Relatives

More than ever, our lives take place online—a hyper-privatized network posing as a commons. In exchange for convenience, information, and sociality, our attention is pulled in countless directions by companies harvesting behavioral data and compelling engagement through addictive technology. At best we become disaffected by overstimulation and repetitive, preference-based content. At worst, we become hostile. My current work leverages the aesthetic potential of attention. As a counterpoint to the anesthetizing quality of virtual life, my paintings rely on the sensate. In my exhibition Relatives, I experimented with two types of attention. One decisively developed subject matter through long stretches of concentration. Another allowed pictorial space to develop relationally, in response to my materials and environment. In ceding some control while maintaining an active interest, I developed a sense of empathy towards the materials and resulting object. Empathy, then, is one of the aesthetic possibilities of an unhurried, sense-based observation