neon lighting. Two gilded polythene sheets constitute the pictorial component of the work; partially transparent, diaphanous paintings, these hang like curtains or veils over the top of ‘Portal’s sculptural gateways.

Both the sculptural and pictorial elements of the work blend forms and imagery derived from religious icons, selfie-filters and smartphones. The design of ‘Portal’s golden frames echoes the bezel of an iPhone and the compositional inclusion of an archway to frame the depiction of a miracle in a Russian Orthodox icon from the British Museum’s collection. In the gilded paintings, elements such as hand gestures, haloes and decorative features from religious icons are tangled amongst augmented reality adornments from selfie-filters.

Through this combination of imagery borrowed from the sacred and the profane, both the sculptural and the pictorial elements of ‘Portal’ allude to the promises of proximity offered by both icons and handheld, networked devices. One offering us proximity to the divine, and the other offering us proximity to people, places and events geographically and/or temporally absent. The forms and decorative features appropriated from icons, smartphones and social media all orbit intangible bodies which in their original contexts are conveyed to us respectively as painted and digital faces – mirages; representations, recognisable but not real.

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