BINARY TRANSCENDENCE
WORLDART GALLERY
SOLO EXHIBITION
OCTOBER 2015
SOLO EXHIBITION
OCTOBER 2015
In a world moulded by social and online media, everything has become digitized. In its primal core, all internet information and imagery is nothing more than 1’s and 0’s (binary code). Digital media in reality is a sort of magic… we transform these mathematical 1’s and 0’s into imagery. It is not celluloid or tangible, but it is the main platform to how we experience people and information. To this extent, humanity has experienced a phantom transformation. In a sense, all ‘online’ or digital experiences are illusions or figments of the imagination. The ability to transform oneself in the digital world is endless; be it by altering your online diary to create the appearance of an ideal life, adding the quick filter to make your selfie a little more sexy or by inserting an invasive hashtag to elevate the setting. This virtual transformation forms the basis for my body of work. As a child I was fascinated by computers, especially the ability to ‘hack’. To me, this meant that a world could be manipulated and transformed with creativity. Hackers challenge and change the system to make it work differently and function according to their desire. The term ‘hacking’, could then be applied to any field. I describe myself as a ‘Portrait Hacker’.
My process of art making is to modernize the traditional portrait by mechanically etching it into text. The digitized rendition transforms and re-invents the subject. When constructing the portrait the conventional process of paintbrush to canvas is eliminated. I make a stamp by using foam letter cut outs. I assemble a name or word which has a connection with my subject. I continuously stamp and layer the print, working almost ‘blind’ but mindful of structure and tonal values. The process might seem very mechanical, however, the formation of the image is very organic as I cannot dictate exactly how the stamps form the portrait. The image finally emerges, transformed in a coded and industrialized web of paint.
‘Looking at Chandler's work I realise that we are not really speaking about portraits, but about paint as a kind of sonar – a strangely legible yet abstract rendering of a being's affect […] It is here that Chandler plays his part in this story, for in his ability to capture energy, momentarily stabilise the unstable, and gift us with character as something active, something molecular, Chandler also promises to rethink what matters; what makes us human. ‘
-Ashraf Jamal
(The Journey of One Man,
25 November 2014)
My process of art making is to modernize the traditional portrait by mechanically etching it into text. The digitized rendition transforms and re-invents the subject. When constructing the portrait the conventional process of paintbrush to canvas is eliminated. I make a stamp by using foam letter cut outs. I assemble a name or word which has a connection with my subject. I continuously stamp and layer the print, working almost ‘blind’ but mindful of structure and tonal values. The process might seem very mechanical, however, the formation of the image is very organic as I cannot dictate exactly how the stamps form the portrait. The image finally emerges, transformed in a coded and industrialized web of paint.
‘Looking at Chandler's work I realise that we are not really speaking about portraits, but about paint as a kind of sonar – a strangely legible yet abstract rendering of a being's affect […] It is here that Chandler plays his part in this story, for in his ability to capture energy, momentarily stabilise the unstable, and gift us with character as something active, something molecular, Chandler also promises to rethink what matters; what makes us human. ‘
-Ashraf Jamal
(The Journey of One Man,
25 November 2014)