Refraction: Are your eyes soaking?
Tools that become extensions of our bodies inevitably reorganize the structure of our actions and thoughts. The ghostly line of contact with interfaces shifts into consciousness, blurring like a chromatic aberration. It is interesting to me to observe how this can reverse the work of imagination and feeling, shifting the focus of attention. We teach machines our experience, in return they fill us with their vision. A synthetic cast of virtual reality is constantly generated from the particles of human and non-human views in us as a simulation of liquid in "domaines" in three-dimensional softwares. Voskhod vitrines have become a great metaphor for such a “domain” for me.
– Matiush First
To resist this absorption, Matiush First engages in the reproduction of digital images using analogue instruments, such as drawing on paper. By appropriating the aesthetics of the digital medium, the artist seeks to retrieve a physical, embodied experience of seeing. The concept of a haptic gaze and visuality, as described by scholar Laura Marks, emphasizes a way of looking that merges with what is beheld rather than seeking to isolate or master it.
What we see is the sleeky, smoothed surface, spilled over the Voskhod Gallery vitrine. A zoomed gaze creates a new state of intimacy, allowing us to get closer to the image, to dive in, and to establish a new way of proximity. When we zoom in on a digital image, we may delve into a realm of fragments, pixels, and particles, and distortion as well as refractions that come together to form the entirety of the image. However, at the same moment it delusions us. As we embark on this path, created by Matiush, we are flashed into the surrounding space, where refracted images of Basel, dissolved and diluted, lose their distinctness within the fluidity of the environment.
As the vitrine of the gallery is situated within the constant flow of information and people, sharing the space of the post office and train station, it creates the complex image. The perpetual flow of particles and elements resembles the way water goes through the pipes of a city and mirrors the flow of data through digital networks, connecting us to a larger system of information. The city is pervaded by the rhizomatic system of water tubes, as we also navigate data flow. However, when the flow of data takes an unexpected turn, the image begins to disintegrate, leaving behind fragmented elements that fill the gaps in its composition.
Curated by Yulia Fisch, a curator and cultural worker.
Prepared with the generous support of LAF (Limonov Art Foundation).
Voskhod is pleased to announce the new exhibition “Refraction. Are your eyes soaking” to be presented in the gallery vitrines. It is an installation consisting of several works by Matiush First, an artist and a visual thinker who explores visual perception as a specific mental activity and the way it changes under the influence of technology and culture. The idea of the project came up during her residency in Atelier Mondial, Basel, supported by Pro Helvetia in 2022. It illustrates the phenomenon of refraction which occurs when a wave, such as light or sound, passes through a medium with a different refractive index or speed, causing it to bend.
To resist this absorption, Matiush First engages in the reproduction of digital images using analogue instruments, such as drawing on paper. By appropriating the aesthetics of the digital medium, the artist seeks to retrieve a physical, embodied experience of seeing. The concept of a haptic gaze and visuality, as described by scholar Laura Marks, emphasizes a way of looking that merges with what is beheld rather than seeking to isolate or master it.
What we see is the sleeky, smoothed surface, spilled over the Voskhod Gallery vitrine. A zoomed gaze creates a new state of intimacy, allowing us to get closer to the image, to dive in, and to establish a new way of proximity. When we zoom in on a digital image, we may delve into a realm of fragments, pixels, and particles, and distortion as well as refractions that come together to form the entirety of the image. However, at the same moment it delusions us. As we embark on this path, created by Matiush, we are flashed into the surrounding space, where refracted images of Basel, dissolved and diluted, lose their distinctness within the fluidity of the environment.
As the vitrine of the gallery is situated within the constant flow of information and people, sharing the space of the post office and train station, it creates the complex image. The perpetual flow of particles and elements resembles the way water goes through the pipes of a city and mirrors the flow of data through digital networks, connecting us to a larger system of information. The city is pervaded by the rhizomatic system of water tubes, as we also navigate data flow. However, when the flow of data takes an unexpected turn, the image begins to disintegrate, leaving behind fragmented elements that fill the gaps in its composition.
Curated by Yulia Fisch, a curator and cultural worker.
Prepared with the generous support of LAF (Limonov Art Foundation).
