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Gamut 1
Landsat imagery, custom software, paper
14” x 23”, 2016
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Gamut 2
Landsat imagery, custom software, paper
14” x 23”, 2016
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Gamut 3
Landsat imagery, custom software, paper
14” x 23”, 2016
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I create decontextualized, derivative landscapes in sculpture,
altered digital media and installation. I often leverage open source data as
research and catalyst, and explore ways of manipulating and subverting maps,
satellite images and their metadata in reimagined parameters and functions.
These works began as an exploration into our preoccupation of
gathering and storing information about our world, each iteration engendering
new knowledge and relevancy. Interested in how this vast archive informs our perceptions,
I grabbed screenshots from Landsat and Google Earth and processed them through
custom software. The software separates the red, green and blue color channels
of the image and replaces the comprising individual pixels with their representative
alphabet letter, R, G or B. Further manipulations emphasize the content and
terrain. I focused on imagery that captures striking contrast in the landscape;
in my homeland of the Southwest, below the rugged mountains, agriculture plots
flourish in the arid desert.
I was compelled to push the process further, taking the emergent
discretized array of pixels and rendering each one by hand on paper with a
sharp instrument. The process is labor intensive and necessitates a meditative,
systematic approach. The images are produced by the pinnacle of human ingenuity
and technological advance, and finally returned to the simple and primitive act
of mark making on a surface.
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Gamut 4
Landsat imagery, custom software, paper
14” x 23”, 2016
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Gamut 5
Landsat imagery, custom software, paper
14” x 23”, 2016
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RGB
Open source satellite imagery, custom software
Dimensions variable, 2016
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B Detail
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G Detail
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R Detail
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Rachel Zollinger lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She
received her BFA from the University of New Mexico and will be returning to
study this fall with Land Arts of the American West. She is an
interdisciplinary artist whose work is a confluence of experiential and
critical meditation on human impact. She may often be found wandering the
mountains and deserts of the West. Her work has been exhibited across the
country, including RedLine Contemporary Art Center, Denver, CO, Page Coleman
Gallery, Albuquerque, NM, FSU Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL and one
person exhibitions at Fort Worth Community Arts Center, Fort Worth, TX and ARC
Gallery, Chicago, IL. In 2015 she completed a residency in Olafsfjordur,
Iceland. She teaches elementary school sculpture, ceramics, painting and
drawing.
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ReplyDeleteThank you for this post. This is such a process that needs intensive details and systematic approach. The same is true in custom software.
ReplyDeleteGlad it made a meaningful connection for you.
ReplyDelete