In 2004, I completed a project comprised of wooden blocks, collaged with images of nostalgic technology and paired with words from biology. There were a lot of these blocks!
This work became nearly an obsession for me, finding the linkages between tech images, paired together with an organic word, coated in the glossiest clear coat, creating little bio-tech treasures. I was exploring the crossover between mechanics and the body — Finding similarities between the two, creating linkages through what the images looked like, or how I imagined the technology would function in comparison to bodily functionality.
At the time, I was really interested in cyborgs, replacement of biological components with technology, human computer interaction, and the idea of hybrids. It sounds like futurism, but in a world where a heart transplants, and knee and hip replacements are commonplace, this isn’t a stretch.
I showed this work at Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design in my BFA grad year and then put them away.
Life happened, projects came and went, 17 years later, in 2021, I found a shoebox filled with little collaged blocks, that for some reason or other, didn’t make the cut into my framed pieces in 2004.
The first block I found was this one. In a year where the covid-19 coronavirus has taken centre stage and antibodies are a daily household word, this block brought me right back to the fascination and obsession I had for this project in 2004. It felt important and relevant to me again.
I pulled out the shoebox of these half-started collage pieces and went to work re-finishing them for our current time, 17 years later.
Enter this series that I call 17 Year Glitch.