In The art that made me, artists discuss works in the Art Gallery of NSW collection that either inspire, influence or simply delight them. This selection by Maria Kontis first appeared in Look – the Gallery’s members magazine. Maria is one of six artists whose work is on display in Close to home: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2016.
I recently saw a speed camera image of my car taken in the early hours of the morning and it was sinister and cold like a crime scene or a techno-primal scene. Otherworldly, but not in a good way. The photograph or the machine provided the evidence needed to issue a fi ne but it didn’t look like what it feels like to be speeding into the dawn.
Vernon Ah Kee’s drawing, Antony Gormley’s sculpture and Bill Viola’s installation all give a sense of what it feels like to be a human made and re-made by a machine.
These three artists capture and are captured by the changing nature of human beings brought about by technological transformations of the 20th and 21st century. This is what made me and makes us all today. How do technological developments intervene in the most basic structure of our perceptions and affections?