R E P L I C A : P O R T R A I T S
F O R M / C O N C E P T / T E C H N I C A L E X P L O R A T I O N
A Replica of Infinity is an ongoing project developed by Michael Rigley.
I’ve been conceptualizing this project for a number of years and have begun developing it in smaller pieces over Instagram, where you can see my process unfold in real-time.
These portraits represent some of the initial studies and explorations for the overarching project. Thematically, I wanted to explore resolution’s role in forming identity and meaning in images, metaphysical and temporal connections between individuals, and the contrast between digital anonymity and the construction of persona.
From a technical point of view, it was important to explore the idea of resolution and how it applies to digital works. In traditional media, there’s a gesture with the hand or brush that can create expressive and human marks onto which both viewers and artists project meaning. For example, you may see a splash of paint and identify a meaningful structure from it. Then, the artist moves in with a smaller brush and starts to develop detail that identifies the structure further. Thus you have this expressive act of making in traditional media where your human gestures become significant compositional decisions.
It’s much harder to replicate that spontaneous act of creation and identification in digital works, which is where this exploration of resolution comes into play. At what point do the essential pieces of the image break down and simply become geometric abstractions? When is there enough information to identify the human face? And when do they lead to new formal compositions the way you would expect from traditional media?
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F O R M A L + T E C H N I C A L E X P L O R A T I O N
Original Works: Michael Rigley, 2021
