by Heidi Nordberg
Joseph Nechvatal is a Òchef
extraordinaireÓ of the artworld. Using the ingredients of source images, viral
codes and attacks, computer-robotic collaboration, as well as his own creative,
activist, theoretical sensibilities, he serves up luscious feasts of haunting,
liminal images. NechvatalÕs viractual (*) digital paintings are dynamic in a
way that belies their 2-dimensionality. Pregnant with an almost mystical
awareness of new kinds of consciousness, these works embody rhizomatic
interconnections that still defy linguistic articulation (at least, they still
defy mine, although his critical writing on these issues is more sophisticated
than my own).
NechvatalÕs art and theoretical writing attempt to bring certain
kinds of awareness and understanding into the open public sphere (or even into
the clearing, as Heidegger might say). It would be the limited person indeed
who could meditate long upon one of his paintings without having new patterns
of recognition, new kinds of thoughts.
I am always more than happy to brag about
the work of my viral friend. In the vernacular of my youth, Nechvatal is
Òwicked cool.Ó Keep it going, Joseph!
the
america jesus tOrture series
Nechvatal counters the too-ephemeral
cultural recognitions of torture with his embedded images of Abu Graib. The
inevitable, evocation of the crucification in this collection is cause for
ethical reflection in many directions. These works function as a Òwake-up slap
to the faceÓ for Americans in general, but especially so for the so-called
Christians who have condoned and supported torture policies from the top down.
As a 100% real Bohemian, Nechvatal
objects both to the name appropriation and to the realities of the ÒBohemian
Grove,Ó the 130-year old California retreat for the political, corporate,
banking, and military ruling elite. He has created Òa series of faux-romantic
digital paintingsÓ that call attention to to the private power club, using
source photographs obscured with viral codes and layered imaginaries. The paintings evoke the darker side of
the multiple layerings and mutations of religion and power.
Note: The secondary, and more well-known definition of a Bohemia (as any place where creative people can live and work cheaply - and behave unconventionally - in a free community) also seems a bit alien to global power players. This is something beyond simple gentrificationÉ
ÒFairy portraitsÓ render prominent
neo-conservatives as insectile, bulbous, fractalized, twisted, and
written-over, in a series that calls attention to current governmental
manipulation and corruption, while at the same time performatively undermining
neo-con claims to dominance or authority. Multiply-resonant for would-be
interpreters. Have fun.
Finally, be sure to read NechvatalÕs essay on Yves
Klein , whose works are being shown at the CORPS, COULEUR, IMMATƒRIEL (Body,
Color, Immaterial) show, The Centre Pompidou / MusŽe National dÕArt Moderne,
Paris, through February 5th, 2007.
(exceprt) ÒIn bringing together 120
paintings and sculptures, some 40 drawings and manuscripts and a great number
of contemporary films and photographs, this exhibition offered me a new reading
of KleinÕs work, this time in the context of virtuality. Adhering as faithfully
as possible to the artistÕs own intentions as revealed in his recently
published writings, the design of the exhibition brought out the importance
that Klein accorded to the diverse aspects of his artistic practice: not only
painting and sculpture, but also immaterial performances, sound works,
interventions in public spaces, architectural projects and, most essentially,
immaterial art theory. This diverse oeuvre, all produced during a period of
just seven years, is indeed impressive as much of it anticipated the trends of
Happening and Performance Art, Land Art, Body Art, Conceptual Art and Digital
Art. Thus it has had, ironically, a durable influence on art through its
essential interest in and expressions of the immaterialÓ
(*) The basis of the viractual conception is that virtual producing computer technology has become a significant means for making and understanding contemporary art and that this brings us artists to a place where one finds the emerging of the computed (the virtual) with the uncomputed corporeal (the actual). This merge Ð which tends to contradict some dominant techno clichŽs of our time - is what I call the ÔviractualÕ. This blending of computational virtual space with ordinary viewable space indicates the subsequent emergence of a new topological cognitive-vision of connection between the computed virtual and the uncomputed corporeal world.