Canal Mills: Conrtributions

The digital world is rarely represented anywhere but on our computer screens - yet the practice of artist Jen Hesse combines painterly technique with glitch visuals to create a series of stunning artworks.

Hesse’s large paintings reference online internet culture through the classical art medium of oil paint, which comes as a rather surprising collaboration. By fragmenting a narrative image through such datamoshing distortion, Hesse somehow manages to enhance – rather than destroy - the story and emotion in the picture. This leaves us with a beautiful interpretation of modern-day portraiture and still life, capturing both the physical and the virtual aspects of daily

 

This contemporary glitch aesthetic seems familiar to our hardware/software-reliant generation, giving a very fresh approach to a traditional method of art making. There’s certainly something fantastic about knowing that these images have been painted and thus physically exist, as opposed to being computer-generated files. Rather than floating around somewhere in cyberspace, these artworks are as real as the emotions that they illustrate in their subject and provoke in us.

Jen Hesse’s website offers more information and examples of her practice.

http://canalmills.com/art/jen-hesse-glitch-painting